Backgammon
Adib Farahani Posted by Picasa
Let me be honest with you. During the last thirty years of my life I
had thought of backgammon as just a game of chance, therefore I never
took it seriously, until this summer that is.
I am sure most Iranians, specially those of whom which are coming from
an extended family, at one time or another have witnessed and watched
some members of their family ever so ardently indulging in backgammon.
My father is one of these ardent members.
This summer I went to Tehran for a visit. After arriving home and
meeting my father and exchanging the usual courtesies, I saw him
disappearing in to his room to return after a few minutes with his
favorite backgammon board under his arms.
"Shall we?" he said.
The dear reader must realize that this was the first time I was being
asked by my father to share with him the passion he has for the game.
Not only did I accept his invitation, but believe it or not I took the
gesture of his invitation as an honor being bestowed upon me. I felt
that I was being initiated in to the world of adults and the wiseones,
thus the game began.
To be precise, it was right after my fifth move when I noticed my
father's face literally changing in to a dark reddish colour. My first
response was to ask him that if something was wrong. He took a deep
puff from his cigarette and gazed at my face.
"What kind of an architect are you?, Don't you know mathematics?, What
have they been teaching you in that university of yours?"
By this time I was stunned and petrified by the barrage of questions
being thrown at me and at the same time I tried to workout the
relationship between Backgammon and my university!.
"How can it be? You have not even made a single right move."
He was clearly getting more anxious .
"Tell me, is something wrong? O, there must be, I am sure there is
something wrong with you. You can't concentrate. I wonder, how can you
even design anything with this amount of concentration?"
One month passed and we did not remind eachother of the backgammon
incident, nor did we play again. It was during my flight back home
when I found a book in my bag and a letter addressed to me, it was
from my father.
"Dear son
I thought it best to write you a few lines a and explain the
importance of backgammon, which I hope will enlighten you and clarify
my reaction. Imagine the backgammon board to be a stage or even the
platform of life. In this platform there are people, just like real
life; whom I might add also want to win by using your weaknesses and
lack of concentration.
In order to win there are there are two elements which you have to
utilize. One, is upkeeping the faculty of mind and the other is to
realize the chances provided to you by the dice. Let me remind you
that the numbers and the combination of the dice is very similar to
that of our lives.
All of us, before making any major moves in life throws the dice.
Either we have a good combination of numbers or we don't, but what is
essential regardless of the number of dice, is to use them in a most
efficient way in order to reduce the harms which might come upon us.
Most people call this chance, but only a few can workout what is
behind the myth of chance and they move accordingly. These people are
the wiseones, for it is wisdom and pure concentration that can keep
you safe both in life and backgammon."
Since then I have been playing backgammon almost every day. The game
has also helped me to concentrate more and to gather my mind. It is
astonishing to discover and notice the similarities of backgammon and
life.
p.s : The book which was given to me by my father is about the histoy
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