Chess final

Wow! What a game!

I think this is the first time when I have played with an equal opponent and ever won anything in such a close finish. It was all due to that girl of Chem that Maths had to give walk-over in semis inspite of lecture timing class with match clash. It was obvious that they would come later and ask for a match. So it happened that even though we breezed through Chem in the finals and won, we were again called to play with Maths. Apparently it was to satisfy every one involved.. Maths team wanted to play, organizers wanted to get out of the horrible mess they had made, CSE PG nominee wanted a clean slate for the victory, my team-mate felt the same way I guess, she played and already won just as I got there to discuss all this..

Then they finally turned on me and told me that this game I should play for my own satisfaction.. that would I be really satisfied if I had only played against a mediocre team to get the gold medal.. that the real team had not even played against me..I knew they were trying to emotionally blackmail me, but once I spoke to my team-mate, she also said that being CSE, let us be generous. Let us play this and watever happens, happens.

Well, then I felt that even I had been looking forward to playing with the girl from Maths dept. So I thought why not play and see what happens. Btw, in the meantime, one of the organizers had already asked me to go for inter-iit chess and I thought that if I am so afraid to play this girl, how would I play inter IIT, so I finally thought yes.

First game I was white, but these days I am always finding my queen blocked behind the knight by the opponent's bishop. I felt it again today like a block in my throat literally. It was somehow frustrating and then I made a wrong move. I pushed a pawn thinking I have both knight and queen to support it, little realizing at that time that I couldnt move the knight at all due to my queen being pinned. So when she took the pawn, it suddenly dawned on me that it had gone free unlike what I had imagined. And ofcourse, I also realized that I would have lost my queen for sure if I had played like I had thought I would. And that realization beat the living daylights out of me. (Yeah it was night already but still the daylights were beaten out of me). And I began taking more and more time, my clock was running out of time.

Another wrong thing I did was I pushed the middle pawn in front of the castle in an attempt to push away her knight. She did withdraw the knight, but it just opened up the castling and that proved to be my downfall in the first game. She lined up her queen and white bishop for a mate-in-two, and I saw no way out. So I resigned. I do not understand why everyone was so shocked that I resigned, coz I was sure that she was good enough to have planned it and execute it perfectly. In fact it was a mate in one-move except that I could do somethign to push it to two, thats all. There was no other way to save my king with my rooks, queen & bishop. So I resigned and asked to begin the next game.

She was very relieved that she had won the game, and asked me whether I was sure that I wanted to play the second game. She said there was no pressure, and that we didnt have to play if I didnt want to. Ofcourse I wanted to play the second game! I wanted to beat her. I knew I could if I were just a little bit more careful. So began the second game with again 20 minutes on the clock and a fresh board.

This time I got black. And my heart sank at first. But then there was no turning back, and all I had to do was play. She also played the normal opening, nothing fancy. But even the normal opening did out pan out the same way as "normal". She kind of juggled a couple of moves, but eventually we seemed to hit the same kind of position as normal. And once again I found my knight pinned in front of my queen. If I move my queen, she ll take my knight and I have to take it with my king-side castle pawn. That will open up my castle and give her queen free reign to march in. Ahh, it was so frustrating. So I thought I ll do the same to her what she is trying to do to me. So I also pinned her knight the same way.

Later in the game I was so desperate to break her castle that I tried every trick possible. Btw, I should mention that somewhere along the way I became 2 pieces up! Yup! Even I cant believe it now! And another thing I realized was that even near end-game, all my 8 pawns were intact. Then that started to become suffocating, coz my rooks were practically useless when all files were blocked. And my time was still running out, I was thinking much much more than her. When I had 6-7 minutes remaining, she stil had 12-15! I dont remember exactly but it was a lot..

Meanwhile, her knight had rode up on the right hand side of my board, and poised ready to put infinite number of forks wherever I moved. I can not imagine now how I saw all of those chances
and avoided them successfully, but I have to just say a big "thank you" to God for it. There was a particular instance where any move I would do with either of my rooks or my queen, in an
apparent attempt to protect my king and the castling would have resulted in a fork from her knight! It was so frustrating, and that too with time running out like that. I literally squirmed in my seat, as if I wanted to lay down and get away from this game or something :-D There was an attack on my queen and I had to move it some place safe, usually I would have moved it right into the face of the fork but somehow I saw it, and moved much farther away from it.

