Cloistered Souls

Sean was walking alone in the city park. The wind was blowing like an unbridled prisoner as if being chased by someone. Sean could hear the wind as it passes along his ears. Even though he had his headphone on, he could still hear the noise of the wind. For him, it was playing another music for him. He paused the music on his smartphone and removed the headphone. People were briskly walking past him, some of them busy talking to someone on phone, others busy texting with an eye on the phone screen. Sean saw a bench few feet away, which he took as he was bit tired after walking for an hour. It wasn’t dark but the street lights were now on. On his left, he could see the traffic cruising by. “The chaos on that road was an antithesis of the environment here.. “, Sean was talking to himself.

Sean belonged to INTJ category according to  Myers-Briggs type indicator for different psychological types, who are assumed to face life with equanimity. However, no one could see the stormy weather inside him in which he was struggling to stay afloat in the turbulent water.
Sean was the only child of his parents. They had high hope for him right from the childhood. Sometimes parents have greater expectation from their children than they have for themselves. As a result, Sean did everything to make his parents happy. He got

People Come and People Go

Life is like a novel,
except you can’t read its previous page.
People come and people go,
some leave a scar for a lifetime,
some give you a reason to smile forever.
You can’t imagine your life without them,
only to find yourself alone
as a victim of loneliness, again.
But one should keep on reading the book,
for you can’t see imminent good things if you quit.
It’s about the journey, not the destination they say,
Well, they have never been so right.
Forgive those who hurt you and
embrace those who loved you.
Because who knows where this story will take you,
maybe across the continent or to an insular island.
People come and people go, but don’t
forget to give a smile to your own reflection.
At the end, when this story ends,
you should find it worth reading,
without wishing to rewrite it.
People come and people go,
but don’t get attached to them so much that
you forget the value of yourself.

When life seems worthless

When life seems worthless,

When everyone, including you, is interested

in tearing you apart,

When there seems no progress and

no happiness in life,

When there is nothing around you

that resembles success,

When negative thoughts and fear of failure

haunt you every-time you want to focus,

When road to future doesn’t go

beyond the dead end,

Then that’s the best time to bounce back and

realize that your dream is not a delusion,

but the reality.

Life’s Chess Piece

It was a clear Sunday morning and Olivia was busy making a presentation for the monthly meeting next day. She was looking at pie- charts and tables, looking for methods to make the vapid presentation more interesting to attract as few yawns from others as possible.
On the floor, four-year-old Michael was busy colouring his artbook, given as homework.  Olivia noticed that he had used red colour in the sky and pink on the sun. He was struggling to colour within the boundary.
“He would need to redo his assignment, again. We need to focus more on colours tomorrow.”, she thought after glancing at his artwork surreptitiously.
“At least thirty slides are to be made. I don’t understand why they keep meetings like these. People pretend to pay attention as if trying to understand something esoteric. They look into their laptop screen watching everything but the very presentation slide being discussed.” She got up for a cup of coffee for herself and a glass of milk for Michael.
“Michael, After you finish your milk, we will go to Dr Smith for a check up.”, Olivia said after placing the tray having a cup of coffee and a glass of milk on the table beside her laptop. Michael looked up and answered in a language which most of us won’t construe as English. He looked towards rectangular cards neatly placed on each other neatly on the table without an expression.
Olivia got herself seated again and continued to arrange bar graphs and pie chart on the slide. She noticed the date at the right corner of her screen- 13th November 2016. Thirteen is considered as an unlucky number, but it was lucky for her, but not anymore. She stopped typing and looked outside the closed window. She could see wind swaying the trees and bushes. A Couple was walking hand in hand with their child in the middle. She looked away from that coveted scene and glanced at her watch. It was 10:12 am.

Olivia often thought about the unpredictability of life. Sometimes it inundates you with happiness and suddenly it hits you with a brick on your head. Two years back, she was

The choice she never made

Elsa was looking at the trophies and certificates she got for her outstanding work in last six years. She was an ambitious woman who considered financial independence more important than frivolous infatuation. This world has different rules for men and women which infuriates Elsa the most. Her dedication towards work was frowned upon by her colleagues- both males and females, who often construed her as ‘over-ambitious’. But one cannot appease everyone in life.

