A game of Moksha Patam or Snakes and Ladders can make us reflect. The snakes outnumber the ladders but we appreciate the ladders of our lives only when we slide down snakes! That is what this anonymous young woman wants to say through her story.
I love watching the rains. I was lost in my own little world for a brief while as I sat out on the verandah. I broke out of my reverie when two pairs of hands tugged at my dupatta. My daughter was jumping up and down with excitement. She said, “Come Mumma. Let’s play in the rains!” I glanced at my little son. He had started walking only a couple of weeks back. I pondered over her suggestion for just an instant. The rainwater flowing in and around our little garden looked inviting indeed! I grinned at my kids and said, “Yes! Why not? Come. Let’s make all kinds of paper boats first. Then the three of us will sit in one big boat and play in the rains!”
My daughter stuck her tongue out at my ridiculous suggestion but ran inside quickly to get some old newspapers. For the next 30 minutes, we carefully ripped them into squares of different sizes and made boats out of them. We stood on the steps of our verandah and set them afloat in the rainwater that was swirling around us.
It had started raining very heavily now. All three of us giggled. My daughter and I held my son between us and slowly walked into the rain. We squealed with delight. We got drenched immediately. My son was a little surprised by the newness of the experience but he too had that same spirit of adventure within him.
The rainwater was cold, the drops huge and they hit our faces quite forcefully. We held each other’s hands and continued walking towards the gate of our house. Our clothes were plastered to our bodies and our hair hung around us limply. But we did not care one whit about such things.
We just closed our eyes and enjoyed the entire experience. Even the most beautiful of words cannot capture the essence of this wonderful experience. We spent the next 30 odd minutes creating wonderful memories for ourselves. I remembered my childhood days when my Ma had encouraged me to do the same with my sister. I had been scared to get wet initially. The rainwater had looked dirty to me. But my younger sister had dragged me into the rain. I still remember that day when it starts raining every year.
Today, I was doing the same thing with my children. I watched them splashing around in the rain. We looked at all our paper boats. They were just wet pieces of paper there now. We had created them with such love and care. But the rain had ruined them all.
An hour later, the three of us were still grinning like clowns. We had taken a hot shower and put on dry clothes. I had brewed some tea for the three of us. We sipped on it as we munched on the crisp onion pakora. Hmmm. They were crisp indeed. My kids were relishing them too.
“Mumma?” said, my daughter. I did not even turn around. I said, “No you can’t drink tea every day! And we all get to eat pakoras only when Mumma decides!” My daughter scowled and said, “You knew what I wanted?” I smiled at her but said with a firm voice, “Yes. I do know you both. Very well. You have another hour before you work on your assignment. What do you want to do in that hour?” She looked at me glumly for a while and then said, “Aw. The weather is so beautiful. Who would want to do homework on days like these?” I looked at the clock pointedly and said nothing. She paused for a while and then said, “Can we play snakes and ladders? I said, “Why not?”
My son became a dummy participant. He rolled the dice when it was his turn and we would move his pawn up and down the snakes and ladders board. We yelled in fury when we came sliding down a snake and clapped our hands in glee when we went up a ladder. Up and down, down and up we went till we all finally reached the number 100. My son was the last to finish the game.
But I was impressed by the way my daughter consoled him. She would motivate him to just toss the dice again when he slid down a snake and would cheer him when he went up a ladder. I looked at her quietly when she said, “It’s just a game Chinna. All is fine at the end. We all reach 100. But at different times and in different ways!” Of course, nothing, not even winning or losing, made any sense to my son. He just played along with us.
I looked at the happy dreamy exhausted faces of my children as I tucked them into bed that night. Yes, it had been a lovely day. Full of surprises. An unexpected day off from my part-time job. Schools had shut down unexpectedly due to the heavy rains that were lashing our town. I smiled to myself.
Life was really like a game of snakes and ladders. For all of us. I had given up a beautiful job with a great five-figure salary because I had wanted to spend as much time as possible with my kids. There were times when I was totally frustrated. I had been the head of HR in my firm. People reported to me. And now all I did was cook, clean and take care of my kids. Those were the times when I slid down the snakes in my mind.
But today, I had moved directly to 100 through a single ladder. We had seized a handful of time for ourselves and had locked it away in our hearts forever. I just had to dip into this happy memory whenever I felt sad and a smile would instantly adorn my face. Today, I felt happy being ‘just’ a mother.
I sat on the rocking chair and waited for my spouse’s call. He was away on a short business trip. I knew him very well. He was my best and truest friend after all. He would listen to me in silence first, then fret and fume for a long while. He would ask me if I was crazy to do things like that in his absence. We would bicker for a while. He would give me a strict order after that saying that I was never to indulge in antics like these with the children! But he knew I would ignore him and do exactly the opposite. He will never admit it to me or to himself even. But I know deep down he too feels happy when all of us are happy. I hugged myself tightly as I went to bed that night. I could feel the smile of contentment on my face.
- Snakes and Ladders is actually an old Indian board game created by the saint-poet Gyandev. It was originally known as Moksha Patam/Parama Padam/Vaikunthapalli or Gyan Chaupar. It reinforces concepts like Karma, Kama and Moksha! It helps us understand that all the things that we desire may never happen. Sometimes Destiny just takes over. In the original game, the ladders represented virtues like faith, generosity, humility etc. while the snakes represent vices like lust, anger, jealousy etc. The last square represents Moksha/liberation!
- Devotees of Vishnu play this game on Vaikuntha Ekadashi because it helps them stay awake all through the night.