Short Stories

Some short stories I have started to write, based on my experiences with life and how I view / look at those experiences

The Mouse in the House

Below is an incident from my childhood which I remembered today.

“There must be atleast two or three of them.”, said my mother referring to the sightings of rats in our house which had become more frequent in the last few days.

“Yes, at least two. One of them is bigger than the other.”, I replied.

“Let’s set up a trap for them. Otherwise they will become a nuisance.”

“Ok. Let me go and get them.”, I said as I rushed to the store room to get the mouse trap. “Should I set it up?”, I asked my mother, excited by the idea of baiting and trapping a mouse and rushed towards the refrigerator. I took out a small piece of dried bread from the refrigerator and was fixing it in the trap when my mother interrupted.

“Hey, what are you doing? A cold piece of dried bread? Let me cook a small piece of roti and we will apply some ghee and put it in the trap.”

“What? Roti? Ghee? Why the hell do we want to treat the rats with roti and ghee?”, I shouted as I found it hard to understand.

A typical mouse trap – Giving them what they want

“Because we want the mouse to do what we want (enter the trap), we must give them what they want (which is the nice smell of food). They won’t come into the trap if we just lure them with a dried piece of bread. These mice are not foolish. We have to lure them with what they can’t resist, which is the smell of roti and ghee.”

“Ok. If that is how it works.”, I said.

As I recalled this incident from my childhood, I was totally moved by the great lesson it has. My mom very clearly demonstrated that if we want someone to do what we want him to do, we must give him what he wants. But in our daily conversations, how often do we talk about the other person’s needs. We always start our conversations with “This is what I am doing, and this is what I want. And you should do this – buy this, act like this, or some other blah blah blah.” The other person must think on hearing this – “Why the hell in the world do I care about what you want?”

Only if we can keep in mind what the other person wants and start our conversations with his needs, and without doubt we can get the desired result more easily. Whether it is in sales or business or personal relationships, this one realization can change our lives.

Oct 15, 2013
Prescription Before Diagnosis

Scene 1

“I am having difficulty seeing properly. It seems a haze or cloud cover is between my eyes and the things out there”, said Ramesh, finally sitting in front of the doctor after waiting for two hours outside as the patient queue cleared.

“Maybe your eye-sight is getting weak. Here, take my glasses. You can use these. I have been using these for many years and they work fine for me. I have an extra pair of glasses at home, I will use those.”, said the doctor.

Ramesh, a little surprised now, remarked – “But wouldn’t you want to test my eyes first?”. He was certainly expecting a little more after the excruciating wait outside his clinic. “The least they could do was offer tea or coffee to the waiting patients”, he thought as he stared at the doctor’s face.

“Are you the doctor or me? I have used them for many years. Try these now and see for yourself.”, the doctor said, handing over the glasses to Ramesh.

“O..o..h..h..k..k”, uttered Ramesh as he reluctantly took the glasses and tried them on. As he expected, his vision got even worse, and he removed the glasses at once.

“What’s the matter?”, asked the doctor.

“I couldn’t see anything after putting them on. Now even my head is hurting.”

“What?? You must not have focused enough. The glasses are perfect, they will work for you too. Just try harder this time.”

“I am not putting them on again. I thought you would give a prescription after proper diagnosis. Now it looks I am only wasting my time here.”, said Ramesh as he got up and left the doctor’s cabin.

Don’t prescribe before diagnosing

Scene 2

“What’s the matter Neha, you seem unusually quiet today?”, asker her mother as the usually chirpy Neha as not spoken a word since she returned from school this afternoon.

“Nothing mother”, chirped little Neha.

“I know there is something. I only care for your welfare, so tell me what is bothering you.”

“You won’t understand.”

“Just try it dear. You will only feel better. And I am sure I can relate to whatever is going on in your mind and suggest a way out.”, her mother persisted.

“Hmm.. Mummy, I just don’t like going to school anymore.”

“Not feel like going to school anymore? Do you know how much we have sacrificed to make sure you can go to a good school and have a quality education? Your whole future depends on your education, and you don’t feel like going to school anymore?”

“But it is too hard, Ma”, muttered Neha, realizing that she should have stayed quiet in the first place.

“Learn something from your elder sister. If you apply yourself in your studies a little harder, even you will start enjoying it. You need to understand education is the foundation your future will be built upon”, said the mother with a tone of her voice finally coming back to normal.

Neha went back to being quiet.

