Change of theme

As aptly pointed out by Sundar its been a while since I have written any stories (or blogs). Its only after trying for myself have I figured it out that writing stories is not an easy thing to do. I can only sympathize with all those wanna be writers who break their head trying to come up with a good story.

Ok people please don't read into these statements very seriously. Primary reason I wasn't able to write anything serious is because I am a lazy person who can find a good excuse for not doing things(a deadly combination).

Now coming to the new theme that I will stick to from here on and one which is very much inspired by our famous music directors is that I will try to write about things that I read or see or listen to and present to you people (my huge fans circle :) ) in a different manner like my perspective or my analogy of the same thing just presented in a different manner and don't worry I will surely not be as good as our music directors when it comes to this , I promise it will not be a Control C Control V thing :D.

But first I will have to untag myself. So here are 5 strange things about me. Few my friends already know about and few of them they dont

1) I have had near death experiences in my dreams like falling from mountains (had it many times) and actually experiencing it and choking in mid air while falling only to realize that I fell from bed instead of mountain :) and sinking in quick sand and once this was so real that I could not sleep that entire night as my throat completely dried. (And another strange thing is that these dreams are quite normal and many people have such dreams)
2) I often find myself listening to my Alter Ego only he telling me the exact opposite of what I am doing.
3) Another thing that most of my friends have experienced with me is that I suddenly doze off while having a conversation (even on most interesting topic) only to wake up to a scolding after few seconds. This habit I think is mostly because of my lack of concentration.
4) Something that I have been doing frequently that I don't find it strange anymore is that I forget things very easily (just like scientist do and yet I only have half of there I.Q :( ).
5) And last the most scary one is the fact that I am more attracted to my 35 yrs neighbor than her buxom 21 years old daughter Damn!!! (Roftl)

Now I will pass the tag to MR AJ Garu.

CH 2: Painting of Genesis

It was around 10 pm in the night when the man arrived at the doorsteps of this large mansion and delivered the package. The mansion was around 400 km from the nearest city. Aloof from any residential area and with no proper routes connecting it from the city it befitted the definition of a haunted castle. The only passage to the house was a small mud road that used to be hidden underneath the arctic ice all the time.

Must be something very important thought the steward. It had been around 3 months since he had seen anyone come to the mansion. The winter was at its peak and no one would come through the mud road during winters. But it was Adrian who delivered it.

Adrian was the connection of the castle to the outside world. He used to bring stocks of fish and grain to be kept in the castle for the winters and he was the only one who was well accustomed to the route to castle.

Here's the coffee you ordered sir!! said the steward. It was late in the night but professor was not ready to go to sleep yet. He seemed to be very engrossed with the stuff that had come in the package. It had been three days since he last had some meaningful sleep. Steward was not bothered by this at all. He had been with him since his birth and as the case with his father was well acquainted with the fact that they did not care about sleep very much and thats why his father had departed at the young age of 45.

A billionaire recluse from Magadan, Russia Victor Simorskev lived his life through the cold artic winters. The region was almost inhabitable and he liked it that way. An epistemologist, he had to live his life in exile. His uncharacteristic research work had prompted lots of controversies which led him to take refuge at this place. Only thing that prompted the government no to take any action against him was because of his money. Everyone suspected that he was smuggling gold from the Kolyma river because no one knew for sure as to how he had managed to get so much of money. Every suspicion that arose in this regard would come to an end without any proof. But the money was often used to fund research projects happening within the government so finally everyone gave up on these charges and professor was left alone.

Perfect! said the professor. You are saying something to me asked the steward. Oh no! Please keep the coffee on the table and three sugar cubes and with the creamer. Last time you had put only two replied professor. Although professor had not seen him make the coffee, he loved his coffee so much that he knew the exact taste of it. Steward remembered how last time he had put only two because he had forgotten to get the new pack of sugar cubes.

You must have sleep said the steward as much concerned about his own. Yes Jeeves but I have some work to do. You go and get some rest I wont bother you with anything. No not until 6:00 am laughed the professor. My pleasure Sir said Jeeves and closed the door.

