A couple of unanswered questions

A couple of unanswered questions 

This is a story of a man who fettered and jostled with troubles, losses and roamed around the world to find answers to some open questions like why life happens, why is it we get hard times, why few people get lucky and others suffer and many more like those. His questions were simple and many had spoken on them including vedas and religious books but each of them had their own theory. He was confused which answer should he choose because every answer fitted to a particular situation and none seem to work every time. One fine day, he was in the process of seeking answers. He was discussing his thoughts with an old man, who listened to him and then replied - ''Son, the best way to know all the answers is to know the answer to one question - what are life's most priceless possessions and the way to know this is to stop seeking an answer and start living and one fine day you will get all your answers". The man was quite mesmerized by the idea and decided to give it a try but he had a few questions. He said to the old man - "Sir, but what if I end up living and never find an answer", to which the old man smiled and said "Maybe yes, but then you shouldn't have had to find it in first place, but this is very unlikely". So as the old man suggested, the man went back and started living his life again. This time he considered he was given a second chance and made best efforts to do to whatever he can and avoid troubles and make his life better. He had a tough time realizing the fact that it wasn't easy the second time and he had to try more to achieve the balance, there were losses but then there were profits as well and things had to be balanced. At times of loss he would have to substitute what he had at times of win and at times of win he would have to think if he has had sufficient to substitute if there was a loss in future. Gradually his business began to stabilize and things sort of balanced out. There were losses, there were gains but it seemed he had understood how to deal with them. They were not unexpectedly too high or too low and seemed to have settled out to a level which promised gradual growth. One fine day, the man was able to get the answer to his question. At first he had lost faith in people, when he was winning all were by his side but when he was losing very few were walking with him. He started loosing trust in people, and going forward, it became difficult for him to understand whom to trust and whom not to. Because of all this he went through a tough time, his health diminished. When he started the second time, he took caution as to whom he should have faith on, his previous failures were his source of teaching all the time. He took care of maintaining his health. Since a considerable time was lost already, he took care not to waste his time on things which were trivial or did not matter. He focussed on building trust, staying healthy and managing time effectively. At times when he used to find himself strayed out he subsided and called upon his close friends or relatives to serve as a source of strength and synergy. He knew now what were life's priceless possessions - time, trust and health. Life was a journey which perfected him in how to balance them to have a stablized path which gradually lead to his upliftment. The desire to live was the binding factor which kept his mind focussed in the direction of attaining this balance, but the most important thing was that on an average all the things held equal importance. Although in the journey some carried more and some less of a focus at a particular point of time. During the journey, things were simplified once he had formulated a certain set of principles which were outputs or results based on his experiences. This set of principles were more or less governed and guided by a super set of rules as stated in various vedas and religious books. They always served as guidlines on whatever best he could do to maintain the balance but never were the final words. In other words, it was him who decided what would be the best decision based on the situation. His subconscious all the time connected with what was known as the feedback process, through which he was connected with others on an overall basis. This synergy served to alter the overall behaviour of the people known and near him and formed a subset of a kind of ecosystem which resonated back to the universe. Well, this was ever-changing, and the change was based on how all the people were connected and using it. Gradually, that was the point where he now knew that he was not alone and was a part of something much bigger, he had to work on purpose to make things better and streamlined because whatever he does/act upon would come back to him at a later point of time. This would also be carried forth to other people connected or not connected to him. In short, he understood that although life's most priceless-less possessions were somehow the most important possessions not only to him but to the human existence. Well, this was something new which he discovered. He remembered the old man and what he said, and was contented that he got all his answers.

 -- By Max Mohan.

Message on Deepawali!

Situations which let us down in life are like world's finest training centres or vaccinations which give you a chance to practise your grounds on preparing for bigger ones coming down with a mark of calm and confidence.
Deepawali is the time to rejuvenate and reflect the sense of spirit where all such moments have given us all a chance to celebrate at a later stage in life, to undeter from the determination which guides our path to success.
To share what we achieve among those who are unfortunate or still in the process of learning.
It is a time which marks a milestone on our lifes' and gives us strength to continue the journey at a bigger better refreshed and faster pace.
But of all, it is the time to cherish all this with a grand celebration with people who make it happen!

 -- Wish all a Very Happy,Prosperous & Joyful Deepawali! --

Summoned by nature - on the nature trail.

