Death Of A Cousin And The Game Of Chess
I lost a cousin last year. To covid but multiple other diseases of the world that managed to pile in his body and mind over the years.
Actually I lost him many years back. I was not interested in seeing him and the last I saw him, I didn’t say hello. Then I heard the news. And it didn’t disturb me as much. I thought he finally had relief from his cursed world, one he couldn’t stay loyal to and one that remained unreachable to him.
We had some innocent childhood memories of summers together in our grandmother’s home in a sublime Himalayan town but that was not enough to maintain a bond as adulthood life of deprivation and distances, the web, continued to spread. I didn’t lose more than a tear on his demise and that is so so unlike me.
But today I played a game of chess. This gorgeous Chinese board, with a beloved friend on his birthday. The pawns were different from each other, unlike back home. We discussed the rules. Some different from how we have played the game in all the different parts of the world, especially the rule when pawn reaches to the opposite end, of the enemy side.
Way I played it back home in India, this would mean bringing the piece of that specific location alive. Horse for the square of horse, elephant for the square of elephant. But the way my friend has played it, it would mean bringing any piece of your choice alive. I thought this could mean the game could go longer.
May be my cousin had the rules wrong.
But more importantly this brought back our memories of childhood. We were both obsessive chess players. And he was a master at the game.
He never did well in his schools and colleges, his career, his family, but he was a master at chess. We would play back to back games and I lost most of the rounds. The entire gang of cousins would often bet on our game, and we had many rituals on what can and cannot be said during the game, how the side gets selected based on previous random things of the day. The usual games of child. Then we grew up losing our play to a harsh board of life.
But playing the game today reminded me of my cousin and his mastery at and passion for chess. His unfaltering focus on the decisions and the moves. His strategies of castling the king and his never to be found again mind of the queen. His excellence unknown to him. His hermit being at its peak as he picked the pieces and moved them to a plot of his choice.
I bid him a proper goodbye today. The clear blue skies and moving clouds, after a night of snow, all sing of him this bright sunny day, by this unplanned foreign board of chess.
