Resonance - 55 Fiction

Note:- 55 Fiction infers to fictional writings bounded to a maximum of fifty-five words.

Resonance

Shekar met his best friends, Sreenu and Venkat, after three  years. He gave them a grand treat at Ohri's. After dinner, he paid the bill and gave 1000 rupees as a tip to the bearer . Venkat  asked, "Hey Shekar, isn't it the tip quite heavy ?".  No, I did the same job when i was in US. 

Square Bubble

You live in a bubble of your own. You love your bubble's eccentricity and transparency. You feel elated and inspired by the way your bubble of passion keeps floating in the air, though it is to be short lived. You are an off roader while others are on the highway. You are a voice that is unapologetic in acknowledging its roots, out of which it has grown and evolved gradually. In the era of plenty , you don't want to overdo things just to accentuate the effect. Your emphasis is on the significance of process rather than solution. You believe in going further and exploring new avenues. You hold a mirror that reflects the realities you had witnessed till now . And when the mirror broke , the realities multiplied. Even when you ask a question it comes across like a statement. Experiencing life in a different contexts provides you with a deeper understanding of life. It saves you from a narrow world view. You know that challenges are often the best tools for empowerment. The deeper the plunge, greater the challenge.

Dreaming under the stars of fiction, you allowed yourself to drift along the stream of consciousness. Many a sign board to the left and the right on the way tried and failed to lure you. It was tough for you when the wheel of time brought you back to where you started off. Its been a long journey from your desire to undesired destination. Soon you realized that Life's most valuable lessons are often tucked away in the basic pleasures and pursuits. You need to appreciate the simple things in life. You toiled like machine, chasing distant dreams, with no time to stop and stare. To make life meaningful, you must laud your efforts and accomplishments, before moving onto your next destination in life. You want to pause and give yourself a pat on the back for what you have achieved till now, before you discover the next big thing. Your juncture with books started with baby steps as books make you to understand experiences and experiences make you to understand books. It is not just a question of experience but also perspective and perception . Now, you are opinionated but not judgmental. You are habituated to move on like your bubble. You are on the right tracks now , don't stay there, keep moving, else, you will perish forever because of the fact , "One will be paid not to try but to succeed". You may still want to be in the same bubble, but dear, you need to adapt to a different bubble. May be an opaque and "Square Bubble ".

There is No One Best Way

" There is No One Best way "...... I follow this quote quite religiously with conscience and rationality. You can find this quote on many of my books i read. Recently, I did realise it in a more deeper and broader way, after coming across Ravindranath Tagore's writings. What I understood from Tagore is that,...... only the ignorant try to imitate the behaviour of others. Intelligent people do not waste their time on that, they develop their personal abilities and talents , for they know that no two leaves are alike in a forest of a hundred thousand trees. They know their potential and scope. They try neither to imitate nor to emulate. They just create their own path and carve a niche for themselves. No two journeys are alike on the same path. May be god is also intelligent and seeks diversity in everything he creates. Here I do not want to talk about imitation with respect to careers, jobs, passions, fashions, interests, tastes, orientations, preferences, priorities, perceptions, likes, dislikes as all these are very much related to relativity and subjectivity. Almost every man wastes part of his life attempting to display qualities which he doesn't possess.

All these years, I have come across one special type of imitation, where people want to love a girl/boy only because someone else is doing that. They do feel it as a status symbol and think that it brings special recognition among their circles. I do not know whether they do this for the sake of publicity or popularity (There is a difference. Popularity is a social disease). Even we tend to imitate in expressing our love to our dream. I am not saying that it is a mistake. Everyone one of us are in search of our dream girl/boy. Most of the times what happens between a couple is that they love themselves in others. I feel that the beginning of Love is to let those we love be themselves, and do not twist them to fit our own image and parameters. Else, we love only the reflection of ourselves in them. We have to accept them as they are rather than the way we want them to be.

My primary concern is regarding why do people imitate even in the matters of success and failure. Why we are so stereotyped even in responding to success and failure? Why do we draw a sharp and distinctive line between Success and failure? Cant we overlap them as a package ?

