Indian
grandmaster Krishnan Sasikiran was born on January 7, 1981
in Chennai, Tamil Nadu in south-eastern India. He received his title in 2000
at the Commonwealth Championship and drew the attention of the chess community
the following when he won the Hastings International. He is the second-highest
rated Indian player, and also the second Indian to cross Elo 2700.
Sasikiran is named in the Tamil tradition, i.e. Mr Sasikiran, or, if you know him well, just Sasikiran, or "Sasi" (pronounced "Sashi"). Krishnan is his father's name. His wife is known as Mrs Sasikiran, although nowadays South Indian women prefer to retain their father's name instead of switching to their husband.
Sasikiran was marride to Radhika Suryanarayanan on Sunday morning. The wedding was attended by relatives, with some chess folks and colleagues also present. Anand's parents also came over to bless the couple. There is wedding reception tonight which the chess community and friends will attend. It begins at 6 p.m. at Hotel Ashoka, Egmore, Chennai, in case you can make it.
This is an elaborate ceremony in South India, much richer (and longer) and any we know in the West. Most of these marriages are arranged, as was the case with Sasikiran and Radhika. This means that the parents arrange meetings between perspective partners, and the young people decide whether to go ahead or not. Beats searching for a partner for life in bars and dance places. At a South Indian wedding the bride and groom should be congratulated with the words "Kalyanam Waltigal" (the second consonant in "waltigal" cannot be pronounced by Western tongues, it resembles the dark English and Russian L).
The following photos from Sasikiran's marriage were sent to us by Visweswaran Kameswaran, who previously did a report on the Ramesh-Aarthi wedding (link below).
The invitation that was sent to special guests
The announcement of the happy occasion in Tamil
... and in English, for guests not versed in Dravidian languages
All the details of the young couple
The South Indian Brahmin marriage ceremony is a spectacular event
The bride and groom with the officiating Hindu priest
Indian wedding ceremonies like this can last for two or three days
Flowers, you will notice, play an important role in the ceremony
The bride and groom are covered with garlands
D.V. Sundar, Secretary of the All India Chess Federation, Radhika Sasikiran,
Krishnan Sasikiran, Mrs Susheela
Viswanathan, K. Viswanthan, Mrs Sundar (behind). Anand's parents (Mr and Mrs
Viswanathan) came to bless the couple, Anand himself was playing a 61-move final
round game against Kramnik in Wijk aan Zee at the time. You've got to get your
priorities right, Vishy!
Wedding decorations South Indian style
Guests in the gallery: GM R.B. Ramesh (IOC), G. Srikanth (BPCL), both Tal club,
IM P. Konguvel, IM V. Saravanan and wife
