Friday, August 29, 2014

Anjali - How To Play Shaukar-Bhikhar

There a basic game of cards where we put one card over the other until the same number turns up and the one who has matched the card takes the whole lot. Its called shaukar-bhikhar in Marathi which roughly translates into rich man- poor man because the game will eventually make one person rich and the other poor.

It never ends

Anjali sometimes plays this game with her aunt. She recounted those games with glee today.
'You know me and Mythily atta talk about all kinds of things while we play shaukar-bhikhar. Sometimes I don't even realise that I won,' she chattered on happily.
'Umm,' we went.
'It's so much fun,' she said. 'The game never ends.'
'How's that?' we asked, our ears perking up.

'Because when one of us loses all the money the other has to give ten cards and when this person makes ten cards, she has to return the same,' she said simply. 'So it never ends.'
Ha! Caught you.
'But in reality the game ends when you lose all your cards,' we explained.

Anjali did not seem too bothered with our version of the game with its black and white rules.
'But we play like that,' she said. And that was that.

Which is a wonderful way of looking at life or a game. The game never ends really if we choose our outlook differently. There is more to be gained for all parties if we choose to look beyond, change the rules and seek help. Then the game becomes cooperative and like she said, it never ends. Everyone helps everyone, everyone is happy.

Life could be simpler eh. Win-win. Help out. Be happy.
What about all those guys doing fighting wars?

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