When finally my castle seemed secure with my bishop sitting in front guarding it, I finally breathed a little. But I also realized that having all 8 pawns blocking all ranks, was causing trouble. So I pushed the center pawn. If she had let me go til the end, I would have made a queen and atleast got a piece of hers in exchange for the new queen. So I just kept pushing it and beating the clock to save time. At that time, finally she panicked and she began losing time too. And to prevent the pawn from becoming queen, she cut it in mid-way and finally my rank was open! Out came my right-hand rook and attacked the queen. Behind the queen was her rook (right in line) and my queen was right adjacent to her rook, ready to strike. As soon as her queen moved to save herself, my rook ploughed right ahead and took out her rook - Check! She had to use her other rook to exchange. I took that one using my queen and said Check again. So now she had a Queen and bishop remaining. While I had queen, rook and both bishops remaining. That was a fantastic situation to win.

But you know what, I had only 3-4 minutes remaining. And her queen and bishop lined up to take out my king. I realized that it was not at all possible to bring out my other rook, and achieve any back-rank mate. So when her king moved up from the corner of his castle, I gave a check with my queen right under the nose of her queen, offering an exchange - you take me or I ll take you. Either way it was only an exchange. She didnt take it, so I did and then breathed again. Atleast now, no matter what she does, she cant check-mate me coz she just had a bishop and few pawns scattered here and there. Whereas I had 2 bishops and rook. So now if I lose, it would be only on time. So I just went crazy. I just brought out my rook and gave check, cut pawns, moved with no aim, just playing and banging the clock to make it stop and not run out of time. People surrounding us were afraid that we were gonna break the clock, and I was kind of sorry for that too. But I had no time to think of the clock's health right then. I just didnt care for a win anymore. I was willing to settle for a draw even. She panicked too, and played couple of illegal moves. And I didnt even see them!

In fact, she became mate 3 times! And I was so busy giving check and making moves and banging the clock that I didnt even realize!!!! After 3rd illegal move, my dept. PG sports nominee (thankfully) shouted, "3 illegal moves, 3 illegal moves". And I was like wat, wat. My eyes were still on the clock thinking I m losing time even during this argument! And she said, but she didnt claim any of those illegal moves, so they dont count. Originally rule is that if I claim 3 illegal moves, then she loses. And since I didnt claim yet, it doesnt count. Thats when I really opened my eyes and saw that indeed she was already check-mate! She had been check-mate 5-6 moves ago, and still we had been continuing. If my flag had fallen before hers (which it was inching towards) without me realizing that she was already check-mate, I would have lost nevertheless! But thankfully, I awoke from my trance in time to see that I had actually won..

Wow what a nail biting finish! Actually nail-biting for everyone else except me, coz I didnt have time even to bite my nails :D

The spirit of a victory...

Being a good player and a good sports-person are equally important. Being a good player, one does indulge in mental games too, playing with the psyche - its all about who can hold it together till the end of the game. Coz, obviously all participants are equally under pressure. The one who is good is under pressure of expectations, and the one who is not-so-good is just under pressure to perform.

You use whatever tactics you need, that help you to hold it together, get through the game, win it. But once the game is over, whatever be the outcome, hold your head high and be graceful about it - whether you win or you lose. You do the best you can on the field given the circumstances and given the pressures, and thats it. When the game is over, you are free - whether you win or you lose.

There is nothing more off-putting than a sore loser or a sore winner. Well, in TBBT, Leonard explains that (Sheldon) being an unpleasant winner justifies Sheldon's bad loser behaviour, and that explanation summarizes the whole point. Only an unpleasant winner can ever be a sore loser, and a sore loser is the antithesis of a good sports-person. Ergo, grace in both victory and defeat is an essential component of sports, and ofcourse life.

Why is life like that?

Without a close friend around, life starts to feel lonely. No, it is not that Preeti didnt have any friends and therefore was feeling lonely. But, definitely there was a fall in the number of friends surrounding her, compared to the same month, last year. And the void, she felt, was inescapable.

She was not the kind to drown herself in memories, or long for the days gone-by. Well, atleast not all the time :-D. Very wild mood swings characterized her day. When she doubted herself, her potential, there wasnt anyone she could share it with, who would assure her that she was gonna be just fine. So she did that job herself. She spoke to herself throughout the day, convincing herself, persuading herself to not give up in her quest.