Summoned by nature - on the nature trail

In the corporate world, Friday is usually a day adorned and awaited by many, relaxed by the so called assumption of the approach of the weekend and relieved by the fact that all which is left out has a monday to it to worry over. A thought of a break from the five day burn out and stress is all what is needed from this day and all preparations towards the later part of the day are focussed to achieve that break. Although, the friday of 2012, Aug 24th was not one of those when it started. Heavy chains of work had anchored the day to keep the ship laden with work from swaying over the thought of the coming weekend, a lot had to be achieved and attention span had to be focussed towards completion. It was at 4 o clock in the evening, that the day's events took a U turn as the team announced the strong desire to spend moments of relaxation by watching a movie. This meant that all work had to be completed and systems had to be shut down latest by five since the show started at six. Plans were made and quickly everyone left, the theatre was a long way down. The road was stomped with traffic and was exclaiming with desperation. We set out in towards the destination, by the time we reached it was almost fifteen minutes past, and some of the movie was lost. Another two hours, it finished and then we all had dinner which took a bit long, because of a fluster of events which proved to be good at the end. Transportation took another hour an a half and it was already 12:30 in the morning of next day before I reached home. It was a long day, which had become shorter by the thought of an early awakening for the big event that day - an amble amidst the nature. The alarm rang, and before the realisation of the new day crept in, the hustle to get ready started its rage.

Before I knew it, I was standing on the bus stop, supposedly the last pick up point on the trip, awaiting for the bus to the destination to arrive. I was lucky to have gained the extra minutes on sleep, although hardly noticeable to me, since I was boarding from the last pick up point. The bus arrived, and the three quarter of a dozen of our bunch started getting in. To my amazement, the whole bus was nearly filled up, there were only a few set of seats which were empty. I took a seat preferably next to the one near the window to enjoy the cool breeze and sunny weather the day had bought up. With no traffic on the rather relaxed roads, the bus raced across flyovers and tolls to reach the 'Fountain Hotel' a premiere landmark for the entry gate of the Nagla block. It stopped just before a small patch of ground covered with all trees. The view of the highway was superb, to the right was the huge lake with calm waters, to the left at the farther end was a visible hilly patch covered with all greenery emerging out in an attempt, trying to showcase the joy of the season it was experiencing within. We all got down from the bus and could see a very small gate with a visible small trail of mud & stone covered road going up. We started climbing up the hill. It was a perfect weather, the sun was warm and bright, and the wind was just right to keep the warmth to a level which felt great, there were a few patches of dark clouds which were hovering here and there waiting for a chance to pour their heavy load of water to the earth.  We had all our gear ready which included - the camera's, the food packets which had just been distributed to us and the rather suddenly and randomly needed umbrellas as well. There was a first aid box with the group also which was kept in case required.  We split up into sets of three and started the ascent, each group having its own guide who could actively spot the natural wildlife and could give detailed information about it. It was a tranquil place with no pollution or sound of vehicles, traffic and people. As we walked into it , all we could hear was the chirping of birds, each having a distinct note which sounded wonderful. We had just begun and immediately we saw a wild hen with chicks walking past us, although I think it just noticed our footsteps and moved rapidly to hide into the green bushes. As we moved further, our guide and leader, immediately spotted a tree ant nest built by a single polydomous colony of ants. It was superb and rigidly built standing the heavy rainfall, direct sun or wind and was holding on to the tree firmly. Such nests were a marvel as they could stand like this for long times and house huge number of ants. As we moved on we saw a number of press me nots on the ground, which