Professor had sip of coffee and started to look at things spread in his table. It consisted of an archaic manuscript, a wood work depicting lotus and a painting.

Two days later a new man came to the mansion once again led by Adrian. Steward was happy to see a new face but his instincts told him that another controversy was going to come pretty soon because no one would come to this place at winters unless professor had found something really big . He used to keep his distance from all these. Such things occurred quite often to bother him.

This time it was different. Professor allowed the man into his research room this told the steward that he man not any government agent. Normally government agent had the permission only till the hall.

Ah the "Painting of Genesis" exclaimed the man as soon as he entered the room.

CH 1: Questions

“All is programmed for you”.

This is what every person who enters through the main door on north side would read once when they entered the firm. The gold plated letters where used welcome everyone to the Gooogle world. The geek god was revered here and ordinary people would just stand in awe ofthe glittering gold that made them feel so unintellectual. Geeks language was a trait used by gooogle to gain upper hand when making business deals with others and these words had become the general norm of every deal and used to appear in everything from desktop to documents.

They were working in the same team and both used to chit chat at the coffee table every afternoon. It was 15 to 25 minutes break where they used to discuss all sorts of things together. Today's topic of discussion had popped out when Venkat saw one of those business papers and asked these questions to John.

Is this really true? Is everything really programmed? And all that we do is to follow the execution path. Is that all there is to it? asked Venkat looking very engrosed into the words written on those papers.

“Yeah mate the boss has got everything figured out for us. He knows what task to assign us for next week and the next one after that. He has got everything figured out and all we have to do is to complete the task given to us. Damn this Alex!” replied John.

The coffee session end after 10 minutes and both went back to work.

On the way home Venkat couldn't stop thinking about what John said to him during coffee session. Venkat was referring to life when he had asked John about this question and though the answer that John gave was in reference to Alex. Things made sense to Venkat when he attached GOD in place of Alex.

But why would god want me do this when I don't want to do this myself?

Venkat wanted to become to become a police officer and serve the place that had given him so much in his life.

But just days before his attending the interview Venkat got into accident and accident left him slight limp. His was forced to study and take up a flight to US. Although not a huge fan of computers himself Venkat became a software developer and his dreams of becoming a police officer had to be put off. His route to US was without any trouble whatsoever and everything just seemed to fall in place for him to become a software developer.

He just couldnot accept that his life was "programmed for him to be that way". Is was not agreeable to him. Not just this big one but other small incidents too like when he got all the assignment of Gooogle Mantra when Victor had made all the efforts to get it or when got the credit for a team job, made him feel as if thing were not under his control. He always got the feeling that outcome was beyond his influence and that someone else was affecting it.

Is there a hidden secret to my life that I ought to know? thought Venkat. Is this mysterious force just going to be someone whom I have never seen just heard about. Is my life already programmed by this force.

"I have to find out more. Just accepting the situation is not a solution. No not for me".

Story

One thing common about everyones life is that its full of incidents. Incidents happen and leave thier impression on peoples life. Often we find ourselves saying “This was not supposed to happen to me” or “May be it was meant to be that way”. A cobbler becomes a rich merchant or on the flip side a rich man looses everything that he earned. These are big incidents that leave there lasting impression on ones life. There are other small incidents too like “a person forgetting his wallet” or a “programmer finding a solution for his problem in google”. These small incidents occur more frequently and leave their effect for a short period. But all in all incidents affect our life in some way or the other.

The story is about Venkat, a mathematician from IIT Kanpur who is working as computer programmer for Gooogle, the internet powerhouse that has become the face of entire world wide web. Venkat believes that there is a reason behind the incidents that happened in his life and starts on a journey to find that reason.

What was supposed to be small trip of sorts soon unravels into a mind-boggling journey of a world or science that had never been explored by many before.

Prologue

Why is this damn thing not working when I need it the most. Everything thats happening today is completely messed up. May be, I was supposed to go through this bad day. This mantra thing is becoming a real pain in my butt. The door opens and Alex enters into the room. Alex is Venkat's manager at google.

