неделя, 22 септември 2013 г.

A DAY IN THE LIFE OF A SCORPIO

A DAY IN THE LIFE OF A SCORPIO
Dr. Xenia Kisselincheva
“It aches my heart letting the grains of gold sift through my fingers”

The grains of gold are the bright kids, Rossy Alexieva discovers at the MENSA intelligence tests across the country. Soon after that, one third of them are blown out of Bulgaria by the winds of opportunity, taking away millions’ worth of ideas in their heads. How shall I present her? As the president of several NGOs? Or, as a colorful character in a couple of popular TV shows? Or, maybe as a tactless, quick-witted Scorpio, who embarrasses others by simply telling the truth? Because she is definitely a larger-than-life personality, which eludes any attempt at pigeonholing of one-dimensional description.

Her father, the solid German-trained doctor secretly prayed for a boy as his first-born. A boy, which will carry on the family line, who will excel in his profession, perhaps in his public contribution too. I think his prayers were answered, though not in an obvious way. A girl was born to the family, but she was endowed with a brilliant mind and strong mettle that are found in the best of men. As she was growing up, she revealed, one by one, the rich spectrum of her talents and abilities. They opened up as petals of a rose on a June morning. At school, she was equally popular with her classmates and teachers, and most of all she was her dad’s joy and pride.

Her name was always mentioned at national math competitions when it was prize-awarding time, her name stood under the most seditious writings in the juvenile periodicals and she was at the heart of club activities, ranging from math through biology to creative writing. She seemed to influence people in a profound way - they were either shocked and denounced her, or they admired her and were ready to join her endeavors. Some of which, naturally, were full of mischief, like leaving the university entrance exam at 10 o’clock and rushing to see a film of Vittorio de Sica. Later, Rossy would challenge the opinions of her professors at the English Department, she admits she owes them a lot, though. Her special favorites among them were Sider Florin, the  famous translator of Jack London’s works and prof. Marco Mincoff, the great Shakespearian  scholar.

It was at that time, that she was unexpectedly struck by “the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune”. Her beloved dad, whom she adored, suddenly died. Alongside with her studies, she had to get a job in order to help with the raising her younger sister. Her first job was as an interpreter at Technoimpex, a foreign trade enterprise. This was the dream job of many English graduates. But not for Rossy, who had an insatiable urge for self-perfection, which, in her words, seems to be typical of creative Scorpios. She knew what she wanted and, not before long, she was a law student at Sofia University where she dared more than once to converse in Latin with her professor in Roman law. But, mind you, there is nothing pompous about her personality.

First and foremost, she is incredibly amusing - even her most serious comments are made with a tongue in the cheek. Madame Scorpio cracks jokes right, left and center, she is an unusual character to whom unusual things happen all the time. For instance, when I arrived at her MENSA office in “Sheinovo” street, she treated me to some chocolate candies in the shape of cigars. Guess what their name was: “Rossy, Clinton’s temptation”! She discovered them at the buffet of the national TV and asked for two dozens of boxes. Then, to the dismay of the bartender and the onlookers, she briskly piled them on top of a TV trolley and whisked it out of the buffet, leaving everybody with the firm belief that she was a desperate chocolate addict.

Do you know what she did when she turned 45? She decided to take part in a “Miss 45” beauty contest. She borrowed her daughter’s tight bermudas and promised her Indonesian husband to be discreet about it all, especially before his colleagues at the embassy. But, to her husband’s mortification, she was the winner in the competition and her photos in teenage bermudas were all over the place! Nobody cared to hear that she impressed the jury mostly with the display of artistic inventiveness and a sense of humor. She performed as a two-faced figure: her present self, represented on the front and her future self on the back, symbolized by the mask of an old Indonesian woman. There is definitely a show woman’s side to her personality, where the performing gusto meets with her extravagant sense of humor and improvisation.

Mrs Sukra-Alexieva was immensely successful in a number of TV chat and quizz shows - Variant-3, “In less than a minute”, “Something out of nothing” and, naturally, she had her crowd of admirers. Once a journalist, who was interviewing Rossy, asked her how she felt as “a star”. To which, Ms Alexieva, known for her quick repartee, replied “I am not a star, I am a whole constellation!” She could spot flattery from a mile and never missed a chance first to enjoy it and then to discard with a mocking remark. “Intelligence is no cure to vanity, as Rossy says, “and celebrities of all walks of life are a living proof of it.”

