' Made for each other ' - Viswanathan Anand and Aruna Anand.

Three days after her wedding, Aruna Anand found herself in Dortmund, Germany, watching her husband compete in a major chess championship.
She didn’t know anyone from the close-knit chess world, she didn’t understand the game and she couldn't for the life of her make out if he was winning or losing. 

So she chose a less nerve-wracking alternative: “I started waiting in the toilet while he was playing,” she says laughing. “He would come and call me when he had finished, and I’d just keep looking at his face for a sign on how he’d done. He teases me saying that he’d never seen such a blank face in his life!”

Not quite your typical honeymoon. But then her husband isn’t your typical guy. For Grandmaster and current undisputed World Chess Champion Viswanathan Anand, travelling six to seven months in a year to tournaments and spending several hours a day intensely focused on a 64-square board in training or in competition is perfectly normal.

And after 12 years of marriage, it’s all par for the course for Aruna too. They sit down for the interview in their cheerful Chennai flat with just two hours to go for a flight to Delhi (for Anand to receive the Padma Vibhushan), but they’re both relaxed and there’s plenty of good-humoured laughter as they chat about what makes them work as a couple.
“I think it’s her sense of humour that keeps us going,” says Anand candidly. “I’m in another world during tournaments, and her ability to laugh off the things I do makes life a lot easier.”



So where’s home? It’s a question they find hard to answer. “I suppose whichever hotel room you’ve thrown your clothes about in becomes home temporarily,” says Aruna.
They do have a home in the idyllic little Spanish town of Collado Mediano though, which they use as a base. “There are only about 5000 people in that town; it’s a completely different experience from living in Chennai,” says Anand.
The town in turn has taken to the couple completely, and Anand is treated like an adopted son. “They have pictures of him in every shop; the vegetable shop even has one of him buying tomatoes,” says Aruna laughing. 

It’s easy to see why they’re so taken with this down-to-earth pair. The relationship that began with a honeymoon at Dortmund has matured, and like fine wine, it just seems to have gotten better with the passing years.


Aruna & Anand fun facts :

Both Aruna and Anand are fluent in Spanish. Anand speaks German and French as well

Anand unwinds by doing Sudoku (which Aruna says he’s annoyingly good at). He’s planning on taking up advanced 3-D Sudoku next.

Anand listens to a lot of music while working, everything from Queen and Pet Shop Boys to old Tamil film songs. His Danish trainer Nielsen has become quite a fan of MGR songs in the process.

Aruna’s nickname for Anand in the early years of their marriage was ‘Lord of the Rings’ because he kept losing his wedding ring. Her parents replaced it for him three times until he asked them to stop.

Anand once bought Aruna a saree because he thought the colour would “look brilliant in hi-resolution on the computer screen.”