Apun Hi Hai Tera ‘Suspense Partner’
An eventful Saturday as spent all or most of the early morning and late Friday night with Neeraj on the net and phone. 
After many weeks we were seeing each other on the webcam and it has made us more and more anxious for our meet later this month. 
Then Saturday night we went over to Pratik’s house, where we were going to celebrate his b’day with his roomates and other friends. We know Pratik through Vishal, who worked at my father’s business, as soon after Pratik also started working there. Now we have became friends with all of their roommates, Nishant, a 6 foot 4 inches Guju bhai :shock:, and Anshu, who Mumma likes to call Baby Doll. 
They are really a great group and such nice people.
So that night, after having some delicious pizza, we sat there thinking of what we can do. The usual would have been to play Judgement, but we were all kind of tired of the game. Vishal and Nishant started talking about a game that they used to play and about 10 mins later we were playing, Suspense Partner. Anyone ever played?
So you need to have atleast six players, the more players the better. We had exactly six players so we dealt one deck of cards. The first thing to note is that all face cards, bole toh ghulam (Jack), begum (Queen), baadshah (King), aur ikka (Ace) of all suits are worth 10 points, aur begum hukum ki (Queen of Spades) is worth 13 points. The rest of cards they are worth no points. So in total there are 163 points and the point of the game is to have the highest score whenever you all decide to stop playing. So how do you get points?
You bid by looking at your cards. The minimum bid we started at was 70, so that means that after looking at your cards you can atleast make 70 points. If someone else feels that they can do better, they will over bid you and it will go on until one of you gives in. The highest bid we ever had in one game was 130 (that was me 
). For those who don’t have very good cards, they can say Pass.
Whoever bids the highest gets to do two things:
(1) Choose a trump suit.
(2) Chose the two cards that will be his/her partners.
For example, let’s say I had the highest bid at 100. In my hand I have a dominating suit of Spades (hukum), so I choose that as the trump. I have the Queen of Spades and the Jack of Spades, so strategically I say that my two partners will be: Ace of Spades and King of Spades. Whoever has these cards will then become my partners and they will help me to get the score of 100.
Now with six players its possible that two different people such as Anshu and Pratik would both be my partners as one as the Ace and the other has the King of Spades, or it can happen that only one person will be my partner such as in example, Vishal, who has both the Ace and King of Spades. How do you find out who is your partner?
So then whoever had the highest bid starts the game by throwing any card. Whoever has the highest card in that hand wins it and then they start, just like its done in Judgement. Now as the game continues, someone will throw the card that you said was your partner. such as the Ace of Spades in the above example. Once they throw it, then you know that person is your partner, and you can then change your game to get more and more points.
At the end, you count your hands and your partners’ hands total up your points (basically counting the number of face cards and aces your team has gotten). If you reach your bid goal then you get that points, otherwise the other team gets the points.
It was a great game, and I think they will all come over to our house this weekend and we shall play again. Its a fun game only because you could up or down, your partners are ever-changing, so the game never gets boring.
So we played that till past 1 am on Saturday night, then went home and had another enjoyable round of talks with Neeraj till about 3.30 am. 
Alvida. Jai Mata Di.
…
December 6th, 2004 at 9:57 am
Vishal and Nishant have remembered what seems like a great new game where you don’t have your enemies as enemies always.
It must be big fun! 
You have explained all the things but let’s see whoever can understand. 
As for as I am concerned you have already told me on the phone so now I know as much about the game as you do.
Will play definitely along with our family. 
December 6th, 2004 at 10:12 am
The game was a really gone one and I think you will really like it. You really have to think about what cards to throw, and sometimes one wrong card thrown can make a difference in the whole game. I know how much you like strategic games where you have to think, so it will be great fun to play with you!
We shall get the family together or our friends and play this sometime. 
December 6th, 2004 at 6:25 pm
hello
ohh that’s really sweet
remind me when I and Suhadi were in different place, almost everyday we talked on the phone, continue on the net 
We just can’t get enough, right ? 
I am really excited for you that you will meet Neeraj soon … anyway, according to my tour schedule, I will be in Jaipur on 27 and 28 Dec, hope we can meet
Hm I never played Suspense Partner before, but it sounds really interesting
Judgement ? hmmm is it the game which the players become a police, a crime, a judge, citizen ?
December 6th, 2004 at 11:46 pm
Hope all is well with you..i know you have been staying quite busy with work…don’t worry the vacation days are almost here.
You said it perfectly : we just can’t get enough.
It goes both ways, Neeraj and i both it seems are waiting for the time to be able to talk to each other. 
i know u must know how it is as you have gone thru it with Suhadi. Lucky man he is to have such a sweet girl like you. 
So you are going to be in Jaipur that Monday and Tuesday???
We might miss each other by one day as we are leaving from Mumbai on the 28th and reaching on the morning of the 29th to Jaipur. 
Aaww..maybe we will be able to talk on the phone eh? Will give you my cell number and we shall chat. 
Are you coming to Mumbai at all? Just let me know. It would have been great to have met you in India..i wish we could have worked it out. 
I think you are thinking about Cops and Robbers to your reference to the game of Judgement. Judgement is very similar to Suspense Partner but you have no partners, you are on your own. You look at your cards and decide how many you can hands you can win…then you start playing to see if you can win the bidded amount of hands. Also cards are lessened as the game continues. Dependent on how many people play, you might start out with 10 cards in your hand…then once that game is over..then 9 cards will be dealt…then 8…then 7..until only 1 card is dealt. Then you go back to 10 cards. Then the game is over. Hope that makes sense.
December 7th, 2004 at 3:00 am
Poonam.. came to your blog after such a long time… infact i don’t think i have ever been offline for such a long period ever before…
waise… this game seems to be quite interesting… !! lage raho :)
BTW, when r u planning to rock india? :)
December 7th, 2004 at 9:42 am
Rocking India on the 26th of December (that’s when I will be landing in Mumbai). Leaving US on the 24th at night.
It would have been nice to have met you in India par lagta hai tum toh ab wapas Pune bhi nahi aa rahe.
Khair no problem..next time. 