[Applause] hello viewers welcome to topn TV with you today is teacher emis jabani a teacher of English and literature an examiner as well as an author this session you're going to look at our last story in the anthology of short stories a silent song and other short stories and we are going to look at the story uh check made by Kevin bosin so who is Kelvin who is this other who has written this story check me so he was born in Trinidad and uh clearly that's where uh the story is set so he's born he was born in Trad in the year 1963 uh he was a newspaper uh columnist as well as a humanist involved in many social issues and uh he has worked as a journalist for over 25 uh years so our Learners this session we are going to look at uh the plot analysis of this short story Checkmate and obviously we are going to do it our way that is the episodic way so here we can say that we have uh two or three episodes we have divided this story into three episodes the first one is at the bank the second episode is uh at sukria apartment and then the other one is uh inside uh randol's office so at the bank we look at what happens at the bank sukia is a corporate secretary in rand's rando's company this a company that Rando and actually inherited from his father and he was the CEO or or he was running this company so who is sukia sukia is a corporate Secretary of Rand uh rand's company and this is a company that Rand had inherited from his father so when she began she began just like a May a lawyer because she had done law as a first degree but she later alone uh Advanced her studies and did accounting so she was promoted later into uh an accountant or uh ACC corporate secretary by Rand and also uh salary had to uh go up so at the beginning of this story we see sukia at the bank a local Bank in Trad going to deposit some checks so these were some of the checks that she uh had received from the company that were in her name and so she was going to deposit them in a local savings account in Trinidad so we are told that every time they engaged in any business transaction she would get like a kickback from the company that were paid to her directly uh through use of check Rand did not believe in electronic uh uh means he not believe in technology so he always believed that uh paying in check was the right way to go he had Leed us so much about about uh cyber crimes as well as watch enough movies to know that actually someone can easily clear his business account so to avoid that he had always opted for the analog way so he paid people using uh checks on this particular day she was going to deposit check but before I go that let me mention that she could be paid depending on the kind of business that they engaged in if it was a a local business with local investors then the pay would come in form of uh Trinidad dollars if it was an international investor then she sukia would receive checks in the US dollars so now she didn't like going to the bank so she would hold on this hold on to these checks for some months before carrying all of them to the bank to go and deposit them so she got into this habit of putting all the checks that were in the US Dollars and all the checks that were in the uh Trinidad do in the same drawer so on this particular day she was going to deposit the checks that were in the Trinidad dollars because uh these ones are deposited in Trinidad into a savings account that she uses to pay the mortgage for her uh apartment a two-bedroom apartment as well as pay uh monthly bills and utilities then she had another International uh account in Cayman kayman Island where she would fly uh after every two months to go and deposit uh all are checks that were in the US currency so on this particular day she was going to deposit uh the local checks but there was this particular check she had eight checks in number but there was this particular check that she did not check twice because of the amount of uh money that was indicated there it was 5 million so without thinking she assumed there is no way it can be5 million us because million us is such a huge sum of money uh for R Rand to give her so she just assumed that it is 5 million Trinidad dollars which cannot raise eybrows so she carried all the checks to the bank and as she deposited it is the clerk at the bank actually who made her aware that one of the checks was in US currency that is US dollars so she's shocked and uh she decided to play cool because she does not want to expose a business and she does not want to deal with the manager because the manager will put one plus one together and come with uh some educated guesses so why is she afraid first of all why is she afraid of dealing with the manager we are two that sukia gets uh 50,000 has a monthly salary and that is the monthly salary that is on the books and that is taxable and this money goes Direct into a savings account so if you are to check a savings account the money that goes there genuine money that goes there is 50,000 Trinidad dollar every month but we are told in a in a duration of uh 67 years she had accumulated lots of savings that she was now talking about millions millions of money in a uh savings account so she was afraid that this manager will be able to wonder how a person who gets 50,000 Trinidad dollars is able to accumulate all this huge amount of money in just six years so to avoid that kind of scrutiny she avoids dealing directly with the manager and just deposits money and let it stay there if it's not paying the mortgage and other monthly utilities the money is just left there because she has no other expenses that uh she can use the money for reason being everything else that has to do with her is paid for by the company so even the clothes that she wears going to the salon uh everything is paid for using the company's credit card so uh let's go back now to a incident with the clerk so the clerk advices are can we open the US dollar account so that you deposit this check that's when now it hits her what do you mean and then the clerk tells her that the check that you have year is of5 million us if it is converted to tr Trinidad dollars then it is 30.2 Trad uh dollars and we can't just deposit that amount of money into a savings account unless we open a US dollar account for you and of course if that happens she has to like uh provide the sources of uh that money so uh she plays it cool and uh tells the clerk that she would be back uh the following day to open the US dollar account but that was not the case it came as a shock to sukia she's wondering why would Randal write her such a huge or a hefty check for no apparent reason so um she deposits the rest of the checks and heads back home to uh with plans to go and uh actually approach Randall and get answers to all the questions that you going through a mind and now that takes us to our second um episode at the apartment so throughout we are taken in details description of her car of um all the material possessions that she had she was a rich girl she was someone who was actually amongst the highest paid in the country so uh she was even driving a new AUD Audi uh SUV and uh we are told all that has been paid for by the company so she gets to apartment and before she gets to apartment she's actually considering or deliberating between should I keep this money and keep quiet about it deposit a check and keep quiet about it or should I go back to the office and ask Rand to explain what this money is about so uh she's actually thinking about how deposit that money will actually help her investments in London she can actually do some pairs in some of her houses in London and so on but she decides to actually find out from Lando what the money was for f before depositing the check so she goes back to