We applaud: A local Scrabble enthusiast
Meet the IT entrepreneur who became addicted to the game as a young boy
It's not every day that you come across a person who is doing what he has always loved since childhood and is pursuing a dream that is as much about work as it is about play.
Meet Nikhil Soneja, 33, who first started playing competitive Scrabble as a boy in Bahrain. Today he is a force to be reckoned with. He was the runner-up at the recent Gulf Scrabble Championships (GSC), an annual event held in Dubai this year. Mohammad Sulaiman of the UAE was the winner. In addition to competing, Soneja helped organise and promote the event.
An IT entrepreneur, he is the son of two Scrabble enthusiasts who play competitively and nurtured his passion for the game.
"I've always been an avid board game enthusiast playing Cluedo, Monopoly and Scrabble at home since I was eight years old," Soneja says. "One day at school in Bahrain, I spotted a few of my classmates playing Scrabble during recess and learnt that they were preparing for play-offs, which was the first I heard about competitive Scrabble. I coaxed my mother to take me for the weekly meets… We both got hooked," he says.
In the future, Soneja hopes to improve his ranking in the World Scrabble Championships and to represent the UAE, having narrowly missed his chance in 2001 and again in 2011.
"There's a new dictionary coming out in 2012 so I must learn all the new words that have been sanctioned," he says. "Apparently, it has a lot of IT related words."
Scrabble teaches discipline, lateral thinking, mental acuity and quick maths. It has also been linked to improved grades among students, Soneja explains.
"Australian Karen Richards, a retired management trainer who has been playing competitive Scrabble for 13 years is holding a workshop for Scrabble enthusiasts who want to step up their game on October 24 and 25 in Academic City," Soneja says.
For more information on the workshop, email info@gulfscrabble.com
Anupama V Chand is a Dubai-based freelancer