My friend Karthik is a fine example for that. There were situations in his life where he could not even cry properly in the malady of depression. He was cornered totally and was feeling utterly low . He had neither a leaf nor a fruit to pluck. But he realised that he has got still one more thing with him that can take him to heights ie, HOPE. He buried the past, which is dead. He embraced crude truths and naked realities. He came to know that Success is a mere Perception and very much relative. He felt that success is not getting over every examination that life keeps throwing at you. However, Success is definitely is in accepting who you are and more importantly following your heart and instincts. Fate conspired to give Karthik one more chance to fulfill his dream. He recognized that the art of living lies not in eliminating but in growing with troubles. He says that dreams do not vanish as long as we do not abandon them. His heart conveys that he is not a victim of a Failure, unless he thinks he is. He lives life believing that glass is half full. Now, karthik talks with me with a smile of wisdom which says that " Beyond academics, life skills also matter ". He did not leave anything to luck, he takes up challenges. Anyways, he has got his key to Success.

Now, you may ask me whether Karthik is a success or a failure. I strongly believe that 'A man who has done his level best is a success, even though the world may write him down a failure'. Karthik is a Success in his intent and a failure by chance. I do call Karthik a success, because he has learnt the "Smile of Wisdom", which cannot be imitated but has to be achieved in every one's own way. We may not have the choice regarding the events that occur in life, but we do have choice in responding to those events. The strange thing you may smell is that why did i write about Imitation, Love, Dreams, Success/Failure and Wisdom in this post. Yeah, I do have a purpose here. I want to share with you guys that " the wisdom lies in not imitating love for someone else dreams to achieve our Success " . It is my key to Success . I am absolutely sure that this key will not work for you guys as I said at the starting of this post that " There is No One Best way... "

See Urself in the Mirror

Sometimes we have to look behind the curtain for reasons beyond our imagination. People act, opine or say things based on their own needs and concerns. Every person is a fool or bad in the opinion of at least one person in this world. You cannot escape it. If somebody says badly about you, it is their opinion and not a fact. It is your judgement about you that either encourages you or sends you into a state of depression.....

So, see yourself in the Mirror, not someone else.

My Ride wid Failure

I have seen failure up close, in different shades and flavours, angles and aspects. Of course, I tasted it. I could sense it's odour. In fact, failure was my best friend and it was suppose to become my shadow with conviction and conscience. Failure had eclipsed me in such a way that there have been so many times in the past that I had wanted to walk away from the hitting, the hurting, the haunting, the hunting and the humiliation. Every sunrise seemed like a sunset. Every event turned into hibernation. Every colour looked black. Every bubble became square. Every statement sounded like a biased and prejudiced criticism. It was so intense that even Rahman sir's melody could not cheer me up.

Life, and my own actions, pushed me into such a tight and strange corner from where there was no place to go. Yeah, I was absolutely cornered. After I reached rock-bottom, the only direction for me was up. I am not sure whether it was a compulsive compulsion or determination. May be it was part of survival existence in the process of evolution. So, I stopped blaming bad luck and bad timing for my actions and actually began facing my fears. I complained against myself. Earlier my finger used to point it's direction towards circumstances, situations, obligations and responsibilities, but now it has rotated it's optimistic pointer towards my abilities and opportunities. I told myself some tough truths then which made me to keep going against odds in my life in search of eternal self-actualization, rather than relative numerical success . It wasn't easy handing those moments those days. Introspective self assessment and analysis, without expectations, along with my enthusiastic passions did yield positive results.

Now, I have totally embraced the fragrance of my failure with elegance and dignity which enabled me to taste a new flavour called self-confidence. The definition, flavour and colour of my success have changed now. The new success has nothing to do with other's opinions, acknowledgment and perceptions. I can hold the sustainable happiness with open arms. I can see brightness and life even in a dry leaf with contentment. May be we need, at least, one opportunity to face the intense, tough, naked truths at high temperatures so that we can mould ourselves to evolve better in tasting the failures. Now, I am enjoying the committed journey in tasting new flavours and sensing new aromatic fragrances. But, still, Failure is one of my best friends for influencing me with it's tough truths and naked fragrances.

Anyways, have you got your tough truths??

Cheers,
Karthik.