'Hitchhiker's Game', 'Guide' and Games People Live

There is a wonderful story by Czech writer Milan Kundera in which a couple is driving. Journey is long and monotonous. To make it a little interesting, the girls thinks of a game. She would act as a hitchhiker and ask for a lift. And then they would continue like they are two strangers meeting for the first time this way. And the game starts. Both of them don't realize when they have stopped playing a game and the game has started playing with them. For reader it’s a journey through diverse, and often conflicting, human emotions. A drama of real life, temporarily called 'game'.

There was a very famous Hindi movie titled 'Guide'. In this the hero is jailed for a crime. After completing his jail term he is out free and wandering here and there without purpose. He wanders into a famine struck area. The village he walks into is facing total water scarcity and is looking into calamity. His attire, his demeanor make the village take him as some kind of Godman. They had given up all hope from earthly things and were feeling that only divine miracle could save them. He tries to convince them that he is no Godman, on the contrary he is a freed convict. But desperate villagers did not want to let go off their only ray of hope. Looking at their desperation, their absolute haplessness, he relents to act up as Godman. He had not realized that it would be a path of no return. From then on he was a mere pawn in the game that the fate was playing with him.

Keep away these dramatic examples. Unknowingly we give birth to so much of drama. Many a times it starts with noble intention, many times intentions are selfish or mean. Whatever be the intentions, as we start getting more and more engrossed, it becomes more and more difficult to differentiate whats in the game and whats out of it, what is life and what is just a game, who is playing and who is played. Master does not realise when he became slave of his mastery. That’s why Kahlil Gibran has warned freedom seekers to 'be free even from the thought of freedom', lest the thought itself will bind you. Unknowingly you may get enslaved by your obsession of freedom.


Lovely was the game I played
Enchanting was the game I played
Enthralling was the game I played
Enslaving was the game I played
Slave of my own self