Tuesday, February 06, 2007

More Than A Game

It is not only New York cabbies that pause now and then from a city's chaos to play a few games of chess. Autorickshaw drivers in India, too, are fond of the occasional blitz matches. But for these guys, chess is more than a game:

It doesn't matter that autorickshaws honk and cycle-bells ring as the pawns advance and the knights move — not even that a piece of sackcloth doubles for table and a scooter's backseat acts as a chair and that this is a communally-sensitive city. Here the 'shatranj ke khiladi', both Muslims and Hindus, play together, even during curfews. And, under rain as well. During the 2002 communal killings, the Muslim-dominated colony was largely free of violence.

From The Times of India.

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