Scene 3

For the third scene, lets imagine a similar scene from our own lives where he have been too quick to pass judgement or offer solutions. A scene where we want the other person to understand our point of view before making any effort to understand theirs. I am sure it would neither be too difficult to recall such a scene nor much different from any of the above scenes.

Jul 23, 2013
The Little Boy With His Hugs

There is so much we can learn from little boys and girls if we just observe them play, laugh and cry in their day to day activities. Recently I saw a little boy in a shopping mall with his parents. Suddenly, out of nowhere, he starts running and hugged the left leg of a girl coming from the opposite direction. The girl immediately smiled at seeing this little boy’s smile and innocence, and hugged him back and even lifted him in her arms. The parents looked a little embarrassed at first, but were smiling themselves soon.

A hug is a great gift – one size fits all, and it’s easy to exchange.

With the girl gone, the boy started looking for someone to run towards again. Sensing this, his dad said “Now no more running around, hold my hand and walk like a good boy.”

But before I could look anywhere else, he got his finger free from his father’s grip and starting running again. This time, he crashed into an elderly man who was talking over the phone to somebody, and looked a little tensed or worried.

“Get off me”, he said to the boy, but you know kids, and he held on.

“Leave uncle alone, you are hurting him”, said his father as he tried to take him away from the old man. He said sorry to the old man too, in the meanwhile.

“Ok, I have something here, I will call you later”, said the old man to whoever he was talking to. He then looked at the boy, waved his hand on the boy’s head and smiling at him, said “What is your name?”

Seeing the old man smiling, the boy loosened his grip, shied a little bit, muttered his name (which I couldn’t hear) and then again held his father’s hand and started walking.

Sometimes gestures can do more good than any combination of words coming out of our mouths. It seemed that this boy had a gift of hugs, and he went about distributing them to strangers, spreading smiles all around. The world would be a much better place, if we can also focus a little bit more on gestures of love than on words.

Jul 10, 2013
Flash The Fish – And The Search for The Big Ocean

There lived a fish so wonderful in the ocean that the tales of its beauty has reached far far lands. Her name was Flash. It was vibrantly colored with a tail called the “half moon“. All the other fish were envious of Flash for its long finned tail and brilliant colors. Its “D” shaped tail with sharp and crisp edges form almost a 180 degree angle. Flash also had the proud heritage of belonging to a rare family of fish who could breathe directly from air (apart from water).

But Flash had a worry. She was worried about and constantly looking for this thing called the “ocean“. She had heard about it and how beautiful and vast it was, but she couldn’t find it. She wandered all around the water, looking beneath the rocks and beyond the danger area where predator fishes reside, but to no avail. Her life was perfect in so many ways, but yet the meaning of ocean eluded her, and that spoiled her days.

Flash The Fish and the Search for the Great Ocean

She looked worried and anxious at all times due to this never ending search, and it started to impact her beauty too.

Word came one day to Flash that there was a wise teacher who knew the secrets behind the elusive ocean that she had been looking for. Without wasting a second, Flash waded through the currents, had to cross some very narrow ridges between under-water rocks to finally reach the place where the teacher was. She had heard that this teacher understood the meaning of the “great ocean”.

Flash finally asked, “Teacher, what is the great ocean? Where can I find it? Please tell me the secret, please. I have looked all around but couldn’t find it.”

And the teacher simply laughed. His laughter had a sense of calmness that only someone wise can display. It seemed like a song in perfect melody. But he just laughed.

— End of Story —

Why do you think the teacher simply laughed? What was the secret? Did he knew about the vast ocean?

Perhaps it was because the fish was in the ocean and yet looking for it. Separate the fish from the water, and there is no possibility of life. The ocean was its life. But Flash just didn’t realize it, and wasted all its beauty and other unique traits in this mindless search for the elusive ocean.

When was the last time you wondered about the meaning of life? Or do you recall how many days have you sat and thought about the secret of life, and made plans about how to ‘crack’ it? How you have sought different ways to find this “answer”?

(Laughter) (Laughter)

May 15, 2013
The Car is Always Empty

“Oh no, not again today. Why do these last minute tasks keep coming up at just the wrong time”, Vivek thought as he rushed out of his office in a hurry. The watch read 5:15 pm. “I might just escape the evening traffic.”, he murmured as he started his car.

He had traveled around 15 minutes and the traffic was smooth.

“So far so good”, he uttered as he approached a traffic signal, knowing that a real busy stretch was about to commence. He waited for the signal to turn green, which happened after around 90 seconds of waiting. But alas, even as the signal was green, the car in front of him didn’t move.