closed as we pressed their leaves which was spectacular. There were a huge number of butterflies each variedly coloured which were hovering round the woods and bushes. The guide stopped us immediately, he had spotted something which he wanted to show us, to one corner in the midst of tree leaves was a huge cob web. It was perfectly symmetrical and was woven with much care, at the centre of the web was sitting a well relaxed arachnid arthropod with bright yellow colour and black strips with a red huge dot at the back. It looked superb and was not noticeable from a layman's eyes. We immediately took out our cameras and started taking snaps of this wonderful living being. After a long session of photography we moved on, on the way we could see varied type of species of trees and plants which were not found commonly and were specific to this area. It was said that there were more than one hundred and fifty different type of plant species which were present in this bundle of natural beauty. One of the trees had a single branch eminenscing from it trying to reach the sky and was twisted to form a 'z' shaped figure with a single flower on the top. It looked quite exclusive. We saw spittle bug or spit bug, a bug which produces a cover of frothed-up plant sap resembling a spit. As nymphs they hide out in these foamy spit like substances. Some spits were quite big. As we traversed we could see numerous grasshoppers of all sizes camaflauging themselves in the midst of the deep greenery present in the trail. We took snaps of these as they looked quite wonderful. On the trail we saw a number of ginger root and turmeric trees. Some of these trees had flowers which looked spectacular. As we progressed up on the trail, we were greeted with a flock of red bees and flies which were hovering around green leaves of plants in the trail. As we moved further up on the trail, we were accosted by the much awaited downpour, a flock of clouds had gathered on the top of us and were coming down with a heavy downpour. Many resisted the temptation to get wet, although some couldn't. I wasn't in a mood to keep the camera inside and so tried to get a few snaps of the trail with the down pour, under the cover of an umbrella. On the way, we saw 'bombax malabarica', a tree which is well known in the Ayurveda world for its medicinal value. We also saw tall trees with thick branches, roots and shoots, winding and hanging from the top, which in the virtual world were used by tarzan to traverse from one place to another. They were huge and magnificant. On the way up we saw a tree with huge leaves which looked like a big brother of a banana leaf but had no bananas and had a structural similarity of a palm tree. Later we found that it was a palm tree species which looked like a banana tree. As we traversed up further, we could see long climbers and shrubs having fruit which resembled like small black grapes but were wild berries. We spotted a few wasps and grasshoppers here and there which seemed to have themselves well hidden in the confines of nature. We saw different spiders, some of them had a double web which looked like thick coiled wires woven around them in spirals extending into huge webs covering spans of trees. We saw a green reptile like insect which looked like a green viper patiently waiting for its catch. We tried to catch one to have a better look but it was damn quick and vanished in into the greater greener camaflouge in a blink of an eye. As we moved further, we saw various moths and harvester ant nests. They were so called because they have a habit of harvesting seeds . These nests are carefully built and are not affected by changing weather conditions and are guarded by soldier ants. We were lucky to see mating of butterflies, a rare sight quickly captured by many cameras. We saw a lot of small multicoloured bugs, wild mushrooms and a huge caterpillar. There was a huge bush and a tamarind tree from which we picked a few rain washed tamarinds to suit our tastes as we enjoyed the stroll. The rainfall stopped and we reached close to our destination, the small lake. We could see only water with hills at the far end, the view of this water body was excellent. We rested for some time in the tranquil of the clean environment and some of us munched on our lunch packets and took snaps of the beauty of nature before we continued our journey back. As a part of the eco friendly lot, we were cautious to just leave our footprints behind and carry all the rest back with us, and also may be do a little clean up drive as well, if possible. 

