Game - 9: ".........."

"The most contemptible thing about dreams is that everyone has them. In the dark, the errand boy dozes away the day as he leans against the lamp post in the intervals between chores, immersed in thoughts about something or other. I know what he's daydreaming about: the same dreams I plunge into between entries in the summer tedium of the utterly still, silent office."

                                                                                           - Fernando Pessoa


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                                                                                                                     ..........!

Well, after that erudite analysis of game- 9, which incidentally was a Berlin Defence, it is time for a nice story!!

Once a traveller went to a hotel asking for a room. The manager said, "Sorry sir, we do not have any room vacant."  The man looked at the room register and found a room lying vacant and requested for that room.  The manager replied, "We will not be able to give you that room as a very fussy person is staying underneath that room.  He creates such a fuss at the slightest noise or anything he hears down below in his room. Because of him, we have left the upper room vacant and we will not be able to persuade him as he is one of our regular customer and he prefers the same room."

"You don't have to worry," said the traveller. "I will be out all day, busy in the market, and won't be back until eleven or twelve at night. When I return I will go straight to bed because I have to catch a train at three in the morning. I will hardly be in the room for three hours. There is no chance of my being a disturbance to your guest. Moreover, it is good that you have told me so I will be extra careful."

The traveller got the room, freshened up and left for work. He returned back at midnight, exhausted from the day's work. He sat down on the bed, removed a shoe and threw it carelessly on the floor. As it hit the floor, he suddenly remembered that the person sleeping in the room below might be disturbed. So he quietly placed the other shoe on the floor and went to sleep.

After about an hour there was a knock on the door. He opened the door and saw a man standing there, trembling with rage.

The traveller was afraid....in the middle of night, darkness all around, and this man is standing full of rage. "Have I done something wrong, Sir?", the traveller asked.

The man said, "Wrong? What about the other shoe? The first one fell, so I thought you have returned. But then what happened to the other shoe? I can't fall asleep. The other shoe is hanging over my head. I waited for an hour and since there was no sign of it, I thought of better asking you to get rid of it, so that I can go to sleep."

Osho narrated this story and added, "Everyone has the other shoe waiting to drop, the shoe of negation: that has to be dropped."

This match is slipping away too fast and is progressively getting insipid. We are not concerned about results, but holding on to oneself and not letting go is a concern.  This clinging....this holding on to whatever...., is playing a spoil sport. The shoe has to be dropped!

We haven't seen the best of both yet....

.....and we remain, waiting for....