She also had plans for the future, big plans. But those future plans depended on her ability to handle the present well. And her confidence in herself was kind-of becoming rickety.

And yet, she experienced everyday what a great opportunity she had. She regaled everyday, in the knowledge that she had had a better life than most. And every day that she lived, was a gift that she treasured. Preeti wasnt one to be cowed down by insecurities. She vowed to herself everyday, that she would rise. And she declared, "I am not complaining". :-)

Talk of ambiguity

"Spare the rod and spoil the child..."

Talk of ambiguity! Is the above sentence pleading with you to please spare the rod and pamper the child, make the child feel like a prince/princess? Or is it actually a warning that if you decide to spare the rod, you would end up raising a spoilt brat (which is decidedly not what you want to do!)?

Definitely a case of context lending meaning to the prose! Did I say already that I love English? :-)

Chance encounter with a snake

Half an hour back when I was leaving hostel to come to lab, I had a chance encounter with a long snake. I was on the B-wing corridor that enters the mess, walking absent-mindedly thinking of this and that and the other. And apparently the snake was day-dreaming too, hoping to cross from one wall of the corridor to the other.

I do not know whether the snake saw me coming. Well they say that snakes dont have eyes, so it wouldnt have really "seen" me anyway but you know what I mean. So it happened that the snake and I managed to startle each other during our absent-minded walks. While I gave out a loud yell and stood in my position, the snake took a different approach to handle the situation. It jerked suddenly and started wiggling even more wildly.

Its body was long and though its mid-portion was quite fatter than my arms, its head was very small, so I couldnt really make out which end was its head and which was its tail. Well you might be thinking why I wanted to know which end was its head. The thing is that, in the split-second that my body decided to move, my brain told it to first figure out the head direction so that it could be clear where the snake wished to move and therefore, my body could move (read run) in the opposite direction.

But the longer my body stood there letting my brain try to decipher head and tail, the more was the danger to my body. So body's reflex action started taking over and telling my brain to shut-up. But my brain wouldnt budge, saying that if my body moves in opposite direction, I might end up stepping on the snake itself, which undoubtedly will be an unpleasant experience for the snake and might be full of unpleasant consequences for me too. So after a long 2-second struggle between body and brain, they reached a concensus that since the snake's body frame, and hence direction of motion, was loosely perpendicular to my direction of motion therefore it would be wise to just run back instead of attempting any more investigative activities at the moment.

And that was it, my brain gave command to run back, my body willing took the step without making any mistake and ran 5-6 feet back and then ofcourse turned back to make sure that the snake wasnt following. My brain congratulated my body on a mission well accomplished while my heart complained of a few missed beats.

Meanwhile, the snake was also apparently very perplexed with the kind of behaviour that my brain and body were exhibiting. In its fright, it changed tracks and instead of going the way it was previously going, it fell down the steps into the mess. As soon as my heart's missing beats were back, my eyes saw 2 mess workers in the mess, cleaning up. I suddenly found my voice again, and it shouted (in English), "There is a snake there" while my fingers pointed into the mess, thus establishing for a fact that even now my bodily movements were still coordinated.

Just when my voice was done shouting, my brain reprimanded it for having shouted in English. It said, "dont you think hindi/marathi would have been a better choice if you were trying to warn the mess workers?" Well my voice agreed and was just about to yell in hindi/marathi instead but realized that the mess workers had been generally looking in my direction and had already seen the snake. They were already running after the snake, pointing it out and planning some party for it. So my brain let my voice off the hook, and my body finally heaved a huge sigh of relief.

Judging by the mess workers point of attention, my eyes concluded that the snake had moved near the windows of the mess and hence the B-wing entrance into the mess was relatively safe to tread on. However, just to be on the
safer side, my brain commanded my body to jump the steps into the mess and run out of the mess in a single go. Thankfully, once again my body complied without tripping anywhere, and finally I reached the lab to write this post.

The Cloud is the computer

http://www.elasticvapor.com/2008/07/cloud-is-computer.html

nahi chalta hai

http://blogs.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/randomaccess/entry/chalta-hai-killed-ysr

Well, I am sure that the so-called "Chalta hai" attitude has caused many, many more problems for everyone throughout the history of mankind. But as they say, now is as good a time as ever to bring in a positive change. So going forward, no more "chalta hai".