On the way back we were welcomed by a row of flowers which was again a snap site for many and a bunch of monkeys. The sun came up and it was rather bright this time. We hurried our way back to reach the end of the trail. The walk was quick, which ended on the highway. Having experienced and enjoyed the quite and clean environment moments back we found it acceptable to hear the sound of vehicles roaring on the highway. All were tired but happy and some of them had their belongings still drenched with rainwater. The buses came and we hurriedly got into the bus. The air felt like a cool breeze touching us with a lullaby in the midst of the day. In short, it was a wonderful trip and it made us realise the importance of the presence of nature and become aware of the fact of the steps to take to preserve it on this earth. 

Part 3 - The Unknown Story

Part 3 - The Unknown Story

When you are a part of an establishment where people change every now and then, it becomes  hard to make the decision whether to make new friends or to continue without much interaction. This dilemma becomes more prominent in people who commute for long hours every day to work and back. Although you a part of the group which you know goes through the same activity phase in transit, you still have that feeling of being secluded out, each and every passenger restricted to their own cocoons of activity. When you are knowing a person while you are travelling, you have a feel good factor of acquaintance in this familiar but strange unknown world of travel. For Sam, it was good to know that Stacy was there in the same train, at least he knew someone and was not doing the journey in a pseudo solo environment. Sam had always been a part of a set of people who were interested in people and always wanted to interact more with their acquaintances in order to know what they feel.  Now, was the time to get more familiar with Stacy, to talk to her and know her more. It is observed, as a part of people learning process, the moment you get to know someone, the human psychology always starts making guesses about that  person post their first impression and their mind wants to validate  whether those guesses hold true or not. In Sam's case, it was a different story, it was that feeling of finding a good friend that had propelled him to keep his voyage of discovery still sailing through.
                   Days passed and a day came when Sam was standing in the queue waiting for the train to arrive. There was a huge set of people and all were quite displeased with the delay that had happened which had extended their wait. The train came and people rushed in towards the compartment to get their seats. It was just in a matter of time that the whole compartment was flocked with people. Sam, as usual, was able to secure his seat of choice with a little effort. Although, he wasn't aware that in a few moments of time, the seat next to his would be taken by that not so friendly overly sized man. This happened and along with this another thing happened, the seat on which Stacy used to sit was filled in with people who were new to this hour of travel with a place for just one passenger left out still. It was about time for the train to move and there was no sign of Stacy. Probably, she was having a busy day and was going to take the next train. As the train was about to move, suddenly out of nowhere Stacy hopped in from the door before it closed. As soon as she entered, she smiled with a sigh of relief but this one was not for Sam. After getting in, Stacy hurried towards another different from her usual place of seating, Sam looked in that direction and saw a person standing to let Stacy get in. This person had managed to hold a seat for Stacy which, she quickly, went and took. Sam was happy that she got the seat finally. She sat down and exclaimed, "I thought, I would never catch it today", and a communication started which was interrupted a series of phone calls as well. Sam did not want to overhear the details but was a bit concerned that Stacy didn't seem calm today and was worried. The guy she was communicating with, Sam had never noticed him except for the fact that from a few days he was always in to secure a seat which was in the same line on which Stacy sat and also, that he had sat next to him one day but was unable to concentrate on the material he was reading through. Sam did not want to think much through this, partly because it wasn't his cup of tea and partly because the overly sized man did not give him an experience to think anything.
   The next day wasn't very good or comforting either. There was a business delegation which was visiting Sam's office for which he needed to be early in the office. This had given him a very small time to rest. This was to continue for a week, catching up in the morning after returning late was an activity by itself. Moreover, the next day, when he reached his firm, he was told that he would have to travel again to overseas for some very urgent business agenda within a month. The travel and stay was supposed to be long one. This is the part, he did not like about this industry, the time you think you are comfortable with the environment around you, it changes. Well, this news had left very few options. He had now very little time to plan out and decide whether he's going to take this chapter forward or let things continue in their own pace. He thought that it wasn't any harm in extending a conversation, after all, there needs to be some essence out of all this, and finally decided to speak to Stacy about this.
   The next day, a strange thing happened. Sam was busy with the delegation visit and hardly had time enough to think. He had a couple of errands to finish before he had a meeting to start with the delegation and so was quickly scanning his mails and sending and assigning tasks for his team to complete during the day. He drafted one such mail and sent it quickly to a team member. He didn't realise what he had done, until he gotta response back from the sender in questioning manner. He looked at addressee's name and was shocked with bewilderment, instead of Stacy Smith, he had sent the mail to Stacy Wagner. Well, 'Stacy Wagner' was nonetheless than the familiar face who used to travel in the train. Upon realising the error, he quickly responded an apology and confirmed if this was the same Stacy that use to travel in train to which he received an affirmative 'yes'. Sam wasn't happy, he had never thought that his next communication would go this way, although he couldn't do anything much either. He was thinking that he would call her up at a good time and  say something like this - 'Hi Stacy, it's been some time we have been going together and I feel we have spanned some connection between us. I have been finding it difficult to concentrate being aware of the fact that I just know your name and nothing more about you, in spite of the fact we have been travelling in the same commute for an year now. Going forward I have a busy routine and heavy tasks with responsibility which would need definite focus. Knowlegde of this fact has left me with a question of closure and I am finding it hard to concentrate. At this point of time, I really want to know if you are going or have gone through the same situational dilemma. Well, as of today, we have three options -

• Be friends, know more about each other in the time we have, if it's something similar to an infatuation perhaps, it'll get straightened out by itself,
• Do nothing about it - keep it going as it is, which is definitely not my cup of tea.
• Forget about all this - like this never happened and try not cross paths. what do you say?".

  This seemed like a lot of thought but it was all devastated by what Sam had done a few minutes back.
   The next few days were busy as usual for Sam and Stacy also went on a vacation, probably a break from work, since it was a small festive season.


