Snake and Ladder. One of my favourite games during childhood. It consists of a square board with numbers from 1 to 100, with 10 in each row. Lots of snakes and ladders in between the numbers. Some small and some significant.
Each player is given a pawn, so to speak, and based upon the roll of dice, the player can move his pawn correspondingly to the number on the dice. If he encounters a ladder on the resultant number on the board, he jumps to the number to which the ladder leads to. Similarly, if he encounters a snake on the resultant number on the board, he gets sucked down to the number where the snake's tail, so to speak, resides. With a number of snakes and ladders, it remains, to this day, one of the most fascinating games I have ever played.
There was one ladder, I think at number 12, which will take you to number 81! And there was one snake, I think at number 89, which will take you to number 13! These were the main attractions of the board game, as it stoud out tall amongst other minor ones. Once in a while I got the Number 12 ladder and once in a while I got the Number 89 snake, and it was fun to start all over again, and hoping competitors also get sucked by the huge snake!
Almost 20 years later, I feel I am playing this same game again. Except that it is no longer a board game. It is real life, with the Hand of Fate rolling the dice. I have been sucked in by the Number 89 snake more times than I care to count. Number 12 ladder seems to have vanished completely. Although there are promotions through some easy ladders, the setbacks are huge. And I realised how tough it is to start all over again....and how impossible it is to reach 100.
It is but truth that I find no fun to play this game any more...
2 comments:
Nice analogy! Life is a game...so we need to be a sport!
um.. good.. nice article and nice comparison to snake board game...
well I think, if you reach number 100, you would have nothing else in life.. it is the end...getting down at number 89 to 13, will give us a chance to reach 100 again, also gives us many possibilities of reaching 100, the possibility that we had not thought of earlier, when we reached 89. the options of climbing the smaller ladders, going different directions still following the life's order. All are options, that life offers! Offers of good, bad and yes at some point in life we would reach beyond the number 89 where one would expect satisfaction and bliss :)....
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