“What the …? What’s wrong with this …?”, he shouted as he rolled down his glass windows. “Why do people take their cars out if they don’t know how to drive?”, he said, his voice getting louder.

It has been 15 seconds now, and was only 30 seconds before the signal would turn red again. He honked, and then honked some more but to no effect. He decided it was time to give the driver an earful and got out of the car.

“Can’t you see the green signal in front? Will you bloody move……”, he stopped his angry tirade as he saw that the car in front of him had no driver in it and was empty. “Maybe it had broken down and the driver left it here to find help.”, he thought.

Realizing the futility of his honking and shouting now, he got back in his car, took a little reverse and then went around the car with no driver. He crossed the signal just as it turned red again. “What just happened?”, he said to himself as he drove off.

“If all it required was to take a little detour around the car in front of me, then why was I shouting and honking and getting angry, even when I know I am already running late.”

The Car is Always Empty

…. Silence …

“And where did my anger disappeared when I saw there was no driver. After that it was just common sense to drive off around the broken car. But where was that common sense before. How does it matter whether the car had a driver or not. I could have still drived off around it.”

This kept on puzzling him till he reached home an hour later. Later at night while having dinner, he suddenly shouted, “I got it. The car is always empty.” “Yes, it is always empty. Even if the driver is there, it is always empty”, he said it out aloud in excitement like he has just had an eureka moment.

Everyone around him on the dining table sat puzzled, wondering what has just happened to Vivek.

— End of Story —

Here is the thing – Whenever we encounter people and situations which don’t turn out as we ‘expect’ them to, we are finding an “empty car”, but we don’t always see it that way. We think that someone ‘else’ has spoiled our expectation when what is happening is normal, just plain normal life. We might judge them, curse them, and find other ways to justify ourself but the truth is that they are just living their lives as we are living ours, and they just happen to be ‘in our way’. Just like we also are in other’s ways multiple times a day.

This is a tough task, to separate the actions of the world from our judgement and ours always thinking mind, and see them just as they are. If we don’t get angry at the sun making us sweat, or the dust making us dirty, and we just do whatever is required, the similar is true for other empty cars too.

Apr 25, 2013
There is Never Nothing Going On

“Mummy”, screamed the child as he craved for some attention from his mother. He has finished his cookies and coffee sitting on a rooftop coffee shop, a favorite of her mother.

“What beta?”, asked his mother as she glanced at him, taking her eyes away from some office work she was just about to complete on her laptop.

“You are busy, and our coffee is finished too. What am I supposed to do?”, said the child, clearly getting bored.

“Just a minute beta. My work is just about to…” She was interrupted before she could complete the sentence.

“There is nothing going on.”

Realizing that her son won’t take it anymore, she closed her laptop, took one last sip from her coffee and asked – “Now tell me son, what’s the matter?”

“It is so boring here mummy. There is nothing going on, let us go home.”, screamed the boy again, attracting the attention of a few people sitting close by.

There is Never Nothing Going On

“Let me tell you something. There is never nothing going on. Just relax for a moment and observe the waiters serving coffee to customers, different set of people leaving and coming in the coffee shop. Also observe the moods of different people, some are happy, some are sad, and look over there – those set of people are certainly arguing about something. Look outside, there are trees of different types. Can you spot the birds sitting on the branches? If you listen, you can even hear their chirping.”

“So what mom?”, asked the boy.

“What I want to say beta is that there is never nothing going on. It is only we who stop listening or feeling. Feel the cool breeze as it comes every few minutes on this side of the cafe. Savor this moment for what it has to offer. And that is why I love coming here and spend some time just relaxing. Never say life is boring, because it isn’t.”

“Hmm.. I guess we get bored sometimes, but life isn’t.”, exclaimed the boy, looking a little perplexed and amused at the same time.

“Great then, let me complete my work now.” And she opened her laptop again.

This time, the boy went over to the road facing side of the roof. I guess he was observing and feeling all that is happening on the road below.

Apr 11, 2013
Don’t ask How? Ask Why?

A man was working on his laptop when his mother asked him “Do you want some coffee, I am making for myself?”

“No, mother. I am busy” came the reply.

“Doing what?”

“I am looking at some tips for how to write a book”.

“Ok. Then what will you do.”, the mother asked, looking lost by his software engineer son’s desire to write a book.