End 1:
It was 7 o clock,  an early morning, and a brand new day was coming up. Sam told the kids - " You need to be ready to go your classes now".
"No, you can't leave the story like that, you need to tell us what happened?", came the reply from curious Jim, one of his elder brothers' son, aged six. Sam dispersed the gang of kids and promised to complete the story post evening dinner. The day went by and dinner time came, dinner was over and the kids were anxious to hear the remaining part of the story. Sam was pestered for completion of the story. Sam started on a low note - 
 A couple of days before he had to leave for the tour, he decided to go and talk to Stacy. Knowing know that she was also positioned in the same firm, he was able to make arrangements for a quick meet. The meeting happened and Sam, asked the questions which he had wanted to know the answers to. Stacy, was not sure and wanted to have another meeting. Sam waited for a few days and then decided that it was best to take option three but while he was busy with all this he had failed to notice that there was someone else in the train who was noticing him. A beautiful young lady, who wanted to know more about the book he was reading. They started to talk and slowly Sam realised she was having the same interests. They became good friends, and it's been over an year now and today Sam has come back from the business trip, he was planning to marry her and wanted to talk about it to his elder brother. Jim wanted to know what happened to Stacy. Sam said he had never seen her after that time but thinks what all had happened had some good sense to it. After all, it was she who had started all this which had kept him occupied and feel good at the time. If he met her in future he would definately like to thank her. Sam Cooks was happy he took a stand to clear out any confusions.


End 2:
It was 7 o clock,  an early morning, and a brand new day was coming up. Sam told the kids - " You need to be ready to go your classes now".
"No, you can't leave the story like that, you need to tell us what happened?", came the reply from curious Jim, one of his elder brothers' son, aged six. Sam looked at his watch, it was getting late and the kids had to be readied to go to school. Sam dispersed the gang of kids and promised to complete the story post evening dinner. The day went by and dinner time came, dinner was over and the kids were anxious to hear the remaining part of the story. Sam was pestered for the completion of the story. Jim asked - "Tell us more about what happened afterwards, did you guys meet again? What was Stacy's response? Did she too feel the same?". Sam was bombarded with questions, he told everyone to have patience and that he would answer them one at a time. He started with the turn of events that happened. 
 Sam had just a week before to go on to his overseas trip, one early morning he decided to hold an arrangement to have a meeting and talk to Stacy. She was in the same firm so it would not take much of their time either. He asked her the set of questions he was thinking about. On hearing the questions, Stacy had a serious look on her eyes, she stared at Sam as if she was a cop and he had done the most unworthy crime. Sam was frightened by that look. But before he could react to it or think anything about his response, her looked changed and a big smile took over just as if there was suddenly a pleasant weather post a huge storm. She said, it was a good idea, why not know each other. They talked and from the next day until Sam left for his trip, they talk a lot number of times.  Finally, they decided they were good friends. Sam had come back from the trip and wanted his elder brother and his wife to meet her. Jim was very much anxious about it, Sam had to bribe with a lot of chocolates to make Jim keep his quiet. Sam Cooks was happy, he took that decision, which had made things turn out good for both of them.

End3:

It was 7 o clock,  an early morning, and a brand new day was coming up. Sam told the kids - " You need to be ready to go your classes now".

"No, you can't leave the story like that, you need to tell us what happened?", came the reply from curious Jim, one of his elder brothers' son, aged six. Sam dispersed the gang of kids and promised to complete the story post evening dinner. The day went by and dinner time came, dinner was over and the kids were anxious to hear the remaining part of the story. Sam was pestered for completion of the story. He started on a thoughtful note -

Sam had got a short time span and a lot of activities to do on his plate. It was not uncommon and frequently happened in the field in which Sam was, your days were either too relaxed or too busy.  This was his set of busy days, but the only thing which was different was that he had very little time to think or brood over what was happening in his personal life. He wanted to get things cleared out but life was never so easy. It sometimes happens that when we are too engrossed professionally we set goals and take stuff from our lives in a manner to be completed with a plan but some things in life need reflection and patience. Making a plan and following it might not work out in all cases, you need to leave some activities down to be thought and imbibed on a different level and wait for the person at the other end to respond in order for things to go to the next level. Socialisation usually takes a different form when it comes to personal relations, people in different parts of the world have different tastes, some of them are marred by the expectation of a sudden change in their lives and usually want time to let those changes settle down to their routines and personal involvement. Others don't want any changes and are content with their routines and do not want any new surprises to come up, maybe that fills in perfectly with their way of life at this point of time. And still others put a lot of thought process to things which happen in their lives and make a decision that it is in the best interest of themselves to not socialise further. Stacy had mixed feelings, she was sort of alarmed by the fact, there was so much which had happened over the brief period of time and maybe wasn't sure if she was ready for things to change in the way it was going. Sam, as he thought, tried to communicate what he thought and where he was thinking this was going or would go, but Stacy wasn't sure if she was ready or maybe she wasn't ready at all.  Time passed and as it happened Sam got busy with the work he had on his plate. It happens when you want to be occupied a bit less, the work occupancy factor climbs the highest. Sam wanted some time for himself but couldn't fine any. It was long and he did not hear from Stacy. Moreover as Sam was occupied, he usually had to stay down and commute at odd times, and it was very rare he would see Stacy in the train. The known acquaintance look slowly took the form of a gazing stranger and started to turn dreadful. What's strange about human psychology is that it permits you to behave in strange ways and react much normally over very short spans of acquaintance level until you have an opinion about a person, but when you start knowing a person well, your opinion secretly climbs in and starts to make a difference in your gestures, even in the way you greet or not greet at all. Your subconscious suddenly fades away and your conscious mind starts to take decisions and it becomes complex and is limited to the aura of the only lightened thoughts. That is where you make a decision, form an opinion about someone and just go with that opinion. Before you realise your opinion becomes a guiding light and makes a huge impact on the final outcome. Whatever was happening with Sam  currently was perhaps the result of an opinion which had developed during the course of time which had followed. Time was well observant of the fact and did not give them a chance to collaborate on this. Sam tried a few times to talk to Stacy, but he did not have the luxury of the bandwidth of time and so decided to let things follow their own flow.  