Unusual characters seem to provoke fate and they make unusual things happen to them. After pursuing a successful career as an interpreter at the Indonesian embassy and a legal adviser at the Red Cross and then the National Library, Ms Alexieva decided to retire at the age of 50 in order to gain the freedom to do her own projects. It turned out a “whole constellation” of projects!

One of them is the “The Friends of Indonesia” club, which she started in 1993 and keeps it going to this day, with regular gatherings on the 17th of each month. Rossy appears to cast a magic spell over the club members when she starts interpreting the subtleties of this exotic culture, they feel like living in a mesmerizing virtual reality, something like a look at the jungle from an elephant’s back. They watch films, learn the Indonesian language, listen to the lulling sounds of citars and ... some of them try to cook spicy Indonesian dishes, consulting from the book, which Ms Alexieva published “Exotic cuisine”.

Rossy’s love of continually testing herself makes her restlessly looking for new venues. Taking part in competitions makes her feel more alive. Up to 1989 she was a member of the tremendously popular “Quick-witted” club and she participated with great relish in a number of intellectual TV games, which kept the audience breathless before the screens. The idea behind that club was very close to that of the MENSA organization, the first one of its kind. The main objective was to encourage people’s ability to be creative and resourceful, to find quick unconventional solutions, without having much initial information.

In 1991, Ms Alexieva passed the MENSA test with extraordinarily good results. Then she was elected on the Executive Board - for the last three years she has been president of MENSA, Bulgaria. At the same time she has served as a chief coordinator of the MENSA-International. She managed to improve the status of the local association by introducing a three-stage membership and gaining one vote for our country in international elections.

At present, Sofia is playing host to the  MECE meeting, that is MENSA for Eastern and Central Europe. This is a special honor for Bulgaria, which had to go through a tough competition with Slovakia, another serious host‑candidate. It is no wonder that Ms Scorpio succeeded in getting the upper hand over her Slovak counterpart, Vladimir Kovar. In such cases, she magically blends her sharp man’s wit with her female charm and vivacity and, true to her zodiac sign, she is sure to get what she wants.

MENSA was founded in 1946 in London by an Englishman Dr. Lancelot Linel and an Australian Ronald Berryl. At present, it embraces 100 countries with more than 110,000 members. There are more than 500 members across the country. Tests are carried out every last Saturday of the month. Bulgaria is ahead in covering a lot of criteria, compared to other member-countries as Greece, France, Italy. The average age is within the range of 20-25 years. People over 30, and most women, are more reluctant to take the risk of failing.

In September 1998, Madame Mensa started an experiment in a Sofia primary school. 80 children were test-selected and are following a special curriculum, tailored according to the lateral thinking system of Edward de Bono, which includes classes in developing thinking techniques.

Rossy is untiring in her public endeavors. For six years, she has been organizing the gatherings of the club of Scorpios, amounting to about 150 members. It turned out that there were quite a few celebrities among them - the magician Astor, the mayor Sofiansky, the education minister Metodiev, the sculptor Stavri Kalinov. Rossy also keeps in touch with cartoonists - you can guess it by the patchwork of cartoons on the walls of the office, most of them with autograghs by the authors. Among many prizes, she won the first award for writing the wittiest cues under Donio Donev’s series of cartoon “The Three Fools”.

Apart from all this, Ms Mensa organized a club of couples of mixed marriages, always spiced with real-life anecdotes, caused by cultural differences.  In a profile, a psychologist made of her personality for a professional fitness test, it is said that “she is hyperactive and is inclined to engage herself in too many activities at the same time.” But, if you ask her, this does not worry her - she usually copes to keep all balls in the air. Because of her lateral thinking, this inspires her to generate more new ideas. As a friend of hers said: “She hasn’t tried to organize only an earthquake yet.”

Rossy still lives with her Indonesian husband on the “Cherkovna” street, where she grew up. She is considered as an “authority” on residential matters by her neighbors and she takes complaints or suggestions from them, whenever she pops out to dig up the green patch in front of the house and to clean it from plastic litter. The stray dogs recognize her straight away and immediately vanish out of sight before she has organized a stray dogs’ cleansing. I forgot to mention that she ran for mayor of Sofia in 1996. As she says “it was a good way to put my friends to the test and most of all it was fun.” It is no wonder that she was the only candidate who, apart from the nominees of the two major political parties, managed to put together a full-staffed team of experts. Let’s hope that more of our politicians will dare sit for the MENSA test or similar tests before they try out their “intelligence” at the expense of the long-suffering electorate.

Sofia Western News Monthly, 1999