Fiction: 'The Story' - By Rahul Tiwary

There was a woman who was a writer; she once wrote a story about some things at some place. There were half a dozen characters in her story. It was a gripping story with an intriguing beginning and a comforting end immediately after several twists in the plot. She was happy with her creation and post the book launch, it became successful with everyone appreciating it. People liked the story, they liked the world she had created, they liked the characters in it, in general. What no one knew and even the writer did not realise was that one of the characters did not want the story to end. 

He was a man; not the protagonist, but one of the leads. As per the writer's style, her stories were never about or around a single character. One fine morning, after she had tea and was yet to think about having anything to eat, 'it' occurred to her. She tried to think which of the characters was 'he', but she could not figure it out. 

She opened her book again, glanced through the opening story, but could not figure it out. One man, a character from the title story of her hugely successful book, was not gone after the story had ended. We can't say that the man 'came alive', because he was never dead; for rebirth to be possible. Can we say he just came out of the pages of her books? Just walked outside?

The writer was confused. She desperately wanted to figure it out who the character was; what was his name and what was he like, so that she could end it all peacefully. She wanted the man out of her mind, similar to how people scare away any houseflies if those happen to come near them. She wanted to kill, finish off, the character, so that she could get rid of him.

It was important for her to get rid of him. Only then she could move on, truly. She wanted to start her new book and she had picked up an entirely new genre and theme. The man from her last book was of no use to her.

The man just won't go. He just remained there, saying nothing, doing nothing, no harm or no scene too. He just wanted to 'exist'.

Existence is a strange thing. It can do things to you, or it can take things from you. It is difficult to define existence. No one knows when you 'exist' and when you don't, even if you look exactly the same on both occasions. It is your little secret, your little witchcraft.

After being disturbed for quite some time due to the man, the woman invented a plan. The plan will eliminate the man forever. 

The writer wrote another book, with the same title as the previous one. The publisher of course did not like the idea and when he failed to convince her to use a different title, thankfully the year end was approaching and hence he decided to put (2027) i.e. year of publication at the end of the book title to qualify it as a different title.

The writer finished her new book in record time. She had rewritten the whole title story. Word by word and sentence by sentence, the story was so different from the one in the last book, that no one else could understand the plan she was executing while writing it. Since characters in a book are countable, the man from her last book could not escape her design. To be on the safe side, she had killed every character from her last story in this new story. 'The man' must be dead! 

After the new book came out, it was a similar scene after her first book. The new book had become a huge success too, and people were in awe with how she had written such a fresh story with an entirely new idea. She was labeled as a young 'genius' and an established name in the world of modern literature in India. But, she was waiting for something else. Or, someone else.

Did the man still come? Or did he really get killed as the new story said? 

She waited for a day. Then she waited for a week. Then a month. By this time, it almost felt as if she 'wanted' the man, the mystery character from her last book, to come alive. But did it happen? 

Did the man want it too? 

Till date, the faithful readers of the writer are still intrigued by the time when she wrote those two books. Those two books were called her best books ever. She went on to become an award winning famous author and journalist, earning name and fame for herself and gaining wealth in the process too. But, she could never recreate the hidden genius of those two books.

'The man' from her book never came back. No other man or any other character ever came alive like he had done. Deep inside, she knew of her guilt. She felt like she had 'sinned' by killing the character. It had all happened in her mind. Could she "do it again"; or do something to bring him back? 

She decided to let it be. Let the little secret be a little secret. Her secret.

No one understands genius. Even a genius does not truly understand genius. That is the magical thing about it.   

- Rahul Tiwary 

 

Travelogue: Ganesh Puja Pandal, Bhagwanpur Chowk, Muzaffarpur, Bihar

 

Preciousness of Life and Other Tragedies

In Hindu philosophy, there is much importance given to the realization that our life is very precious. At a level, it is also done to keep people on the path of righteousness and to achieve a peaceful, prosperous and productive society. Sage after sage, and saint after saint has said the same thing - that our life is precious. But after centuries of progress and spiritual awakening, if we look around us, do we see people by large behaving in a manner consistent with this realization? 

There is so much selfishness all around, and wretched people making other people suffer, evil people using every opportunity to harass others, and so on. Number of 'good people' in our society in general is alarmingly low. People in general behave good with you if they need something from you,  otherwise you are nothing for them. People in general are wasting their own life in mundane race to collect more and more money, and wasting everyone else's life in the process too. Do they take some of the money to their 'afterlife' once they are dead? 

And those people who can't afford to waste their or other people's life, are busy wasting time watching short videos on their mobile phones! 

