Part XXVII
Present
After their day at the beach, the three families returned to the hotel pretty late that evening. After dinner, Ishan and Sahana settled down for a game of chess. The rest of them watched them play. The game was heating up and Ishan seemed to have the upper hand having gotten rid of most of Sahana's army. Sahana was about to make her move to save her queen when Prachi shouted out to her.
"No Sahana. Don't do that. You will be leaving your King exposed. First protect your king, even if it means that your queen will have to be sacrificed in the process. If your king is check mated the game is over, with or without your queen. You can always use your rook to counter attack later on."
Hearing Prachi's advice, Ayesha looked at her in shock.
"Since when have you become such an expert in chess, Prachi?" she asked in pleasant surprise.
"Since your jiju taught me the intricacies of the game," Prachi said. She looked up at her husband and smiling warmly, she mouthed a big thank you to him.
Milind immediately tried to play down his role saying that he was successful only because he had a willing and obedient student in Prachi. He recollected how he initiated Prachi into the game of chess, more as a means to spend time with her and get to know her. Later on this became a strong binding factor between the two of them.
Past (Milind's flashback)
Milind was pleased that Prachi had made considerable progress in overcoming her fear of the water. Ever since he heard that she had aquaphobia he was disturbed and had wanted to do something to help. Her rain dance on the night of the Conference in Pune was an eye opener to him. It showed that her phobia was not too deep rooted as she did not fear rain and there seemed to be a possibility that it can be cured. He consulted her family doctor to ascertain the cause and extent of her fear of water. He was told that there was no traumatic water experience which could have instilled this fear in her. It seemed like she suffered more from an instinctive fear which limited her fundamental comfort level in water activities such as swimming. He suspected that she had only a minor case of aquaphobia which, with proper guidance, could be overcome. The problem could have festered for so long maybe due to her father's unwillingness to push his daughter into doing things she did not want to do. Milind, however, felt that in her own interest, Prachi needed to overcome this fear. He decided to try his hand in helping her do so and bought her the swimsuit. He could tell from her reaction to it that she wasn't too pleased to see it nor was she enthusiastic when he told her that he would be teaching her to swim the next morning. He was in half a mind to call off the whole thing when he noticed her tossing and turning in bed that night, unable to sleep. But later he steeled himself thinking that even after trying, if her fears seem too deep seated, he would not press on.
The next morning when he saw her near the pool looking like a scared kitten, his heart went out to her. He spoke to her as reassuringly as possible and demonstrated to her what he was expecting her to do. He was about to give up after trying for a couple of times but surprisingly she took the first step and willingly came into the pool. He then slowly dispelled her fears. In the course of the lessons, he had at one point of time moved away from her temporarily to allow her to float for longer. But when he saw her terrified reaction to it, he understood that her immense faith in him was the only reason why she was willing to break free from her fear of water which was so deeply embedded in her psyche for so long. He vowed to himself then that he will never break that faith and will always be there to protect her, for she was the most precious person in his life. The swimming lessons also made him more physically aware of his wife as they were in such close proximity to each other in swim suits, but he kept himself in check, concentrating on the task at hand, which was to get Prachi out of her aquaphobia.
Once Prachi was completely cured of her fear, they regularly swam together in the pool every morning. The exercise was not only a good way to start off his mornings but it also allowed him to spend more quality time with his wife and he was really beginning to enjoy these moments with her so much that he started subconsciously looking for more activities which would throw them in each other's company.
It was a Sunday morning that day. After their usual swim and morning breakfast, Milind spent an hour, pouring over the Sunday newspaper and Prachi got busy cleaning up the house. Once he was done with the reading, he felt bored and asked Prachi if she could play chess with him.
"Chess?" asked a surprised Prachi "But I don't know how to play it," she said sadly.
"I will teach you," he said excitedly.
Prachi did not look too enthusiastic, "I don't know Milind, I suck at games which involve the use of the mind."
"Don't worry, with me as your instructor, you will not suck at anything," he said with confidence. "Moreover, I feel so bored Prachi and I have no partner to play with. You'll be doing me a big favour by playing with me."
Prachi could not refuse him after that impassioned plea. She would do anything for her husband. She smiled and nodded her head. Milind enthusiastically hunted out his chess board and chess pieces.
"You'll require a lot of patience with me. I'm quite dense, you know!" she warned Milind as he came out of his study, armed with the chess equipment.
"Not a problem. I'll not snap at you," he assured her and placed the chess board on the centre table.
He started with the rudimentaries of chess. "In chess we have two players, each controlling an army of 16 pieces - one white and one black. Before we start to play the game, we need to make sure that the board is set properly. Look at the square in the lower right-hand corner for each player. This should be a light-coloured square. An easy way to remember this rule is the phrase white on right."
Prachi leaned forward to check the board. The bottom right hand square was white for both of them.
Holding up a chess piece, Milind continued, "We now need to place these pieces in their proper places. Would you like to play with the white pieces?" he asked quizzically.
She nodded her head in the affirmative.
He instructed, "Put the pieces which look like small towers in the four corner squares of the board. These towers are called rooks or castles."
After she placed the four rooks in the four corners he said, "Place the knights, which are the pieces that look like a horse's head, next to the rooks of the same colour."
She did as she was told.
"Now place the bishops next to the knights of the same colour. Bishops are the ones which have an onion shaped head. Yes, that is the one," he said as Prachi picked up a white Bishop.
"Pick up the queen. This is the second tallest piece in the set and which has a crown. Good. Now, place it at the centre square of its colour. For instance the white queen should be placed in the centre white square. A good way of remembering this is queen on colour."
When Prachi placed the two queens in their respective places, Milind said.
