Mahjong Maharani
At about 10am on Tuesday 27th, we got a cab to take us to Sushila’s place. Sushila is a Nepalese woman Dey met on the internet several years ago. She’s married to an Indian man and has lived in Bombay I think for over 30 years in a great 3-4 bedroom apartment. Sushila has a passion for Mahjong and last time Dey was in Mumbai, she played the game with Sushila so we had arranged to stay the night at her place so I could share the experience.
Once settled at Sushila’s, she arranged a cab to take us to the Willingdon Sports Club, a rather exclusive club in Mumbai where membership is generally only available via inheritance! Five other women met us on the large marble verandah which opened out onto perfectly manicured gardens and green lawns. After lunch, we headed to the Games room where there were dozens of tables were filled with women playing cards. Sushila arrange two mahjong sets and we sat down to play…
The rules are really different from the way we play in Australia. You can have Knits and Crochets, but you can only have a Knit if you have a crochets! Bit mind-boggling for a newbie, but Sushila explained the rules well and the women I played with where very understanding when I went Mahjong with the completely wrong hand!! Oops! :-)Â I’ve tried to outline the rules below but I may have a few things wrong…
Round one is really a free-for-all; you can go out with any hand you can remember and there are many more hands than we have! Things like a pung of a number but all different suits, or a chi (run) of mixed suit, or any 5 winds or dragons and then the rest in pungs. It made it easier to get Mahjong but only if you know what you can have!
The second round was played with cards - you drew a card which told you what hand you needed to get to go Mahjong. My first hand was called Heavenly pungs - a pung of each of the 3 dragons, a pung of East and a pair of another wind. Talk about hard! But the trick is they have a trading round after you have drawn your tiles and your card. The dealer start trading, so starting with the person on your right, you choose 3 tiles to swap with them. Once you look at the tiles they gave you, you choose another 3 tiles to give to the person on your left, then the same with the person opposite you. This way you can start to build up the tiles you need to get the hand specified on the card. Then you trade with the wall - you put three tiles in the middle and take three replacements from the wall. The dealer decides if we just do one trade with the wall or if we do three. By the end of that process, your hand does improve heaps, but my hand didn’t improve quite as much as the women I was playing with.
Round three is called Goulash and to go out you need to have three doubles in your hand. Because flowers are used, often you start with a double in your hand if you have the flower of the round or your flower. Then you need to get other things like all honour tiles or all one suit. Because of the tile trading, it was actually a bit easier than it sounds. I think I went Mahjong twice in this round!
The last round is dealer’s choice, so the dealer can choose any of the methods above or another method to play. Jokers are also used, so, for instance, you can try to get mahjong in two suits and can use up to four tiles in the remaining suit as wild cards. Another case was where you pick a particular number, eg. 4, and all four tiles (one in each suit) become your wild cards.
The game was heaps of fun - much more variety than the Japanese rules we play at home, but heaps more to remember. After we finished playing, we sat out in the garden area for a cool drink - it was a gorgeous setting. The view along the club house and through the gardens, with a fairly new highrise in the distance could have been anywhere - Gold Coast, Singapore… The last place it felt like was Mumbai with the bustle and noise safely stopped at the gates.
One of the women, Kasoom, playing Mahjong had incredibly met Bhagavan Nityananda when she was a little girl - she said there was a tiger lying in front of him when she met him in Ganeshpuri! Later, she met Muktananda and was present when Baba took his Mahasamadhi. Kasoom’s daughter is still involved with Siddha Yoga, having lived at the ashram when Baba was there. Amazing cooincidence…
After dinner at the club, we met Sushila’s husband, Pratap, back at their apartment. Pratap is a beautiful man - Sushila describes him as a balm -Â calming and soothing, and we could really relate to her description. Before we left for Udaipur in the morning, Sushila showed us her Mahjong collection - she has a whole room devoted to her favorite hobby, with a special table plus several chinese artifacts to add to the ambiance.
Great way to pass time in Mumbai!
The joy of life is to have a passion for anything and have the joy of sharing it with caring souls! The net has opened out the world for me and it was my pleasure to have you in my home.There was a saying in Old India “Athiti Devo Bhava”(Your guest is your god in disguise)
For one days ‘Social’ Mah-jongg you have remembered most of the rules!I might add all the ladies enjoyed playing with both of u too. Take Care, Sushila
Thanks Sushila. We are looking forward to you coming to Australia so we can return the hospitality!
First you both will have to reach Australia and settle down and catch up! I will plot and plan a visit I promise before old age sets in! It was sad for me to read about the preganant ele. I wish wild animals were treated with more respect and used a little less for personal gain.