It won't be an exaggeration to say that in our society, there is absolutely zero realization of the fact that our life is precious. Or is it that there is a secret and quiet realization in our society that our life is "not precious"?

If we push this theory, it fits very well. Since life is not precious, people need to tolerate it, spend it, waste it, or do whatever with it, since nothing matters. Let wretched people harass innocent people, let evil people harass noble souls for their pleasure, because, since life is not precious, why be any good?

It is a great tragedy for our country that along with material progress, we are fast losing all the spiritual greatness achieved by our ancestors. It pains to understand what a shameful achievement we have made with this trend. 

Hoping for some miracle to save the soul of our people and our country.  

- Rahul 

Nature: Sun under clouds

 

(C) Rahul

Muzaffarpur, Bihar

Nice shopkeepers

I went to buy some cloth in a shop for the first time. In fact, I had searched on the internet to find where "Only Vimal" brand of fabric was being sold, since few months ago it had occurred to me that I had not seen it anywhere for long time. Like most people of our time, I had grown into habit of buying 'readymade' shirts until few years ago I saw how my father still got his shirts stitched by a tailor in our hometown, and hence I had started the same practice too. Vimal brand is owned by Reliance and since I am a huge enthusiast for Indian brands and Indian businesses, for few months I have been looking for opportunity to buy a Vimal brand fabric.

Most of such businesses in our hometown are owned by Marwaris and it is possible that the new shop I went to was also owned by one. The experience I got there touched me a lot. 

I was greeted by an elderly person, who seemed the owner of the shop. The shop was very well maintained. There was another boy along with the man who seemed like his son. Both the man and the boy were very polite and talked to me in such a nice way. There was not even an iota of negativity in them or their behaviour. 

Usually I make very quick decisions while shopping and hence I was done in 5-10 minutes, but the elderly shop owner showed me some extra material too. I liked whatever he showed, although I bought only what I had gone there for. 

After coming out of the shop, the extremely nice behaviour of both of the shopkeepers touched me a lot. I don't know when was the last time anyone talked to me so nicely like they had done. It would be a tragedy if politeness and nice behaviour are restricted to salesmen or businessmen in our society. 

Still feeling touched by the behaviour of two gentlemen. 

- Rahul 

Why I shall never buy an iPhone

I have never had an iPhone. I have used Android based phones whole life, e.g. Samsung/Nokia brands which are made in India. I have liked every phone I had, but then it is more about me than the phones, since by nature I find reasons to like most of the things or places or people I come across. And I have made it a point that I have never bought a Chinese brand phone despite knowing that they offered better features at lesser price. 

I have been aware that iPhones are built better, since a few times I have seen it with colleagues. And I have also wished to buy one for a time period and seriously considered buying one for several months. The high prices of these phones always bothered me, though my juniors in office earning 1/3 of my salary had iPhones. Buying an exorbitantly priced  iPhone felt like buying a sinful product. 

After a while, the iPhone makers made my task so much easier by hiking its price to even more exorbitantly. Thereafter, I have never wished or planned to buy an iPhone and probably never will. 

I think no one should buy an exorbitantly priced product just because it is used as "status symbol". Chasing status is a losing game and only the billionaires running these companies win if we do so. There is no reason we should buy something which is priced 100 times its intrinsic value. Every finance class will teach you the same lesson. 

People who buy iPhones may be doing it for any reason, but none of those reasons can be qualified as a wise one. Unless you are in such a profession where you need to be on iPhone in order to access a system which is accessible only on iPhones, you need not justify wasting money over it. The same is also true for few exorbitantly priced phones and other gadgets from other companies. 

Always try to be 'money wise'.

- Rahul 

 

Existential crisis: From futility of life to futility of death

I am not alone who has often thought about futility of life and struggled to see proof that God sent us here with a purpose. I have read similar thoughts from many others, and I think this is all part of our growing up psychology. But at the same time, we can't deny merit in the pertinent question. 

After many years passed, now I have even gone one step ahead and started wondering about futility of death. At this moment, I have not read this from anyone else, so I think this is a novel idea that occurred to me.  

What I am thinking is that as people or society, we have given too much importance to the idea of death. It is hyped, glamourised, demonised, all depending on the place, context or the demands of the time. In reality, death is nothing in itself. 

I think death is just a writing on the wall and while we can see the wall, we can't see what is beyond it, which makes us curious and make us assume things about it. In reality, we do not know anything about the other side of the wall and as I read somewhere that the Vedas tell that we as humans cannot even understand it fully.