“Ah.. I have some vacations coming up too in December. I want to travel outside the country this time. I need to find out how to travel the maximum and see the most places in those 7 days of vacation.”

“But why?”, enquired his mother.

“There are no right answers to wrong questions.” – Ursula K. Le Guin

“Why what?”, the man shot back.

“Why are you writing a book? Why do you want to travel outside the country? And Why do you want to visit a lot of places in 7 days?”

“Hmmm, never thought about it this way”, the man said.

“Then think now. Replace the ‘how‘ in your questions with ‘why‘ and see what happens.” His mom said, explaining further, “The hows will give you answers too, but the whys will give powerful insights about what you really want…”

Like in the above story, we also live most our days trying to figure out how to do this, how to do that? Even when we meet people, we ask them – How did you become popular? How did you get into this job? and so on. If we were to replace the hows with whys, we would get a real peek into who we really are and what do we actually desire. Just changing the hows to whys can make a lot of difference in our lives.

Mar 22, 2013
The Cash Counter and the Little Girl

Kids and their curiosity

“Who will eat these biscuits?”, the little girl asked her mom at the check-out counter of a nearby grocery shop. “Your papa likes them with tea, na, now give it to bhaiya”, she said pointing towards the boy at the counter. “And who will eat these?”, came the follow up question followed by another, “Can I eat them too, are they sweet or salty?”.. Little kids, and their knack of asking questions. I guess it is their way of understanding how this world works..

But standing right behind them in the checkout line, the next thing I saw was the hand of her mom snatching away the biscuit and namkeen packets from the little girl so that they can be billed. “You talk too much, don’t you see we are already late, now keep quite and don’t touch anything”, screamed the mom, clearly frustrated and eager to get out as soon as possible.

Ten more items later, the billing was done, and the mom hurried, with the shopping bags in one hand, and the hand of her little daughter in the other. The girl must have been thinking “What is the hurry, today is Saturday, an off for everyone?”

Obviously she is unaware of the fact that when we humans grow up, we all find it difficult to really enjoy what each moment has to offer. We are all too caught up in the rat race, either thinking about the past or the future, but not about the present. In the above incident, the mom might very well be thinking of her daughter’s school admission, or what to cook for her at dinner, but didn’t have the time to answer the questions which are very much a part of her growing up. We all have been, and are like this mother at different times.

How simple life is as kids? Do what you like. If you don’t know something, ask questions. You don’t know whether the questions sound silly, or no worries. You laugh with others if you see them laughing at you without getting conscious, so no worries again. Even if you realize you’ve done a mistake, you say ‘sorry’ and move on like nothing happened in the first place. You are more interested in what is going to happen the next minute, rather than what happened one hour ago, or earlier today, or yesterday, or years ago. You can get excited by little things like a biscuit or the colors of the your dress, and your expression can change from a smile to a frown to again a smile within five seconds.

But alas, I am a grown up now, and maybe I am not supposed to talk, think or write like this.

Mar 15, 2013
Building a New Floor

As I was completing my third round of jogging in the neighborhood park, I suddenly stopped at the sight of a new house just across the park.

“Something is different today.“, I said to myself, as somehow it caught my attention. It certainly had been under construction for some time now, and I remember seeing it on many previous morning jogs too. After pondering for a few minutes, I got the difference – the support beams were gone. The house was standing on its own.

If you are building a new floor, you will need support.

Over the past few weeks, as I went passed this house, it was all messy with wooden logs or beams supporting each floor as it was built. There was mud, rocks and all kind of construction material outside the house, and inside there were only walls with red dirty bricks, and a few workers in dirt filled clothes going about their chores. Everybody walking on the street looked at everywhere but this house. Very frankly, it was not a pretty sight and people turned away from that side of the road while walking.

But today, the beams were gone and there was a layer of cement and white paint on the walls. The front entrance was getting cleaned, and much of the machinery and construction material was gone. Sunlight was coming in from the side and the new floor and walls were reflecting it illuminating the house, giving it a very different look from just a few days ago. And everyone walking on the road couldn’t continue without stopping and glancing at the new beautiful house, admiring it and wishing one for themselves.

Isn’t that the way of life and nature? Everything beautiful ever built was once messy and needed support. I guess the same holds true for great human beings and relationships. As we make different new floors on our life building, we will need the support of beams, we will look like a mess from the outside, and people will look the other way.

But once you finally complete the new floor, everybody will stop by and ask how you did that? Some will say you are lucky, and many will stop and admire you for creating your life the way it looks like. And they will wish they could do the same.

