Day 176: Mom & Chess

Today Vishwanathan Anand won the World Chess championships for the fourth time. And it had repercussions all the way to my home in Kerala, which then later made me feel like I am back to being 10 years old. Believe it or not.

One of the key reasons why I have done as well as I have is because my parents support me in anything and everything - be it dance, guitar, reverse writing, drawing, painting, writing, acting etc. They even used to get me to do things that I would never have thought I was capable of like poetry recitation, extempore speeches and cartooning. They always had this idea that one should at least try before thinking that something is impossible.

Now the downside of that is sometimes they get really excited about something but I end up not matching the enthusiasm. And one such thing is Chess. When I was younger, my mom always wanted me to play chess but I never had any interest in it.

And today I had a super interesting (borderlining "cute" even) conversation with my mom regarding Chess. Here's how it went.

She: Hello

Me: Hello

She: Vishwanathan Anand won world chess championship for the 4th time!

Me (knowing exactly where this conversation was heading): Uh Oh.

She: Chay.... I should have made sure that you took up chess!

Me: Too late now.

She: Not really. I already checked. There is no age limit. You can start now.

Me: Right. So in this old age I've to pick up chess?!

She: 27 years and 9 months is not "old age".

Me: That's not the point.

She (trying another angle altogether): He won 1.2 million Euros!

Me: So?

She: That's 6.75 crores!

Me: So?

She (realizing that the conversation is not yielding the results that she wanted): Chay... I should have made sure you took up chess long time ago!

Me: Right.

She: How about tennis then? (Yet another of mom's more recent obsessions thanks to that Mirza girl).

Me: Well, that does have an age limit physically.

She: Oh no.

Me: Well... what else is going on? I didn't call to talk about this.

She: So you won't be even considering chess?

Me: Nope.

She: Tennis?

Me: Nope.

She: Maybe tomorrow?

Me: Nope.

She: Alright. (Sighs rather dramatically).

Even though I didn't share her enthusiasm about Chess, the conversation made me smile and think of all those times when she was such a strong encourager of my activities. For a while, I was her 10 year old who needed to be told what is best for her and that felt good.

824 more to go.