Elsa was promoted the previous day, which was marked by a round of applause by people whose action was belied by thoughts in their mind. ” Congratulation, Elsa. I have never seen anyone rising up in such a short time.”, her boss said after announcing about promotion to the team. She accepted more congratulations and shook hands with everyone without realising whose hand she was shaking.

She came early next morning to shift to her new cabin which she got after promotion. The transition from cubicle to the cabin is considered as an important battle victory in the corporate war. She was putting her things as her laptop screen flashed the news website

Lost and Found

“Hey, Jesper how was your home trip?”, asked a man wearing the formal outfit, with a coffee cup in his hand. “Hi David, it was great. I  went there after a long time. So, it was nostalgic visiting my parents.”, answered the person, hoping that he could enjoy solitude again.

“That’s great. I need to go now. I have a video call scheduled.”

“Sure, David”, thanking his busy schedule in mind.

David walked away briskly after glancing at his watch. “I hope I will convince folks living across the Atlantic today. This has been a tedious conversation.”, he talked to himself as he entered the elevator.

Meanwhile, Jesper was looking at the cafeteria. “This Building looks different when there is no one in it. I should come early every day.”, thought Jesper. The trip to his hometown was indeed different from earlier ones. He took a bite of his sandwich and was looking

The Sunshine Blogger Award

Hi everyone, I am pleased to tell that I have been nominated by Jasmine for the Sunshine Blogger Award. I am glad that she found my blog worthy enough for the nomination. It has motivated me to write more and I will try my best to come with best stories I can.

Here are the rules:

1. Answer the 11 questions asked by the nominator.
2. Nominate 11 blogs.
3. Ask them 11 questions.

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Questions asked and their answers

1. Do words come easy for you when you start to write a blog post or book reviews?

Normally, it doesn’t. Usually, I make a rough draft, describing how will the story start, important events and the way it will end. I often struggle to come with right words. Words come easy when I think like the characters in the story.

2. How do you manage your time? Reading, Working, Commenting, Blogging, and Life.

I am a working professional. In weekdays, I think about what should I write about. I write

Promise

It’s a Wednesday morning and people were rushing to their destination. All vehicles were racing against time. One of them was a blue sedan with a woman at driver seat and a girl about nine years old sitting beside her. “My little Christie is quite these days… I cannot blame her for that. A lot has happened in the last ten days.” Carol thought. She applied brake like other cars in front of her. “These traffic lights seem to collude to make you late for school. What do you say, Christie?”, she said, hoping to break the deafening silence between them but she failed to do so. Christie was looking out away from her mother, apparently trying to locate something. “What is she looking for? Oh no, we are at that place again. I should have taken another route, even though it’s a bit longer.” Carol didn’t say anything to Christie about that. The music player changed the music. Carol felt her eyes getting moist. She quickly wiped her tears with tissue paper kept on the dashboard,

Brand new start

It was just another day for city dwellers. Apparently, Monday blue provided the adrenaline rush to people and cars. All of them were moving as if participating in a global race towards nowhere. In one of the taxis, sat a man in his mid-20s in deep reflection with his head pressed against the window holding a white sheet in his hand with something scribbled in the middle. “He doesn’t seem to be in good health. Hope nothing happens to him while he is in my taxi” thought the taxi driver. He was driving at snail pace now. “Not again, this traffic gives me a slow death every day.”, shouted the driver. His passenger didn’t seem to hear that.

John was always a bright student. He did well in school, college and got his dream job as a programmer. John was confident, full of ambition and earning quite well. Then came the recession. His company started losing clients. They didn’t want its services since they

The reply that never came

It was 1 in the morning and the town seems to be sleeping like a baby. However, for Emily, sleep seems to elude her. She took a look at her smartphone. Still no reply. Maybe he slept early today. “Should I call him? No, I shouldn’t. It is midnight now.” she thought. For a moment, she got a feeling that she might lose him forever which made her shiver for a second. Somehow, she calmed herself down and went to bed.

“This party is staggering, isn’t it, Emily?” asked Anna. Emily never liked attending parties