A raw deal in hand....

When you’re over whelmed, your mind is so saturated you don’t know how to think clearly any more, take a deep breath and exhale as slowly as you can. Life, like in a game of cards, life can give you a rough deal. A lot of times you get a bad deal.

I remember, when I was a child, my parents were found of playing rummy, a card game. They took it very seriously. They wrote down points and had intense arguments. I would sometimes join them in the game.  My father had a habit of dissecting every hand you played, be it my mother or me. One time, I was getting bad deals after bad deals. I kept playing instead of folding in. End of playtime I had some minus 108 0r more points, basically a disaster, had we been playing for money, I would have been wiped clean. My father lost his temper, he uses a very derogatory and foul tone when he’s angry, he said, you don’t take anything seriously in life, why you can’t even take playing seriously!! I was in one of my brave moods that day and I mumbled, we were just playing, why should I take that seriously, he started off…you will never be successful in life, you will never each anywhere, you should have folded when you had such bad cards, tears filled my eyes and I said but folding is no fun, I wanted to play, so what if I lost…I got another long lecture and was dismissed from their room….

Well, over two decades have passed since that day. I got several bad hands, at the game of life. I stuck to my original style, I refused to fold in. I play good hand and bad hand with equal flourish, very nearly getting wiped out it the process, thank God, its jus metaphorical and not about money here. I took everything life dished out to me and continued to play. I lost a lot, in the bargain, yet what was constant was the “fun”. I always treated life, like one big adventure, that spirit never died in me…Times changes and even bad times don’t last…from time to time I got great hands. The practice I got through playing even bad hands really helped while playing a good hand. The highs I saw were doubly sweet.

The point of any game, including life, is to play along and not to take it seriously after all who comes out of it alive. Some days are your days and some aren’t. Just have fun, laugh off your misfortunes, because, it’s your struggles that make a great story and not a plain rose bed. If you fold, over and over again, you’ll lose interest, you’ll get tired and bored…

Yes, that day, I took one thing to heart and very seriously, that was I never played cards with my father ever again. Now when I teach my son the same game, I emphasize on having fun, using his brains to minimize damage. I don’t scold him for losing or for accumulating minus points. I rejoice when he beats me. I hope he will learn, life must be played intelligently and not cowardly. Life must be lived and not folded in…..