From the speaker of a car, played the most beautiful Bollywood song by Kishore Kumar. I nodded my head in tune to the music till a hand shot out from underneath the branches and pulled me down.
-Foul vampire, King Vikram said just like so many of his ancestors. Today I will kill you!
-If you insist, I said graciously. But first let me tell you a story. At the end of the story, I will ask you a question. If you know the answer and speak it, I will escape and fly back to my tree. However if you know the answer and remain silent, then your head will burst into a thousand pieces, in which case you will find it difficult to shave.
-Humph! said King Vikram.
He cried over the death of a pawn and coveted the curves of a Queen
-Listen up O King, I said. In a small apartment in this neighborhood, there lived a father. He had a wife and a daughter. He also had a chess habit. Day in and day out his mind was obsessed with chess. He cried over the death of a pawn and coveted the curves of the queen.
-What a filthy mind you have, you Devil! said the King.
-In any event, I continued, the father was attentive to his daughter. He dropped her off at school, read stories to her and helped her with her homework. He did this year after year till the daughter grew up to be of a dateable age. When girls arrive at a dateable age, O’ King, they go on dates. Needless to say the father never approved of any of her choices. One day, he protested as the daughter as she was leaving the apartment with a boy.
-You don’t have a right to tell me anything, she said. You have not been a good father.
The father was shocked. He had paid so much attention to his daughter’s every need. He burst into tears as if he were not a man, but a bishop blocked by a pawn on a chessboard.
-Tell me O’ King I said. Why did the daughter accuse him of not being a good father? If you know the answer, speak it now, or your head will burst into a thousand pieces.
-Don’t tell me what to do vile beast, said King Vikram. Here’s the answer to your stupid question. The father had a chess addiction, and he knew it. He tried to make up for it by being dutiful towards his daughter. But caught up in the world of his addiction, he could never free up his mind sufficiently to shower her with love. When it came to his daughter, he was more like a robot and less like a human.
-Well said O’ King I said. I cackled and flew away to my tree. Yes, that’s right. I know I cackled for I remember feeling, if only for a moment, like a seagull.
