ASTAGFIRULLAH

I had to reach there in time. I took an auto and like a general in the battlefield commanded the autowallah to take me straight to that place. I knew I was late, but they will understand. The day had been long and tiring. So much to do and so much to think. Sometimes I wonder why I think so much… But will they understand? They always complain that I’m late. What the hell…I can’t help it. Either I am late from office or late to office. (The phone rings)…

Well…he sounded angry…poor guys, they have saved seats for me and already ordered. We have been planning to visit this place for such a long time. Sometimes I feel that every vehicle in the traffic is looking at me with a grin and saying “you are late again” But not this time. I will make it. I’m almost there…

The auto stops with a jerk and I get off. Hurriedly I reach the place and see one of them standing outside, waiting for me. I should thank them once in a while…but not today, I am on time! But why is he angry, he looks towards my knees and blurts out a few words. I looked down...Aghast! I forgot to change into my trousers and came here in my shorts. No one in that place is allowed to be in shorts. I knew that…but I forgot. Anyways… guess they will forgive me again...

Hoping Against Hope!

HOPE... I guess is an outcome of a marketing genius. U can sell it to almost anyone and everyone is ready to but it for a certain price. We plan for so many great things in life. We expect spectacular outcomes and dramatic courses. But life hardly gives us that. We live in doubt, darkness and to sum it all – HOPE!

Once I heard of a man very sure about the future. He was so confident that he was ready to bet his entire fortune for it. I was flummoxed… can someone be so sure? So I dug deep into him. I observed his thoughts, actions and eyes. They say eyes don’t lie. I say then, maybe your eyes lied. Complete confidence, I say, is complete foolishness. This man though sure of himself and the outcome was ignorant of the truth. With truth I mean facts. So then you get it-

EXPECTED RESULTS – FACTS = HOPE

This man hoped that his confidence in the outcome was true. So strong was his hope that he was blind towards truth. We mistake hope of a stronger degree to be confidence.

Hope is a tool that helps you love someone, they say – “Sometimes you love with nothing but hope.” Well...many of my friends would agree with that. Their can be only two possibility in love, either you get the prize or you HOPE to get it. The latter again is a peril that hope helps us live through. A famous movie mentioned very interestingly...”Hope is nothing but a coherence of anomalies of the human brain that makes us strong and the reason of our weakness at the same time.” (Guess What!)

So is hope nothing but an artificial haven for us to hide from our fears, then why can’t we understand it and just face reality? As it may sound as a good question, it can be labeled as an inappropriate one. A better way to ask it would be...“Why do we hope?” Ever heard of the story of the hare and the tortoise? Well I’m sure you have. Suppose you didn’t know the story and I tell you that the race has just started. With that I also tell you that the poor tortoise is weak, slow and will surely loose, and the hare is shrewd, fast and will win. You will say given the facts, the hare will win. But at the back of your mind you would want the little tort to win! Why! Well there is a saying...”In a sport the weak is always the favorite!” And not just because of that. One of the most drastic effects of the future on us is that its uncertainties make us weak, not from the outside, but the inside. Inside all of us is a tort that is weak and slow to respond to the manifestations of the future. We pray and hope to win this race and we hope….But there is a catch. Like the tort of our story, we will have to run the race. Yes, just sitting on the sidelines and hoping for things to change will just make matters worse.

In the end it can be said that hope is although a weapon for the weak, it is also the strength and guiding spirit for those who use in the best fashion. I HOPE you got the point J

VERIDICAL

The slumber of work is strange, one makes efforts to beat the time, but instead in this process he forgets to keep up with time… I suddenly woke up from my slumber. My roommate’s door is still shut. It has been 2 hrs since my roommate hasn’t enquired about me. It’s strange…. Usually he would come in every half an hour to find out when we plan to take dinner and I have to decline at least for 5 times! But you can’t blame for the glutton he is… I again get back to my work…

Another one hour has passed and its way past the dinner time, but still no word from him. Now I believe he has forgotten time in his own slumber...this slumber is a bit different from mine. Actually he has a problem; he finds it hard to sleep at night, so for the rest of the day he makes sure that he covers the deficit… But again, sleeping during dinner time is not like him…. I wait for some more time…..

Now it’s really late and even I’m feeling hungry. I’m worried too... Is he ill? Or has he eaten behind my back (the latter is plausible). I get up walk towards his room. But as soon as I touch his door, a sudden stone of thought hits me at the back of my head…. Last night my roommate had moved out, he got a job in a different city...

As the door to his room swings open, the gust of wind from his open window moves me from the ground and I slip onto his bed….maybe for a slumber much wanted….