The slightly younger man calls the older “Baba,” though they're not related, and tells a young boy who's watching nearby, “He is very good. Watch what he does now!”
The older man smiles at the distraction, disguised as a compliment. He knows his opponent’s tactics well; they've met on this battlefield every Sunday for the past six years.
The battle is chess, and the players are Rashid Mughal and Mohammed Shirzad, two men from different worlds who have forged a lasting friendship in this game and in this city.
In another life, Shirzad was a history professor in Kabul, Afghanistan, where he lived with his wife and daughter. Two sons were working abroad. When Russia invaded his homeland, everything changed.
“I knew my sons could never come home while the Russians were there,” says Shirzad.
Worse still, since he refused to join the Communist party, Shirzad feared for the safety of his wife and daughter at the hands of Russian soldiers.
“It was not easy to escape, but I had some savings and I got passports for my family,” he says. “I also got permission to go to India for medical treatment for my daughter.”
The family never returned to Afghanistan.
In 1992, they arrived as refugees in Montreal, where both sons lived. For the first time in more than 10 years, the family was reunited. They relocated to Mississauga in 1995.
“I think about Afghanistan every day,” Shirzad says. “But only the good things — the busy markets, the friendly people. I miss the fruit most of all. You just pick it from the trees and eat it!”
In the same year Shirzad fled Afghanistan, Mughal and his family fled their homeland of Kenya. It wasn’t an occupying army that made them leave, but painful memories.
The first blow was a violent coup in 1982. Mughal, a journalist for The Daily Nation newspaper, had to flee his home and go into hiding.
“We rebuilt our lives after that,” he says. “But something deep inside me died that day and I began to think of leaving.”
An even worse ordeal was to come. In 1988, Mughal’s oldest of three children contracted myocarditis and died. He was 18 years old. Mughal’s parents both died later that same year. The family decided to leave Kenya soon after.
“We chose Canada because we felt drawn to Canadian society and values. I felt Canadian even before I became a citizen,” says Mughal. “I have never been back to Kenya. It would be too painful.”
During his first winter in Canada, Mughal slipped on ice. He didn’t hurt himself, but told his family, “Now I know why they call it landed immigrant.”
They laughed for the first time since their terrible loss. The family has lived in Mississauga for 11 years.
Both men have fond memories of flying kites as children.
“It was like in the movie, The Kite Runner,” Mughal says. “We made a paste with ground glass for our kite strings.”
Shirzad goes one better.
“We made our own marbles by grinding down rocks in the hip socket of a sheep.”
Six years ago, Mughal regularly played chess with a friend at a coffee shop. He often noticed a man watching the game through the coffee shop window.
“I just thought he was waiting for a bus,” Mughal says. “But the buses came and went, and this man was still there. So one day, I invited him in. He proved to be a worthy opponent.”
Mughal and Shirzad have been friends, and chess rivals, ever since.
“I like to play chess so that my mind doesn’t go to sleep,” says Shirzad.
Back at Erin Meadows Community Centre, new challengers are welcomed; Mughal always brings extra boards and pieces.
