Snakes and Ladders

Remember that board game with ludo on the opposite side... all you needed was a dice , an opponent and those flat colored dots to represent you on the board. Well it would be hard to believe that somebody of our generation didn't play that one. The game had a start and a finish point with a 100 steps ... lots of ladders and as many snakes... colored , spotted/striped snakes with fangs and that forked tongue ready to gobble your dot and shift you through there long tortuous body to a far far lower square .... eating up all your lucky dice throws. The ladders were the high points .. I loved the one which took you straight to the nineties row... Snakes and ladders was the more adventorous version of the Ludo game which is also was about reaching the destination. You raced your opponent without being eaten up by the snakes. Anyways in this video games era the little ones would give me a look of disdain if I suggested a board game like that and would be labelled uncool for sure. But somehow today the game flashed in my head as I tried to see it through a different looking glass. Life sometimes is like that game of snakes and ladders. A twist of luck and you achieve the unexpected though it happens as infrequently as the ladders in the board game. The Snakes are more real in this harsh competitive world today. All your hard work can turn to dust in a second and you are back to square one. But what is the game all about... to my eyes it is all about rising up after falling down...but in totality it's about rising .... ladders are the obvious means but snakes are the hidden ones.... cos once you fall you rise .. it's inevitable...but you have to be willing enough to throw the dice again...
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