Gradually he realised meeting people and socialising with them was not as easy as he had thought, or maybe the socialisation, or the moment was not opportune for him now. At this point of time, Sam definitely did not want to take a  decision which would act negatively or against the pace or thoughts of Stacy and that meant going with the flow was the best option. He wanted to see the same smile return on Stacy's face and this moment of confusion to pass. He realised things were not going the way he wanted but was happy that whatever he did made things clear between them and gradually Stacy would take a decision and be happy. Couple of days passed and he saw her from a distance, it appeared she was happy. Sam Cooks knew at this point of time, some things are good to leave as they were and sometimes it is good to take a decision in the best interest of the other person. It might be that people come into your life, just to make you understand something important, to fill in that unexpected gap which has crept in to your schedules, at the end it is important to realize what you have gained because of these people, rather than brood over the idea of thinking if you were able to make them an essential part of your circles or not.  He looked to the kids and said, this story might not be a story with a definable ending but it gives some important lessons which any one should learn during the course of their lives. Sam did what was in the best interest for him and Stacy, he cleared out his confusion and allowed Stacy to make the final decision and this had kept him contented. Later on Sam had to travel to the other location, he met a lot of people but this incident and learning had made him wiser and he found there was a certain level of quality which had kept into his selection of people. He read a lot of books in the meantime which had allowed him to socialise on a much better level, which helped him in his career further and even his personal life. Sam Cooks was happy that this all had taken place and grateful to Stacy Wagner for this lesson of his life.

The Unkown Story - Part 2

Part 2

Sam was delighted with the thought of having the knowledge of what his co-passenger's name was, it was a feeling similar to that of getting intrigued by a complete stranger and then understanding that you know that person well. They say, what's in a name. In today's world you might be in the same firm, working  on the same floor, travelling on the same commute mechanism,  seeing each other daily, knowing a third of each other's days schedules, even going to the same pantry or canteens, same functions, get togethers but still be unaware who those familiar faces are. You see a face one day, you know they are there, they become a part of your life and before you realise it, they vanish. Well, that is how this industry works. This industry, wherein Sam was placed, travel was the basic need but when it happens is a question few knew the answer to. Other than that, there might be other factors which might come into play making people move and find new groups. So it is very difficult to imagine how much time you have got before you finally need to move on to another assignment, another set of people or group. The good part of all this was that, what had started as a part of a worthless frenzied effort was finally shaping up into something of essense and value. Although, off late, Sam had turned into  a workaholic and his social circle was limited to a set of corporate people. With his previous assignment, he had been associated with a set of people who made each minute of their day count. What he found after coming back, was in stark contrast to his developed defaults.  In general, he was still coping with the changes. A lot many have tried to define happiness but its not that easy. Some say it is that feeling of contentment which knocks you out but keeps you going at the same time. Others, believe it to be a mark of achievement of your set goals. While still others just associate it with a feeling of seeing their close ones achieve what they want. To Sam,  it was this particular series of events which basically made him feel happy and eager to work.

