Mumbai doc to represent India in cyber olympiad

doweshowbellyad=0; Rajesh Bijlani, a surgeon, has been playing cyber games for the last four yearsMUMBAI: By day he sutures wounds, but at nightfall, he gets busy conquering space. It's these Jekyll and Hyde-like exploits of Rajesh Bijlani that have qualified him for the World Cyber Games, an international e-sports competition to be held in Seattle next week.
Bijlani is a surgeon who runs a nursing home and is also a consultant with Fauziya Hospital in Kurla.He has been playing cyber games for the last four years after winding up at work although there was once a time when he would squeeze in a game or two between seeing patients. "I was almost an addict two years ago. At the outpatients department, on a lean day, I would play games in between seeing patients. But, that has stopped now," says Bijlani who, at 41, will be among the oldest participants at the World Cyber Games. The average age of the participants is about 20, and 900 players from 75 countries will be taking part in the event, one of the largest gaming festivals in the world. Bijlani is one of the nine Indians selected.
Today, his wife Suman Bijlani, who is a gynaecologist, is proud of him. There was a time when she would nag him for sacrificing his sleep for a concentrated bout of gaming. The surgeon, in fact, was wary about upsetting his surgery schedules for the week-long event, but his wife urged him to participate.
"There was a time when I would come home from work and play games until 6 am. My wife and I had problems because of that, but we survived," Bijlani says with a laugh.
His midnight missions of countering terrorists planning to bomb an area or building an empire and killing enemies had to be shortened as his son became a teenager. "It was awkward. I couldn't play immediately after yelling at him for gaming. I had to wait until everyone went to sleep and played for three hours after work," says the surgeon. The doctor soon concentrated on playing snooker on the computer and has been selected in the Carrom-3D category. The total prize money is $500,000 and the winner of the Carrom-3D category will be awarded $12,000.