I am not even sure if giving so much importance to this matter of death is worth it. Most likely, it is totally not worth it. One fine day, I shall vanish into thin air, and what is good or bad about it? From futility of life to futility of death, the thought process has come full circle. And I am not sure whether to be happy or sad about it, since if we do not have some existential things to worry about; what are we going to worry about? 

- Rahul 

Nature: Indra Dhanush (Rainbow), Muzaffarpur, Bihar

 

(C) Rahul 

The world post Covid crisis: the joke was on us

During Covid crisis (due to 'Chinese virus'), our dear PM Modi used to make many speeches on TV. I remember one of his statements which stuck with me afterwards, where he said that world history would be divided into two parts: pre-Covid and post-Covid. He said the way our world worked would change so much drastically after Covid crisis, and many of those changes would be permanent. After 6 years since the crisis, this statement looks so much misplaced. Nothing changed in post-Covid world. 

Nothing changed in post-Covid world and we were able to know this even after 1.5 years since the crisis. People continued to be good, bad or evil. Companies continued to be exploitative, generous or indifferent. Society continued to be as it were before Covid crisis. Even the types of crimes or incidents reported in newspapers have been exactly the same. What really changed? 

I can't even start to suggest that even a few things changed. The much hyped digital transformation was going on even before Covid crisis. Ignoring the two year period immediately after the crisis, its pace adjusted and now after 6 years from the crisis, the law of averages took over completely and we can't even say anything forced caused digital rapid adoption over a long time horizon. 

PM Modi was not the only one proven wrong about our world. Most of the optimists have been on the same boat. 

I have read spiritual masters, philosophers, or many great successful men; they all have been proven wrong by our world. 

Hoping that optimism does not vanish from the lexicon very soon and God leaves some hope on the table for the 'optimists' to survive.  

- Rahul 

The rotten fish theory

In my childhood, there was a teacher whom we called NK Sir, who used to repeat one sentence quite often, saying, "one rotten fish spoils the whole pond" while pointing towards some bad students in the class. I wonder how people forget most of such lessons while or after growing up. In every big family, in most neighbourhoods or housing societies, or even in professional teams at work, often there would be one person who would be the bad influence, who either in order to hide attention from his own incompetence or inferiorities, would be plotting all the time against the best of the people. 

I think the best way to deal with such people is to identify and isolate them as soon as possible. The longer we tolerate them, the more damage they would do. In the setting of families, such bad apples may try to break peace between other couples, break marriages of good people, try to feed children against parents, siblings against others, and so on. In the setting of workplace, such people may encourage good employees to quit jobs or leave, by sharing negative news, or try to defame and dishearten others by making false accusations in front of senior managers. 

It is a shame such bad people are allowed to thrive merely because most other people do not have courage to confront them or to take any action against them. The damage these people do to the other people involved as well as society at large is immense. 

No one can imagine how much in better shape and character our society would be if people knew how to deal with such evil people. And no one realises how even one such bad person can cause trouble for so many other people. 

Hope our society finds strength and courage to deal with bad people in the manner they deserve. 

- Rahul 

Why people don't talk to strangers

After staying in waiting area of a hospital for several days, I realised why generally people in India avoid talking to strangers. Here is how the things unfolded. 

When I started staying there, I did not talk to anyone initially. After around a week, when I went back there after a gap, I noticed that a very obese boy of around 20 had occupied the sofa adjacent to mine. He started by asking a simple question, then about my patient, then started giving me unnecessary but seemingly helpful tips like going out of hospital for lunch in nearby restaurants, or bottled water being sold in hospital at exorbitant rates. And once I was comfortable talking to him, he asked me for my "mobile charger"! I said I had to go away for some work and I would give him my charger afterwards. And I went back to the place only in the evening. As soon as he saw me, he asked for the mobile charger! Annoyed, I told him that I thought he would have asked anyone else for the charger since whole day had passed since he asked me first time in the morning! And what does he reply? He said, "I feel shy asking things from strangers, hence I did no ask anyone else and waited for you". So, I was not a "stranger" for him? I finally gave him my charger only late night and asked it back after 1.5 hours and to my relief, he respectfully complied. Over next several days, I had to give him my mobile charger at least once daily. All because I spoke to him on day-1.

After many days, I was at a different seat and this time two men came. They asked me about what happened to my patient, and I did the mistake of replying to them. Hearing my answer, one of them spoke towards the other, looking at with 'disgust', saying "I told you! Most people come to this hospital with insurance only". He was totally wrong in his assumption, but of course I did not correct him. So, while I had done the mistake of talking to these two men, they tried to extract its price the very next morning. 