 Days went by, things changed. The commute time, mechanism and people were the same but their was an element of acquaintance  now attached to the whole set of events which sort of made it a bit of a difficult situation for both Sam and Stacy. The snooping quite gazes we're replaced by a careful discerning look. There had been times when Stacy wouldn't have cared enough before giving a glance back, but now the process was in itself searching for the right opportunity to which the feeling of acquaintance was guarding the door, which it hardly allowed to pass through. Previously, there had been moments when Sam would have looked at Stacy at the same time she did and then both would have realised and turned back, more like a game wherein you try to tag each other at the same time but then manage to escape altogether. Now, the things were different though, the feeling of acquaintance was just not the right one for this occasion. 

Sam, realised this and understood that something had to be done in order for this to continue to the next level although he wasn't so sure how it was possible. One fine day, he was surfing a social website on the internet and was viewing the updates of his friends when he suddenly realised that one of his  common friend's name had Stacy in their friend's  list. Stacy is a very common name and this would not be the same Stacy, Sam was sure about it, but still he couldn't have spared the opportunity to have a look at the profile. He opened up the profile and had a look at the image to find to his amazement that this was the same Stacy who he had just known. Sam just realised how small the world can be but that was it, he couldn't have done anything more about it. 

Days passed, Sam saw Stacy a few times but wasn't able to talk to her. One day, Sam was returning from his busy day at work and was standing in a queue for catching the train back to his place of stay. The day being one of those days in the middle of the week, the queue was unusually long. Further to this, the trains were delayed but the queue was growing. Sam was bored out and was counting the minutes for the train to arrive, when he suddenly saw Stacy rushing towards the queue. Just then, the train arrived and before anybody could know it Sam saw Stacy standing right in front of the door before him. It was a huddle and before Sam could say anything she rushed in to get her favourite spot. Sam, was delighted to see Stacy but at the same time a bit apprehensive by the fact what had just happened. If given the time, he would have wanted to say hello to Stacy  and assure her that her spot wouldn't be filled in. He tried to glance back but the train was packed up to limit visibility to the next person only. On the top of this, Sam was accompanied by an overly sized cop, who had a disgruntled look on his face while he talked out loudly to someone on his phone and kept on pushing and squeezing Sam to adjust his overly sized attire to the comfort of this seat. Sam realised he was compressed and his thoughts were zipped by a sudden numbness which built around him during the journey. Definitely, this left Sam with no time for further thoughts and it is at this moment, he decided to take the matters over at another point of time. On reaching home, waiting for the dinner to be ready, Sam had again started thinking about the whole incident and thought perhaps he should convey the message out, but how was the question. At that point of time, he remembered the social website. At first, the idea did not blend in with his comfort factor of the site and messaging anonymously but later he felt he established that connection to allow a few messages through. He thought he would scribble down something there just to let the message pass through. 

He penned down the below words - 'Many say it's not fair to by pass the queue in order to fetch a seat' and clicked on send. Although, he was worried as to how Stacy would receive this. A few days passed, Stacy's was not to be seen, may be she had very busy days and her work timings did not match or she was out of town. Then one day, there was a long queue and Sam was waiting with people for the train to come through when he saw Stacy coming out towards the queue. He tried to look at her but she didn't respond, Sam was worried about the comment and thought this wasn't a good idea. The train came and Sam boarded it, after a while Stacy boarded it too. Her favourite seat was still not taken. She sat down on her seat. Sam, looked at her, the moment she took a seat. She glanced back at him and smiled, Sam smiled too affirmingly.  He was happy that she had taken his words in the right sense. It was a moment of knowing someone whom you start to respect because of their actions.

 The next day wasn't fair to Stacy. This time somehow she managed to get a seat but then the overly sized person found a spot just beside her. She tried to concentrate on reading her book but found it hard to do so, because the person sitting next to her was always pushing in to adjust his comfort thereby destroying the balance of seating equation. Sam wasn't liking this a bit,  but there was little he could do. He felt maybe he shouldn't have had that messaging thing going on, maybe she would have got a corner seat which would have reduced a bit of discomfort. He decided to message her when he went back that it was okay to bend the rules a few times. 

From then on, days passed, many a times Stacy would show up, but didn't seem to notice Sam or say hello. Sam felt as if there was something which wasn't right- may be she was too tied up in thoughts to notice, maybe she did not want to - although he did not want to rush to conclusions. One day, she boarded the train on the way back from work and started to notice Sam's presence like the early days. Sam was astounded. There was a sudden suite of mixed feelings he was going through. He wanted to know more about this girl, her likes and dislikes. At that point of time, he was convinced, that maybe this level of acquaintance was definitely not working and a step further needs to be taken immediately!!