"Good. Now pick up the tallest piece in the set and which has the cross on its head. That is the King. The King's place is always next to his queen, isn't it? So place the kings next to the queens of the same colour."
After this was done, he said, "Now all the major pieces have been set. Let's go on to the smaller ones. These short pieces are the pawns," he said, picking up one of the small pieces. "You should have eight pawns of each colour. These pawns should go in each square in the row in front of the other pieces of the same colour."
Prachi deftly set all the pawns on the board. After all the pieces were set on the board, the chess board looked like this (I removed the picture I had posted in the earlier page. Maybe this was what was causing it to shut down).
"Now that our board has been set up so beautifully by my fair lady, let's move on to the next step in learning the game."
Prachi felt happy that he praised her effort and referred to her as 'my fair lady'. She eagerly listened to him.
"Starting with the white pieces, the players take turns moving one piece each turn. Since you have the white pieces, you will have to make the first move."
Prachi immediately tried to move one of her pieces.
"No, wait. There is more to learn before we start the game. Each piece moves in a unique manner. You need to understand how the pieces move in order to be able to play the game. The rook can move any number of squares, horizontally or vertically in a straight line, as long as there are no other pieces before it. Like most pieces, the rook cannot jump over other pieces. However, it can land on a square occupied by an opponent's piece, removing that piece from the board. This is known as capturing a piece. All pieces are capable of capturing in this manner."
He demonstrated how this is done.
"Now, coming to the bishop, this piece moves any number of squares diagonally in a straight line. Notice that the bishop will always remain on squares of one colour during a game. For example, if the bishop is on a dark square it will always stay on dark squares. At the beginning of a game, each player has both a light-squared bishop and a dark-squared bishop."
Prachi nodded her head understandingly.
Milind continued his discourse, "The knight moves in the shape of an L." Seeing her confused look he hastened to explain, "This means that the knight moves two squares horizontally or vertically, and then turns at a right angle to move one more square. The knight is the only piece that can jump over other pieces. However, the knight can only capture a piece if it lands on the same square as that piece. It cannot capture all the pieces it jumps over while landing in a square." He demonstrated this move too.
"The queen combines the abilities of the rook and bishop. A queen moves any number of squares in a straight line, in any direction. This mobility makes the queen the most powerful piece in chess," he explained.
Prachi looked suitably impressed. Looking up at her, he said jocularly, "Much like you. You, as my queen, are more powerful than me, aren't you?"
Prachi hit his hand lightly. Milind smiled and continued, "Queens and rooks are known as major pieces and bishops and knights, which are considered of equal value, are called the minor pieces of the set."
"Unlike the powerful queen which can move in several directions, the king can only move one square in any direction. But the king is the most important piece in chess because if the king is under threat of capture, the game is over. Hence, when a king is attacked by another piece, it must avoid capture immediately. If the king is attacked, it is said to be in check. If the capture cannot be avoided, it is known as checkmate and the game is over. The king is not actually captured in chess. The king also has the ability to perform a special move known as castling, which I will teach you later.
The pawns are the least valuable pieces because they can only move in one direction, i.e, forwards; they cannot move sideways or backwards. They also can move only one square at a time. The pawn which is still in its starting square, however, has the option to move two squares directly forward. Pawns cannot capture while moving forward. They can only capture the pieces lying one square diagonally ahead of them. Although pawns may be the weakest pieces on the board, they have the potential to become much stronger. If a pawn manages to make it all the way to the other end of the board, that pawn can be promoted to any piece its owner wants, other than a king. Most of the time, a pawn will be promoted to a queen because queen is the most powerful piece. However, the player can choose to promote to a rook, knight or bishop. Promoting to something other than a queen is known as under-promotion."
Prachi listened to all this information with rapt attention.
"There are more complicated rules for the game which I will explain as we proceed. But are these basic rules clear to you?"
Prachi nodded her head in the affirmative.
"OK then, let's start the game and see how much you have understood. I'll address any problem you may face as we proceed," he said and asked Prachi to begin as she had the white pieces.
Over the next one hour, by making several mistakes which Milind patiently corrected, Prachi slowly got the hang of the game. In between though, at one point, Milind nearly lost his cool when she kept making the same mistakes while moving her knights. He soon kept a check over his temper, realising that he will only scare her off the game if he yells at her. His patience and perseverance paid off because Prachi finally learnt to play the game without prompts from him. He let her win the first couple of games to help build her confidence. As expected her wins were a tremendous boost to her confidence and she started playing the game more cheerfully rather than fearfully as she did at the beginning.
In time, Prachi developed such a liking for the game that every Sunday she would come up to him with the chess board in her hands and call him to play with her. Milind was very happy to see her interest in his favourite game. Nandu kaka seemed to be very happy too, for he started to bring in hot pakodas and bhajjis for them to munch while they played the game. Chess soon became the regular Sunday morning activity. Prachi became so proficient in the game that Milind once lost to her without intending to. The game was evenly poised when Prachi moved her rook up and locking her gaze with his, she gave him one of her dimpled smiles, making his heart go flip-flop. He momentarily lost his concentration and made the wrong move which exposed his king to attack.
"Check," she said confidently.
Milind looked from her face to the chess board. She was right. His king was indeed in check. He hastily tried to move his king away, only to find that he was completely cornered.
"Check-mate," she said in her sweet voice.
"Damn!" he cursed. "I ban you from flashing one of your dimpled smiles whenever we play chess," he said thoughtlessly.
Prachi looked at him in surprise.
He soon realised how foolish his order sounded and went red in embarrassment. She broke into a peel of laughter when the full import of what he just said sunk in her mind. Milind joined in her mirth and they laughed together till they cried happy tears.
Cricket
Mannat Har Khushi Paane Ki
Bigg Boss 19
