The CHESS…
I pressed the doorbell with a big smile on my face. My wife opened the door, but her gaze directly reached the attractively wrapped gift, which I was holding under my arm.
“Don’t stare like that,” I said. She got aside to let me in. I kept the gift on the dining table and shouted, “Pinky! Where are you Beta? Look what papa has brought for you.”
No sooner did I shout than Pinky rushed towards me, “Papa! Papa! Where is my chessboard?”
Watching my daughter’s innocent excitement, a smile spread across my face. I hugged her and kissed on her forehead. However, she was not interested in my fatherly love or the unnecessary pleasantries, her eyes were searching for the most desired gift. Finally, she discovered it.
“Hey! My chessboard is here. Now I can learn how to beat others,” she picked up the gift and ran away into her room.
I was shocked. Her words, “Now I can learn how to beat others,” kept ringing in my ears. This was not the statement or rather the attitude I’d expected from my daughter.
I looked at my wife and asked, “What did she just say?” “Oh… You will not understand,” she exhaled a deep breath. “There are numerous benefits of playing chess.”
I knew chess was my wife’s favorite game. Her passion for this game re-ignited when Pinky’s class teacher had organized a small tournament in her school. How could she allow Pinky to be defeated by others as her mother had been a champion at this game in her house?
Just for the sake of pulling her leg, I asked, “Can you tell me one benefit?”
She gave a disgusted look to me and said, “Get fresh, first. I can give lectures for an hour on the benefits of playing chess.”
“Oh! Okay, that sounds great. I’ll go and get fresh and then I would like to listen to the numerous benefits of playing chess.” I beautifully mimicked her.
I tore my sweaty clothes off and jumped into the shower. After the bath, while I was getting dressed, my eyes caught a notification on the mobile screen. There were two missed calls. I got quite surprised the moment I saw the number. It was none other than my once best friend Rajdeep’s mobile number. As far as I remembered, the last time he had called me was some five years back. I wanted to call him back, but then my ego came in between our friendship. I decided not to get in touch with him ever again. I did not want to go down the lane that I had left long back.
Just to hide my queasiness, I demanded tea from my wife. But my wife had completely dug herself in teaching chess to our daughter. She looked at me and signaled to wait for a few minutes. The uneasiness spawned from those missed calls and my wife’s casual response to my demand up-surged my anger leading to an upheaval. I shouted with all the strength that my lungs could gather, “Rummellllaaa!”
My wife turned towards me and waved her hand questioningly, asking, “What happened, Amol?” She was confused over my abrupt, irrational outburst.
I remained silent for a few seconds and then shouted, “Didn’t you hear, I asked for tea?”
“Yes, baba. I heard you, but I assumed that you would wait for a few minutes. I’m sorry, I was so engrossed in teaching chess to Pinky that I didn’t realize you wanted tea so urgently.”
My wife immediately went to the kitchen and after a few minutes, she served me my favorite lemon tea. But that too could not erase my fidgetiness. Savoring a few sips of tea, I asked my wife, “Why do you like this game so much? What is so special about it?”
Hearing my question, her face lit up with excitement and she pounced on the opportunity to deliver the dialog that she seemed to have ready, all her life, just for this moment, having rehearsed it a million times before, but in a tone that it could not have been more spontaneous. “Life is like a game of chess. Its moves teach you how to move in real life.”
Her spontaneous reply suddenly dragged me to my
M.B.A. days where Rajdeep used to express the same thing. Her reply, at this juncture, disturbed me even more. It was quite shocking for me that my wife shared the same opinion about life which, a few years back, Rajdeep used to have. Saddened by her reply, the disquiet inside me was revealed by an eerie quiet outside. She came and sat beside me and broke the silence, “What is going on in your mind? And please don’t say ‘nothing’, because I know you very well.”
I turned towards her, looked into her eyes and asked, “Is chess really helpful in real life?”
She smiled and said, “Look, I don’t know much about the crest and trough of life but wise people say that a good chess player solves the problems of life faster than one who cannot play. And that’s the reason I want our daughter to take an interest in this game rather than any childish games.”
“But I don’t think so,” I murmured. “Why?”
“Because life has taught me something else.”