Next morning, when I woke up and went to washroom, I noticed that my slippers were looking as if they had moved slightly from their place. I immediately suspected those two men of trying out my slippers. And within 10 minutes, I got the proof. One of them got a phone call and ran towards the exit door, and being suspicious I immediately checked my slippers and they had vanished! Losing no time, I immediately shouted at the man near exit door of the hall asking if he had my slippers and he said yes and he would return those in two minutes. Loudly enough, I said "no, bring my slippers back right now!" And he came back running. I told him that this was not a baraat-ghar where people had come for amusement, and what would I do without slippers or shoe if I was called by the doctors urgently? The two men obviously did not care. 

Afterwards, I felt satisfied and a bit happy at the manner in which I had shouted at (which was out of character for me) the man who had taken my slippers, and had disrupted "the borrowing games". Like when in Rome behave like Romans, when in Patna, at least behave like Patna-people when needed. 

I did not talk to anyone after encounter with above two men and hence I did not face any further borrowing/stealing dilemma. 

Due to above incidents, I realised why many people just don't say even a word to strangers; because they fear the strangers would try to extract benefits out of them later. 

No country for private men. 

- Rahul Tiwary

The Falsehood of Social Service

Long back, when I was working at Infosys, a colleague joined office and he was allocated seat near my cubicle. Those days, employees used to have fixed place to sit and work from, I am sure it is like this for most companies even now, although many IT companies have switched to 'cost saving' by removing physical allocation of cubicle to employees. Due to fixed cubicle, we used to have "neighbours" and got to bond with them. I remember, the new colleague was very obese and had just come to India after working in the USA for many years. When asked, he said he shifted to India to better look after family, although he did not like life and facilities in India as much. He was also upset that some of the promises made to him at the time of joining had not materialised, and he was not even happy with his work because he was given project work in a different area than his core skill. Remembering those days, it feels like very good times, when there were plenty of jobs, plenty of employees and plenty of choices and grievances. 

At that time when the new and 'unhappy' employee started working from the cubicle next to me, there was a donation drive conducted in office to fund some social work. I remember a couple of colleagues visited cubicle-to-cubicle and collected funds. They did not ask for more than Rs 100 and I was happy to contribute the same amount when asked. But the US returned rich but unhappy colleague declined to contribute anything! When asked about the reason, he said something like, "We already pay so much money in taxes to the government, what is the need to also spend money in charity? Why government is not making use of tax money to fund all those social work?" After the contribution seeking volunteers went back disappointed, the particular colleague kept repeating his moral stand of not contributing. 

At that time, I did not understand his motive much. All these years, this incident came to my mind many times and I still did not fully understand his stand. But recently, a thought came to my mind, which made me look at that incident in a whole new light. 

First of all, I don't think the colleague was right in assuming that our social obligations end with paying taxes to government. Paying taxes is not a voluntary act from our side, but it is a statutory requirement which we fulfill without giving a thought, and often to save ourselves from prosecution or penalisation too. I think true charity or social work has to be a voluntary act, where we "choose to help" when we had a "choice not to help". Therefore, his theory and moral stand for not contributing was juvenile at best. 

At the same time, a thought came to me recently about how much role "external validation" plays in the things we do; and why do we think that only helping "strangers" count towards social service. How about a man giving money to an orphanage supporting children, but at the same time not giving time to his own children who keep getting raised without proper love and care of their parents? How about someone making visits to old-age-home and giving financial support to the old people living there, but at the same time one's own old parents are living troubled devoid of love and care by their grownup children? Why is it that giving love and care to one's own family or blood relatives not considered akin to social work? Like it has happened to child-raising where a woman goes to school to take care of other people's children while her own children are also being taken care by others, making a chain of weird "unsocial" relationships; if we stretch this to other spheres of life, the world becomes too gloomy. 

Under light of these thought, I am looking at the behaviour of my old colleague, my own behaviour and work, as well as all the ongoing things around me in a different shade.

What if there is no social brownie points to be earned for doing social work or charity; how many would still choose to do it? And how many of us would understand that prioritizing the welfare of their own family does not make them selfish or bad people? Our own family, children, parents, relatives, they all are part of the "society" we intend to service, and although we shall not get any "certificate of appreciation" for doing something for them, what we do shall still be very valuable. And perhaps irreplaceable.  

Hoping for peace and health of one and all.

- Rahul Tiwary    

Travelogue: Akhadaghat Bridge, Muzaffarpur, Bihar