The queen’s Gambit

Last night, just before sleeping I checked my whatsapp like every day. I don’t usually download videos from all the groups I am part of on whatsapp. I do click on all the things shared by my close friends because I know they don’t share irrelevant stuff.

So, I downloaded the video and started watching . My first impression of the video was,that it was some of those ‘cool’ videos of cool guys who give you life’s lessons. And to my astonishment,the guys starts talking by saying ” I am cool guy”.
As he spoke I got really involved because I could see myself ,my mom , my aunt, my friends in his narration.

He says he is chess player and his first coach was his mom. He speaks about how he learnt that a pawn is worth one point, the knight and Bishop are worth three points each, the rook is worth five and the queen is worth nine. He says his mom taught him that the queen is very important in the game and he should be very careful when using her.

I thought maybe he would speak about how a woman can change any situation so I continued watching with a little more attention.
He continued telling what his mother told him. He says his mom said ” The king has infinite points and you lose the king ,you lose the game”.

He went to share how he later got introduced to the word feminism and how he thought that feminism is not something he would associate in his house because he never thought that there was any discrimination in his house.

He continued saying how his mother silently , made all the sacrifices so everything fell in place at home. He shared some incidents of his life.

He went to become a good chess player and his best move was the ‘gambit’, which means strategically sacrificing a piece to win the game and he always won by playing the queen’s gambit , where he would sacrifice the queen.

He very nicely related the game of chess to what happened in his house. He ends his speech by saying ” I keep wondering about why is it always necessary to win”.

At the end of the video , my heart became heavy. I mentioned to my friend in the group that I wanted to show the video to my sons.

What actually triggered this blog is the response I got in the group from a friend. She said all the boys who see their moms suffering become very good husbands.

This really got me thinking. Becoming good husbands to their wives, good fathers to their daughters, good sons to their mothers is important but becoming a person who understands why feminism is important is necessary.

I will show this video to both my sons to make them understand how discrimination starts with small things and teach them how they can make a difference.

I googled about the guy in the video . He is chess player and his name is Hari shanker. You can watch the video here

Credits: YouTube

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