“You tell me first, why do you have such negative thoughts about this game? Sometimes people don’t like a game that is difficult to learn,” she chuckled.
I looked at her and then said, “You must have heard the name, Rajdeep Ganguly.”
“Yeah, yeah… the one who studied M.B.A. with you.” “Yes.”
I dragged my chair and sat opposite my wife. I started narrating the story of our friendship, “In our M.B.A days, Kailash, Rajdeep, and I were best friends. Rajdeep – hmmm. What can I say about him? He was very smart, shrewd, charismatic, talkative, and overall a very big diplomat. Kailash was someone who never had a problem with anyone rather, he had always been instrumental for bridging the gap between Rajdeep and me if sometimes it snowballed out for some trivial issues. Rajdeep always used to assert the same thing, what you said just a few minutes ago, “Life is like a chess game. Its moves teach you how to move in real life”.
“Very true, he was right,” my wife interrupted once again vouching for its legitimacy, but seeing my irate expression, she paused abruptly and I went back to my narration.
“Our story starts from here. After passing M.B.A., Kailash decided to move to his father’s existing business. He never faced any interview so he never understood the nervousness of going through the same and the process of struggling to get an on-campus placement. Rajdeep and I, we both were trying hard to get hired by some multinational company. And that special day also came in our lives when we both got a job and that too in the same company. However, his CTC (cost to company or so to say – salary) was much higher than mine. I didn’t take it sportingly because, in academics, I always scored higher than he did. But then possibly, I couldn’t match his smartness level.”
I asked him, “How did you manage Raj?”
He replied, “Interview is like a game of chess… but an athlete will never understand.”
He always pulled my leg by passing his teasing comments on me. Even though I was not an athlete, it pained me a lot as he knew I was a fitness freak.
I spontaneously replied, “Life is a MARATHON and not a sprint,” to show my contentment to him and satisfy my self-esteem.
We always had disconnects in our ideology since the inception of our friendship. He led his life on the principle of chess and kept on thinking his moves to capitalize any opportunity that came his way and I had a firm belief that life is a marathon and not a sprint. Nevertheless, we still cared for each other.
Shortly after joining the job, he became the blue-eyed guy of our Zonal head, Samir Sheikh, and his power in the company started increasing day by day. Within two years, he got three promotions. Now he seldom spoke with me. I felt that most of the time he avoided speaking with me in public. He never realized how much anguish his altered behaviour inflicted on me.
Consequently, I also wanted to learn the game of chess. I believed that doing so, even I could get some growth by using its moves. Until now, I was solely struggling to get at least a better rating at the end of each year, leave aside growth.
The day came when he was awarded the position of the regional head by replacing the most seasoned manager, Sandip Sen, who was much senior to him in terms of vintage as well as the experience of handling that channel. Everyone was surprised and wondered how Rajdeep managed to acquire this position. I could not hold back myself and called him, “Hello, Raj.”
“Yes, Amol?”
“Congratulation on your promotion.” “Thanks, buddy.”
“Bro, how did you manage…”
Before I could finish my sentence, he started laughing and said, “Getting a promotion is like a chess game dear. You need to know other’s moves and then you should move accordingly. You have to think way ahead of your opponent.”
His words echoed in my ear for some time. I could feel that he had become very big now. Whenever his attitude made me feel low, I called Kailash and drained out all my grievances against Rajdeep to him. And as usual, Kailash would always try to bridge out the differences between Raj and me.
I used to curse myself, why did I not learn the game of chess if it was so important in life? Most of the time Rajdeep did not attend our get-together parties. Most probably, his ego did not allow mixing with us now.
I remembered the day when his insolent comments about Mr. Ajoy’s channel in a big meeting like National Sales Congress had made him the topic of discussion in our organization for a couple of weeks. As we all knew, Ajoy was a terror in his previous company. All his subordinates and even some of his office staff from other departments thought many times before approaching him. That day, Ajoy was silent and did not react to Rajdeep’s comments. Nonetheless, I knew that Raj was playing with fire. I knew Ajoy’s silence was a signal of a suppressed tornado. As Raj’s well-wisher, it was my responsibility to let him know about the consequences.