The Unkown Story - Part 1

Part 1 

When it comes to humans I would rather say they are strange and behave in strange ways. Every one lives around a cocoon of him/herself, which abstracts their behaviour from their actions. Some gain an opportunity in light of a lost one, whereas some loose it all when they have nothing to loose. It  all works very differently so that everyone has something fill up their lives with and keep themselves busy. May it be coping with the loss of somebody who has vanished from their lives or adjusting themselves when they find somebody new who was not supposed to be there in their lives. Someone has rightly said, it's a strange world. Stranger it becomes when it comes to a point when you start liking someone preferably of the opposite sex.

This story is of a similar type wherein there is a boy and a girl and both find each other interesting but find it difficult to assimilate the fact that they do so. This story does not have a single ending because in real life you never have one ending, it's upon the reader to decide which ending suits the sequence of events and would be more preferable. 

Well, it all began when Sam came back from a long period of service overseas to find himself a bit mesmerised by the same city in which he had lived and earned for years. In short nothing much had changed, there was more construction(sort of signifying more progress) and more traffic, the only thing which had changed were the people which were around him. All faces seemed new, be it the room where he was put up or the office in which he had to start his work. All the people with whom he had started his career had somewhat vanished  and now he had a challenge to start up afresh and find new circle of people. Sam, rightly put was a work alcoholic, who preferred to start early and work late. The  city had quite a busy routine when it came to work and travel. He  had to wake up early, board a shuttle train which took approximately an hour to reach the destination and then take taxi to his workplace. It was a tough life compared to his overseas work location which was just 10 minutes walk from his home. Every day was the same routine, taking the 8 o clock train  to office, then a taxi, working for a couple of hours in the office and then leaving by 8 o clock train in the night, reaching home by 10, preparing some food, eating and sleeping early to prepare for the next day. Life was becoming a bit monotonic and especially the part of travel which was not his cup of tea before, until one day when he saw a charming young girl sitting in the train in a corner just opposite to his corner. It so happened, the girl also noticed him and smiled. Before you could know they both started noticing each other more frequently and the journey started to become interesting. Sam would notice, the girl came into the train and started reading a book, which looked familiar. He recollected it was sequel to the same book he used to read, which was interesting, at least they had something in common. This rekindled Sam's interest in books and he just realised he had a few books which he could finish off during this time of travel. This would definitely make the travel more interesting and utilitarian.There was a small problem though, the girl had a different time of boarding so Sam would not see her every time.  Somehow though Sam could squeeze a day or two out of his busy weeks schedule to travel on the same time as the girl, just to have a look at her. He saw that the girl found it difficult to concentrate during the start of the journey but had a very strong attention span towards the end probably because she had to finish the part defined for that of travel. In all she appeared to be a voracious reader. The fact that she was travelling in the same compartment made his day sound great. Days went on like this, when one such day, the train missed the stop where the girl was standing for boarding. It was an odd day and someone had to do something about it. Sam quickly sprung up to pull the emergency stop buttons so that the train would stop. Well, it did and the girl boarded it, although she was not aware of the fact that Sam had pushed the alarm. Sam thought, this at least this calls in for an introduction, he must know this stranger before life does not give him the opportunity to meet her again, so he decided to go out and talk to her. 

It was a bit difficult though,  usually after getting down from the train Sam used to race along to be the first to get into a taxi. There were a lot of people and he wanted to avoid the rush. It appeared, this girl also had similar thoughts and there were a couple of days when she used to catch up and leave Sam behind. One fine day, the girl got into the train for the return journey back home, she tried to adjust windows for some fresh air but found it difficult, Sam tried to help but couldn't  do much, the latch was too tight. Although this gave them an opportunity to exchange a few words but not much except a 'sorry' and a generous 'thank you'. Although, this did give them an opportunity squeeze in an occasional formal 'hello'. One another fine day,  when in this hustle in morning to catch the taxi, Sam took the courage and talked to the girl, asking her how was her experience with her latest book. She mentioned it was a fine book, Sam told her he had read the earlier versions. They talked, but time flew and they got into their taxis to their respective destinations. Sam just realised after she was gone, that he had lost her introduction.Well, this was not good and called off for another meeting. Days went by and one day Sam just managed to say hello to the girl, asked how she was and asked her name. She said her name was Stacy. Sam introduced himself. At least now he knew who he was talking to, Stacy was a fine name. Was it so simple? well nonetheless because Sam had no idea what was coming through his way.