"Ha-ha-ha!” laughed Rahul. “How can s-stut-tering Kar-ran even think of being a debater? You can’t even say your own name, forget taking part in debates!

“B-be quiet, R-Rahul.” stuttered Karan, with a tear falling from his usually bright brown eyes, like a raindrop down his cheek. He still didn’t get used to people teasing him.

He walked slowly to the bus, opened his favourite book, sat in a corner, away from all the happy, talking children who seemed to ignore him, and started reading. He just couldn’t understand. Why do I, of all people, have to get this speech disorder? Just because I can't speak in a way that others do, I have to miss out in so many things of my life! He was bullied by Rahul and other people as if he was not intelligent, even though he was smart and he had a problem in his voice, not his mind.

He had dreams ever since he watched TV to become an anchor of a big television show when he grows up, but people like Rahul kept coming in his way. For instance, once he was making a new friend in the park when Rahul interrupted the conversation and said things like, ‘Don’t make friends with him, he can’t even speak.’ or ‘He doesn’t know anything, and he has no friends.” which made Karan cross.

He longed for the summer holidays to come again, as then he could play endless games of chess with Astha, who was in Karan’s class, lived near his house and liked playing with him, as he was a good sport and a sincere friend, although Karan usually won. 

The sun was shining brightly, and the radiant red roses seemed to be smiling as Karan was playing chess in school, when Rahul interrupted Karan and Astha’s match and said, “Want to see me win?’ with a smirk on his face.

“I’d l-love to see y-you lose.” said Karan, with a smile.

Karan moved first, with a confident face, while Rahul’s still had a sneer. Rahul lifted a pawn, Karan moved his knight, Rahul put his bishop near the former’s pawn and Karan got scared that his knight would get sacrificed. He got nervous and looked for Astha. There she was, cheering him on while everyone else chanted Rahul’s name. Karan got motivated to win, put his mind to work and saw he could easily save his knight. Rahul thought for a while and moved his king. 

Karan almost killed Rahul’s bishop, but he put his queen in front of it to save it. Karan thought for a minute and then realized that his rook could get sacrificed. He quickly moved his rook and his opponent glared as he moved his pawn.

Karan looked at the former, who was thinking deeply, and shrieked, “Ch-chec-ck!”

Rahul had no choice but to let his queen be killed, after which Karan softly said, looking at his opponent’s scowl, “Check-mate!”

“And the winner of this match is Karan Singh. Congratulations, Karan.” said the chess teacher.

Everyone congratulated the boy and clapped until he said, “You kn-know, I am n-no d-different from y-you. J-j-just b-because I st-stutter d-doesn’t m-mean I d-don’t have a sharp m-mind or c-can’t w-win at anything. E-everyone has eq-qual q-qualities, but p-people use them d-differently. I-I love chess, so I w-worked h-hard with det-termination and w-won. E-even y-you can b-become k-kind and t-top in class, but you d-didn’t ch-choose that path. As someone r-rightly s-said, ‘Never judge a b-book by its c-cover.”