The Last Gambit

by Om Swami

‘How does it feel to be the next world champion?’ a journalist asked me. This was a question I had dreamed of being asked for nine long years. All the fun I had missed out on, the effort I put in, all the defeats I faced, struggles I went through – the sole objective of it all was that one day I would be on stage, with many people peeking through their cameras, some holding voice recorders in their hands, some taking notes, when someone would get up, point his pen at me and ask me this question. I cleared my throat. ‘Imagine that you spend years and years of your life digging a tunnel. While eating, sleeping, bathing, resting, working, that’s all you think about – your tunnel. That’s all you work on. Your tunnel becomes your life. Your friends, peers and others keep excelling in life, they continue to flourish and progress, while you are chiselling away, one blow at a time, stuck in that tunnel. Your friends move into new houses and buy bigger cars, while you continue to pinch pennies. ‘You remain soiled, hungry, lacking, even poor, but you don’t give up because you believe in your dream. You only have hope that one day you’ll see the other end of this tunnel, but you can’t be sure. You cry, you laugh, you struggle, resist, battle, you feel depressed at times, but you keep pushing, and pushing, and then one day your blow has a different sound. It’s not as full, you feel just a thin layer separating you from the outside. Your heart throbs in anticipation. You hit harder and...