Balkrishna Parsrampuria
Mumbai, Maharashtra and India lost one of their beloved bridge brethren when Mr. Parsrampuria left for his heavenly abode yesterday.
It would not be wrong to say that the entire bridge fraternity in Mumbai is grieving his loss. His jovial face and colorful language never failed to bring a smile to the lips of everybody he interacted with.
I used to know Puria (as we fondly called him) from the mid to late 1980s. My interaction with him those days was fairly minimal as my participation in bridge circles was, until the last decade, or even the last couple of years, was fairly peripheral. However, everybody in Mumbai is aware of his active participation in the creation of the Bombay Suburban Bridge Association around 1990.
Puria, along with Adv. Khanolkar took BSBA forward by raising funds and arranging for an activity centre at the Andheri Sports Complex. Puriaji organised many bridge tournaments of state to national level and did them in style. The Tolani International Championships , the first of its kind and scale in India, was a milestone in his bridge journey. Participants will remember it as one of the first tournaments which had international invitees and was held in a 5 start hotel in Mumbai.
As a bridge player, he proved his skills time and again. In the early 1990s, he was part of a team which lifted the Life Master's title. The team, shown at the top of the page consisted of many great players including the legendary J M Shah and Jimmy Mehta (photograph courtesy Kista).
He had many other wins to his credit and we are sharing two photographs which we could get, one courtesy Mr. N. Niranjan (victors at Coonoor), and his last big win, the Silver title at the Summer Nationals in Pune, 2019.
His partnership with Jeroo Mango was something else altogether. They stuck with each other through thick and thin for at least two decades after which, Puria, with characteristic humility, recused himself from the partnership because he felt that at his age, he would be more a hindrance to Jeroo's progress than an asset. Not too many people have the courage to do this! Yesterday, Jeroo has this to say : "I have lost a good friend and someone who taught me most of my bridge and bore me as a partner! He did a lot for bridge. We will miss him. May his soul rest in peace!" She has promised to write more about him.
My personal memories of him are few but treasured. He used to continuously shower me with colorful language because I smoked! We also interacted a bit in the late 1990s when I was in a position to connect the administrators of the game more directly with the government of Maharashtra. I unfortunately could play with him as his partner just once, which was a truly enjoyable occasion at a club game.
BridgeFromHome will dedicate its next weekly event on Wednesday, the 15th of June, to his memory and we invite all of you to come and participate in the event. We will try and get something different going into it, in addition to a serious bridge event of course. We will share details separately.
Hearing the news got tears to my eyes, as I am sure they did to many others. We invite all of you to share your memories and experiences with this gentleman as comments to this post.
Puriaji, may you be happy whereever you are! 🙏
Great personality, lucky to be in the team of amanora,who won title of silver in 2019.
Most adjustable player,very good card play,table sense.
Puria was a made of a different class in terms of etiquette, table manners, and that contagious smile. I have had several occasions to interact with him. His humane nature and loving disposition were without parallels. Every bridge player in India will miss this noble bridge player with very high standard of ethics. He was always careful about the friends he chose and held on to them with undiluted affection.
He and i has several chats on fone in most mornings he called me mostly behen and sometimes moti behen he was so affectionate his daughter had a spacious one bhk flat in pune which was furnished during a pune tournament he generously offered me the use of it I played many events at andheri sports club and and enjoyed his hospitality was extremely happy to play with him he was astute and shrewd player we were regular at the great host Mundras place we were to play national masters during lockdown but however much he tried he could not come on real bridge platform from ooty
He was lovely man he was regular at Matungs gym and he always appreciated that he has learnt his bridge from my father
Tx Puriaji for being such alover of game working to make it very popular holding big tournaments with panache and great style
He loved each and every bridge player he was larger than life he was a yugpurush
Will miss you and your love
Shri Parsrampuria, fondly known as Puriaji, knew my late husband Shri Murli Deora. Occasionally when he had any problem he would knock on his door. My husband would promptly stretch his helping hand. Sometimes Puriaji would drop in at our home to have a game of bridge with my husband too. I have a fond memory of him as our opponent at Otter’s Weekly tournament partnering Jeroo Mango with his witty comments and very contagious happy laughter.
I send my heartfelt condolences to his bereaved family. I pray may his noble soul rest in peace.
BN Parasrampuria was the pioneer of bridge in Mumbai. He started the now defunct Bombay Sports Bridge Association at Andheri Sports Complex. The room was tiny but he managed to organise weekly events. Puria was selfless he never took a penny from bridge. He always told me: “Noffy I am not here to make money, I love bridge and I want to promote the sport. ” Puria was also instrumental in organising the highly successful Tolani Grand Prix. I don’t know the ABC of bridge but I made sure to carry bridge reports during my days at The Times of India. He forged a tremendous partnership with my mother Jeroo Mango. Even though they parted ways on the bridge table, she always made it a point to phone Puria every day to discuss her bridge and problems. Puria became depressed during the Covid pandemic and never mastered online bridge. However I am sure I can hear him calling out four hearts whilst he is playing with another close departed friend JM Shah. RIP Puria, we will miss you.
He really fought to come online and play. We did our little bit to help him as well with Stanley even going to his house and showing him how it was done. Unfortunately, we could not make it simple enough for him to play regularly.
🙁
From Mr. N. Niranjan
The ever smiling Puriajis loss has left a deep void in bridge circles. His absence will be felt during all the tournaments which will be taking place.
I used to meet Puriaji every year for a week at Jeroo’s place at Ooty and enjoy his company till Covid put a break. He used to ring up regularly and sometimes, when I forgot, he would ask if I had forgotten him.
He was a great friend of Mr Naggappan former president BFI and used to come and stay at his place for a month at Chennai or Madurai.
His presence will be missed.
From Mr. Raman Girdhardas
Once, in 1989, Puria and I were partners in a BCBA Pairs event. In the last round, he forgot Beta (a Precision sequence) so we finished 2nd or 3rd instead of a comfortable 1st. I was upset with him and said some strong words.
He looked calmly at me and said you should not speak to your grandfather like that. I burst out laughing and since that day he has always been grandpa for me.
I will miss him and wish his family my heartfelt condolences.