By Ashwani Upadhyay

NEW DELHI, Aug. 11 (Xinhua) -- Shuffling cards was her favourate pastime during childhood, then it became her passion and soon after she found a career in cards.

And now, the deck of 52 cards has brought to her the greatest joy of her life, playing Asian Games.

Meet 79-year old Rita Choksi who is going to be the eldest Indian playing in 18th edition of Asian Games to be held in Indonesia later this month. She is all set to represent India in mix-pair events of bridge-game at Asiad this time.

Secret of Ms Choksi's perfect health is her balanced daily-life which begins with a Yoga session every morning.

Yoga and morning-exercises coupled with ancient Indian Ayurvedic medicines which she takes as a preventive measure are her daily-dose.

"Well, right from the beginning I have always done Yoga and I am taking Ayurveda (instructions). I do my morning meditation and say my prayers. That helps me. And then I sleep early and wake-up very early. So that means it keeps you fit," reveals Ms Choksi.

Besides, a healthy diet of salad, fruits and vegetables keeps her healthy at an age at which her fellow bridge-players are suffering from lifestyle diseases such as blood-pressure.

The septuagenarian sportsperson with over four-decades of career is very fond of technology.

Ms Choksi says that she has witnessed a sea-change in the bridge-game over the past four decades.

"I think that was a different kind of thinking then. Now you have to think much more professionally and also very carefully because earlier, people were not so strong but now everybody is strong, they think very carefully," says Ms Choksi.

Rita regularly modifies her gaming skills according to the changing realities. Her zeal of learning new things pushed her to join online bridge games where she can find players from all around the world to play with.

She exuberantly elaborates, "I practice not only through the partner or something, I enter the BBO (Bridge Base Online), there are lot of people, they show it on the BBO from all tournaments going on. Even Jakarta (Asian Games), you can see it on BBO."

On many occasions, Rita says that she learned tricks and nuances of bridge from other senior players playing bridge online.

"The seniors (players), they are connected (through BBO) and you can see what all is happening. Sometimes I watch the senior players what they are playing, from America or Middle-East or wherever, Europe, some of them are very senior," she iterates.

For the first time, Bridge has been included in Asian Games to be played in Indonesia.

India is sending a unique 24-member bridge-team where average age of players is 60, out of which four are in their 70s.

Does experience matter for playing bridge? Ms Choksi nods in yes.

However, she further couples it with other factors too, "It's not just experience only, you have got to use your mind. You have got to study like all the conventions of all different countries. 12 conventions have come so far (and they are available) on internet. So we have to go through what China is playing, what Japan is playing, what Philippines is playing, what Indonesia is playing."

Rita was a national-level badminton as well as table tennis player. She acted on stage too. However, she found her ultimate love in the game of bridge as she says, "I was a badminton player and also a table-tennis player. I won trophies there also in table-tennis when I was in college. But later I found my husband was interested in bridge and then I saw people playing bridge and it is a mental thing like chess. So I felt that if I use my brain into something, I would like to play bridge."

"As I got older and older, I felt that I could concentrate more on, even at home to read something and instruction on how to manage the new (things in bridge). There are more new new things that happen in bridge, not the old ones. So it is interesting," she further says.

Rita believes that she owes everything to bridge, including her husband since she met her husband at a bridge tournament. First, they became bridge-partner and later, life-partner.

After her husband's death, Rita has been living alone at her home in Delhi, spending four-five hours daily on playing bridge -- online or offline as she says, cards might not have been her first love but will certainly be the last one.

Rita Choksi's affection towards bridge has won her accolades the world over -- from America to Europe to China, over the past four decades.

But Ms Choksi never got as nervous as she is now for Asian Games. She crosses her finger as she hopes to garner a medal for India.

"Well, it will be like...you get a trophy when you win. So it is good. And others are also trying very hard to win. So God knows who is going to win...Hoping as long as I can manage my brain, it (my game) will survive. Otherwise God knows," giggles Rita.

And what if you will lose?... asked Xinhua, and Ms Choksi replied with her assertive and calm face," (Then) I will tell God, please help next time. It can be possible. You never know what is going to happen."