And they can. Everybody can. But then they have to take support of the beams. They would have to be OK with a little mess now and then. They would have to be OK with people seeing the other side when they most need support. Every dream has a price to be paid for. The only question is – are you willing to pay the price for your dream home, or your dream life?

Feb 13, 2013
The Strawberry and The Tigers

“Faster, faster”, he said to himself as he ran through the narrow path between the thick forest on both sides. He remembered how his coach used to train him to run fast during college athletic meets. Of course this was no college, and he was sure his coach had never been chased by a tiger.

“Grrr”, the roar of the tiger brought him back to attention, and he started looking for a hideout where the tiger would not be able to go. He remembered the tunnel he had passed some distance ago – “I should have entered it and hid there, and maybe the tiger would have given it a miss.” “But what if the tiger would have followed me and the tunnel had no other end?” – he smiled as he realized it was the right decision to not enter that tunnel.

Are we eating our strawberries? Or do we miss them in the daily grind of life running from our own version of tigers?

His eyes lit up as he saw a steep cliff a little ahead on the left. He changed course and headed for the cliff knowing that he has to climb it down, being pretty sure that a tiger can’t follow him down the cliff. What was even better that the cliff had deep vegetation and thick bushes which he could use to climb down!

He took a strong hold of the bushes and threw himself over the cliff. He could feel his hands getting soaked in blood as he climbed down the bushes. But it didn’t hurt as he finally felt safe. He enjoyed the sight of seeing the tiger roaring at the top but unable to do anything. He continued to climb down, now the bushes were a lot thinner and very soon it was just rock. He saw a rope hanging till the bottom of the cliff, probably left behind by some mountaineer. He caught hold of it and continued his descent, until he heard another big roar.

What made him shiver was the knowledge that the roar didn’t came from above, but from below him. He held onto the rope, and unwillingly looked down, fearing the worst. And there it was, another tiger waiting for him. “What happened to my luck today?” – he thought as he was caught between the two tigers waiting for him. He held onto the rope, now that he had no other option.

Just when he thought things could not get any worse he saw two rats coming out of a tiny opening among the rocks and move towards the rope. In the absence of anything soft to chew on, the rope was a perfect time pass for them. “Oh no, crap..”, he uttered as he tried to move and shake away the rats. But he stopped not knowing the strength of the rope and fearing that it might break faster by his shaking than by being chewed away from the rats.

But as he has moved left and right with the rope to shake away the rats, he saw a beautiful strawberry plant on one side. He paused for a while, and then took the risk of swinging to that side and pluck a few strawberries with one hand. “They look delicious.”, he thought as he looked at them. The next moment he was enjoying the sweet taste of the strawberries in his mouth. “Wow, tastes just as well”, was his joyful expression as he cherished the strawberries in his mouth.

Feb 4, 2013
The Wise Barber

“How are things with your son, Sir?“, I overheard the barber as I was getting my hair cut in the neighborhood barber shop last week.

“It kind of improved after my last visit here, but is heading back to a state where we rarely talk..“, replied the man with gray hair. The wrinkles on his face suggested he was easily above 50.

The Wise Barber

In that split second when I heard this statement, I remembered my many trips to the barber shop during my childhood and how the barber would be the one person to know everyone in the colony and what is happening in their lives. And the way people used to talk about others lives in a barber shops seem to suggest that people have given them exclusive licenses to broadcast their life events. After a gap of a few seconds, the old man spoke again.

“After I talked to him frankly and openly, it felt a lot better. We talked in the evenings after dinner and it was like he was opening up. But then again, he got distant and quiet without any reason. Then there were a few instances where I lost my cool and shouted at him. Then there were all those negative emotions in my mind and it made it very difficult for me to make the efforts when he acts so cold.”

“I think you were in exactly the same position when you last came in?“, asked the barber.

“Yes. Both with my hair and with my relationship with my son, they have come a full circle.“, said the old man jokingly.

“And that is the rule of life. Some things grow back up and have to be cut regularly. It is the same with negative emotions. I can cut your hair, but we all have to cut our negativeness ourselves. Nobody will do that for us.“, replied the barber.

There was a long pause after that as the old man pondered over the wise words we all at the barber shop just heard. After he was done, he got up and said, “Yes, you are right. There are no barber shops for negative emotions. We have to do the job ourselves.” And then he left the shop.

I bet his relationship with his son would have taken on a positive note after that.

Jan 28, 2013