A Friend

“Knight F3” I said.

“Pawn E6” he replied.

As I sat before him, a feeling of friendship came over me. I thought to myself “Why don’t I play regularly
with him. He wouldn’t mind, and it’s better than playing chess over Facebook”.

But today i wanted something else too. I wanted to find the friend in him. I wanted to bond with him,
like we used to do when I was 8. I still remember he used to put me on his lap and say ‘hodi hodi hodi
hodi’, and then used to throw me on a pillow. It was fun for me, and a huge weight on his legs. Even
after all day’s work, playing with me used to de-stress him, even though the words weren’t invented yet.
I remember him coming directly to home, to me.

10 Minutes into the game, he was beating me like crazy. I have already lost my Bishop and Rook, and
in the process of losing my Queen. This reminds me of the first time he took me out for a morning run.
Being in 7th didn’t mean I could run fast. Still he said “Run fast, walk fast, if you don’t you will get fat and
lazy”. I am 95kg now. I was the only one whom he would take out for a run, although it didn’t last due to
my frequent complains.

20 Minutes in the game I am already losing interest in the game. This feels awfully familiar to the phase
in life where I lost interest in studies and immersed myself in computer games. Frequent complaints
from him didn’t take me out of it. Maybe he couldn’t see his friend so addicted to the PC.

I have already lost most of my major players now; he has systematically destroyed all my pieces. And
still I am happy. Maybe I don’t give as much time to him now, but today I feel I want to give him the
friendship he deserves. I want to play Chess with him for the whole life ahead he has.

I want to give him the Friend he deserves. I want to give my Father a friend today.