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my view of prem and heer and how they dealt with each other was in my mind one long, lovely chess game between grand masters. prem and heer, grandmasters in love.
and this is not really my fault! i came to this view of these two while reading, pondering, phrooling, phreaming over a post that
payal (earlier known as
indian_pari a truly fitting name... 😍) had written to try to pay accolades to their love story.
see it here: (totally unbelieveably well-worth a read. it will make your heart sing!)
https://www.india-forums.com/forum_posts.asp?TID=975460
and in one of my responses to her write up, i came up with this analogy of a chess-game to understand what had been bugging me about their story till then. about when it all went high-octane, blow-me-out-of-the-water believable. and in doing so, i lay it all out as a chess game, where our two love-birds looked each other in the eyes and played out move after move after move.
why chess? well... there are several reasons.
imho, chess is a very personal game -- the real battle is actually just between the players. it may be done on a very public forum with the world watching, or just the two of you. but if the game is worth it, the outcome marks every move you make thereafter. there is a glow about both pairs of eyes -- a marked acknowledgement, a new awareness that only you and your partner can read. and read it perfectly!
the game of chess is much more than just the final outcome - always. in most other games, we are used to thinking of
the outcome of victory and defeat being the only thing that matters. you could think the same for chess, 'except that you'd be missing the essence of the game, imho.
'cause to me, the outcome of the victory/defeat comes
from the entire game. ever move, ever counter-move. where you started from, what you did in between --
all this matters. no move can be forgotten. no move can be erased. so what is most beautiful about chess is that the game every point in time is a sum of everything that you have done before. any move that you change in the past must lead you to a different point in time. the chess game never quite lets you forget who you started as, what you did, who you are today.
games can start with a standard opening like the ruey lopez, but within four moves, the game has changed 'cause of the fifth move. in a chess game -- maybe like life? -- the game is in every single thing that has happened so far.
the outcome is mere coincidence.
so for me? prem and heer are like a pair of unparalleled chess grand-masters in the game of love. for them, it's the love that is of importance. life is mere coincidence. they were created in the stars. and have this aura of having played the chess game of love many times over.
and like grandmasters, they always surprised me with what they do.
they started as so many love stories (chess games 😆) do: boy and girl promised to each other by parents. separated by oceans and continents. meeting up again and instantly feeling for each other. evil step mother, step daughters -- oops, aunt and cousins. and you think: 'kay, oh, ya. the giaco piano opening... 🥱
big mistake. but then again -- how was i to know they were grandmasters playing a game?
'cause with grandmasters, the next move from this predictable start is never sure, never known. and so it has been with prem-heer. they've had this tendency to spin us into a world that we have seen before, but never quite like
their version of it. 'cause what they do makes it so ... interesting!😆
and as in every chess game, when you add up all those prem-heer moves that make them different, the game suddenly and intangibly becomes something else all together.
if you focus on what is happening just at the moment, then it looks like a point in a game that has been played many times before. but remember how they got there, and ''the game'' becomes something else altogehter.
for me, that is absolutely, compellingly true about prem and heer. everything that i think about prem and heer today is -- necessarily -- an aggregation of everthing that they have done, by themselves, together.
even today, i
cannot forget when prem had broken his lute to show that he is throwing away his love and sticking to his father's desires.
'cause that is
what made his grabbing heer to his side, and blazing fire and love-for-her at the world --
that much more special.
even today, i
cannot forget when heer gave prem a dressing down on what love really is -- fighting and fighting to stick by the side of your chosen one, through thick and thin, through sorrow and happiness, through pain and pleasure.
'cause that is what makes perfect sense of everything that she did for prem, forgave prem for in the past.
and that is what makes me think that she
cannot be that unforgiving of prem now -- just like that! (ie, on the basis of onenightwithashlesha) this stubborness becomes inexplicable when put alongside with that principle she had laid out about love then. and so it cannot be true. it needs more to explain her actions, her words, her behaviour to prem.
of course, chess allows surprises and changes-- that is precisely what the grandmasters love to do. sometimes going against what appears to be their original strategies itself, when that is what takes to get around what their opponents are trying. but that would be a bit of a cheat in chess, i think. and it's difficult to think of how it can be done. how you can become a rouge from a gentleman. or a glob from a gayatri-mom.
so while it is possible that heer has changed the rules of the game in between. but that would be... unfair to the rules of the game. either of chess.. or of life. and heer is just not like that.
the last reason i'm so complacent with prem-heer's story being a chess game is this: chess only becomes truly interesting when the players are matched in skill.
there are few things as sad as watching a master play a game against a ... dud. 😆 'cause when there is a dud on one side, the master doesn't really need to think or innovate on moves -- 'cause the dud is panicking and playing wildly anyway. *sounds sad, no? you really never should watch
me play... 😆* the game becomes.. standard, typical, boring.
but when the game is played by grand-masters -- man!! e
very move becomes something to take your heartbeat away... only to give it back at a more rapid pace to see what -- oh what! -- the opponent is gonna do next!
and the best part is? you really never really ever know what is gonna happen next -- as the next move; or who will make the final move... and ''win''.
what i know by now, having watched this prem-heer love story is that prem and heer are both grand-masters in this game.
but what is best is that in their game, the winner gets a kiphph.
which means... the loser gives it. *shocked muh... not! 🤣*
ya.
that is
some victory.
some defeat.
sure. why don't i feel sorry for anyone here? 😆
so. this long estee-post was just my way of explaining to rakp... er... a certain someone that in a while -- a very rare, long while, it is true! but still... -- it maybe an interesting perspective to think about watching a love story like watching a game.
i'd never have done this for (say)
- angad and kripa: who looked like they were involved in a wrestling match, most of the time, in any case... ☺️ 🤣
- kavya (dud-oh, dud!!) and anjali (grand-master)
- lakshya (grand-master) and kt (sigh, competition level)
- raj (smart novice) and sudha (grand-master)
'cause these games had players, all unbalanced in their skills in playing the game.
but
prem and heer? they with that sense of having been lovers
for ever??
oh, i have been having
such phun watching! i have!
please, certain someone whose name is in the title of this post, please can i continue to watch them as love masters playing a chess game of love, please??
*hoping that the cheesy smile doesn't actually end up making her so mad that she will want to wipe my lovestory-chess-analogy out with my face. *
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