Playing Cards

Do I play cards? The typical playing cards? Nope!

Why?

If l look back to my childhood, I have never seen my dad playing cards. Nor did I see his brothers (my uncles) play.

Somehow playing cards got linked to ‘bad guys’ in me. In many movies, I saw police chasing the card players and thus may be that ‘feel’ got more reasons to think so.

I grew up.

Society had/has good and bad people around us. I observe people. Some of my classmates used to steal minor things like pen etc. A friend of mine used to ‘steal’ stuffs during school science exhibitions.

I grew up

I met different people. Some even had criminal records. I still remember a neighbor of mine getting arrested and then that guy escaping from the police van. He had something to do with drugs and it is said that he had some connection with a prostitute. I saw (knew all of them personally, since I was a social worker too) many guys who steal tender coconut at night. I observed some of my old buddies who parted away from me and joined other gangs who were into drinks and smoking.

I grew up.

I got acquainted with people who evade tax. Who’s first option for everything is ‘out of the way’ approach. I met people who used to make duplicates of popular brands. I saw who misused passports, I saw people who used to stamp forged stamps on passports.

If I make a list of all those people who had some criminal mind, did actual crimes, or were into drinking and list out their interests,one thing was common. They all played cards. This is not an assumption, but an observation. I think if we extend this study to jails, we will get more solid data.

This doesn’t mean that all who play cards are bad. But the reverse thing. Almost all bad guys play cards. And one thing I observed is, those who play it for fun just plays and those who had some criminal mind always did some gambling. Or there was a money aspect. I saw one guy, who wanted at least 25 paise (or one cent) get involved into it.

For me, card players looked like pests in trains..

Somehow I happened to see a connection between drinks, crime and cards. It was a gambling that lead to Mahabharatha war. Jesus might have taken wine for some reason(but not for fun or to get drunk). But ever heard of his playing cards or gambling? I think he kicked out such people from the place of worships. Same should be the case with Mohammed, though I have no idea. He might not have even taken drinks. Rama is mentioned as ‘Purushotham’ or the ideal man. He never was into any such things, same with Buddha……

We always have chess and caroms competitions from school level. But we won’t see a card competition neither in schools nor in colleges…Why?

These kinds of observations and thoughts could be a major reason why I did not show any interest in cards. And then, by nature, I like physically active games.

Let me say it again. I did not say everyone who play cards are criminals. But if we closely look, we would see that majority of the criminals, cheaters and drunkards show interest in cards, irrespective of from which part of the world they are from……