a house because she intends to uh change she says that she needs to uh confirm that actually all the calculations and all the mathematics actually t as well as change that she can go and see Rando looking professional so she goes to her office gets into a study and logs in into a computer and according to her all the mathematics all the details all the dates all the amounts T so there is nothing that looks a Miss uh she then takes all the checks the the local checks the international checks and decides that uh she should compare them and sees that actually everything Telles nothing looks a m and then decides to find answers from Rand she goes changing into her money blue suit and a pink C and then decides that instead of carrying the check maybe she can carry just one and that is now when looking at the check spred all over study table that is when now the problem or realization eats her she realizes that there's something wrong and it was such a so small such a small detail that it was very difficult for someone to point out uh on on a first Grands so at a first gr so she sees that there's something wrong with these checks and that's when she notices that the signatures don't match uh every check has a different signature they all very close to rand's uh signature but they are different also the one that was closest to his official signature was the check with now 5 million but still there was some slight difference between that check the signature on that check and this the this the okay or rand's official signature so armed with that information now she carries all the checks and goes to she had earlier on booked an appointment with Margaret that is rand's secretary so that she can talk to Rand during lunchtime so when she gets to rand's office now that takes us to our third episode and when she gets there we told that Rand was a serious person who does not actually believe in nities and so on so he believes in going straight to the point and soon does suia so he has her what of what help can he be and uh then or how can he help her and uh sukia go straight to the point and ask her him why he had eaten written him that check r f of smiles and says I thought you had already accepted the money and deposited the check but anyway since your ear it tells her the truth since you're here it's on the books it's appreciation for the good work you've done with it then deal and of the books it's to buy your loyalty keep your mouth shut so suia is wondering why do I have to keep my mouth shut yeah it is her work to draw the contracts for the company it is a work to come up with the contracts but everything she wrote on that contract on that deal the information came from Rand so he was the one who gave her the the price ranges for the shares and what R giv her is what she quoted on them contract now she's wondering why does she have to keep her mouth shut that's when now Rando explains to her that actually yes you quoted the figures that I gave you but technically that figure undervalued undervalued the value for the shares by 50% and that is what is called fraud so uh Suk is like okay fine it undervalues the shares and it's fraud but and you also in incriminated in this kind of all incriminating yourself also as well because uh both our signatures are there and Nando says that she is the one who draw the contract it is not him who the contract so uh Clearly sukia Now begins to understand what is going on there so uh she gives him all the other checks and talks about the signature and uh Rand laughes at her Rand is like yes uh even the signature that you're seeing is closely similar to mine is actually not Rand tells suia that the company is on the verge of going backy uh so to save himself he ended up being uh the clever one how is he the clever one uh so remembers at some point where they had lots of documents they were signing rand's pen ran out of ink and EM borrowed sukia pen and he has never returned it you see those signature pens that can be associated with an individual so he bu suk's pen and he has never returned it so he has been used suk's pen to fch his own signature so according to when investigations are okay if investigations are carried out it will look like sukia used a horn pen to fch rand's Signature so uh Rand says that since the company is on the V of uh going bankrupt then he had to save his own skin in case Auditors come and investigations are carried out it will look like uh other people someone like sukia are the people committed flaud and the reason why the company was going uh backuped so it hits sukia so hard the Betrayal is so strong that she even starts crying so Rand actually in a sarcastic way tells her not to worry because uh the people in the court don't understand financial matters and so the case will not go far but um he also uh tries to exploit her or the situation that she was in because now she was vulnerable and uh we are told that in the past he had actually made advances on her but he had actually denied refused to uh give him to his advances but now he could she could see that he was looking at hero and she takes advantage of that situation to beg him to help her that is now when he realized that she was vulnerable and he tries to uh exploit her sexually by telling her to go where uh he was and kneel down before him so unknowingly to Randall sukia was recording all that with the iPhone so when the iPhone beats she takes it out and uh presses a button and Rando could hear himself talk talking about uh on the books this is the money to appreciate your uh you for the Me No Deal half the records then this is the money to keep your mouth shut so he had actually uh incriminated himself by speaking without knowing that it was being recorded So now at the end sukia has the upper hand he has this recording that is incriminating Randol and so Rand is now feel the first time he stands feeling hopeless because he's at the mercy of sukia so sukia goes and sits on a window sill and tells him to go and kneel uh in front of mistress and thus uh the title checkm now let's look at now looking at the plot analysis how relevant is this title Checkmate to our story so you can look at two approaches to say that the title is uh relevant one the title is symbolic it is symbolic of the game of chess the game of chess where all through Rand thought that he had an upper hand and Herer hand and that he could actually control sukia and actually at the end of it all emerge Victorious but at the end of the game sukia gives him a Checkmate it she turns the all the whole uh episode or the whole thing around by just using overw what are recording th Checkmate in reference to the game of chess we can also say that it is suitable to the story because it is checkmate with the spelling of the check that Financial uh document or financial book so Rando believed in pain for every deal using a a check because a check were the safest method according to uh him of paying his employees so um we can also argue from that and since he insisted on paying checks and secured so many checks um both International and local checks that she needed to deposit and the story revolves around checks that were actually a source of forgery where Rand would Forge his own signature so the story is revolving around checks that are are used by Rand to pay his employees so we can also say from that perspective or that angle that the title is also to the story so uh that marks the end of our first episode plot analysis and how relevant the title is to the story then we are going to have another episode where we are going to look at the issues that emerge in this story as well as one of the essays that we have on uh this English Guru an essay from the story Checkmate until next time bye-bye what