“Hey Venkat! I hope its done”.
Venkat stutters a bit and says, “Well its almost complete” .
“Good! your Gooogle Mantra is going to be a sure hit among the masses”.
“Yeah but i have to get this bug fixed first. Its killing me”.
“May be I can help. Let me have a look .”

Both go through the code and Alex smiles and looks at Venkat. Its turns out be a very silly mistake. Both of them have a laugh about it and Alex leaves the room. Venkat falls back in his chair and starts thinking.

"I knew this had to happen today. But thank god i can go home and get some rest now. Lets hope there are no more incidents while driving. I never saw this coming but hope theres no more of it. I hope I don't spent my entire life sitting in front of this stupid box and keep doing the same thing to earn my daily bread.”

After few days Gooogle Mantra is released and once again the world looks to be becoming more smaller day by day. Thanks to Gooogle for their effort, today they hold the baton of making world a smaller place.

CH 4: Choice

Words sounded aloud when the wise man said that I had already made the decision about where my journey was going to take me. With that in mind I opened the door in front of me.

A gush of electricity flew into my veins. 'We have a breath' shouted a man. 'He is moving', said someone. I heard the beeping sound of the machine and from there on it was a long road to recovery. Lots of friends asked me how those days were and all I would ever say to them was that 'it felt like eternity'. Some would laugh, some would show their concern and some would shout at me but everyone knew that i was in coma.

Days went by and I grew stronger. Slowly then i started to speak about the events that occurred while I was in coma. Doctors came up with reasons as to it being nothing more than a dream. But I was convinced about the events and could vividly recollect the feeling of being free from everything while in front of that table. I wondered many times if this is the moment that I am being watched by the wise man and will I make the choice of meeting him again but then as wise man said if I wondered then i am not being watched by him. So slowly even those thoughts left my mind.

Many questions remained unanswered. What happened to the guy who was talking to me at the table? What would it be like to be a part of eternity? What choice did others make in that room? Will i ever be able to find answers to these questions? I don't know. But all i know is that, I was given a chance to choose and my choice is there for everybody to see. I could never leave her or mom alone in this world and thats when I made the choice that I had to come back no matter what.

CH 3: Reason

Incidents folded in front of us one by one and things started to become clear. The wise man showed events that occurred in everyones life and from those events it became clear that all of us sitting at the table were here because of a wish. Everbody at the table even though of different color, caste, creed or from different world so to speak off had all made a wish, a wish to be 'Far Away'.

Wise Man continued 'All of you sitting here had once in your life wished to travel. A journey that will take you to far off places, a journey that will take you to stars, a journey that will free you from thoughts of who you are'. Everybody was now listening carefully to what the wise was saying.

He told everyone about the journey that we were going to make. It was something different from the one that I was used to making as a sales agent selling stocks and products from one place to another. 'Are you talking about moksha', asked a man at the table. (MOKSHA is a term used in Buddhism, Hinduism, Jainism as freedom from the differentiated, temporal, and mortal world of ordinary experience). 'Moksha to some and eternity to others' said the wise man. There was a big hush in the room. Sense of peacefulness or freedom at the table made sense now.

'Many of people have wished for moksha then why us why not others' asked me. 'Many of them wish, not just you people but the wish that are granted are the once that are not made under any influence. Many of them wish that they become young, many that there should be peace in world, many wish to take the same journey as you all did but not all come here' said the wise. 'The wish made by these people is done under the inflence of circumstances which are created and ruled by them. So it comes down to them to handle it'. I realized then the calm that I felt before making the wish, the morning rays had freed me from all the influences.

'Wish and the reason brought you till here, now its up to you to continue the journey, a decision that you all have already made' said the wise. Doors appeared in front of us and each one took the door of their choice to what lied ahead.

CH 2: Wish

Early morning was pretty cold in Darjeeling. Had a long day ahead. We had to see many places, for after two days it was back to the hurry burry life in Chennai. Mum dressed me up quickly, I was the first person to get dressed and be set for the day ahead. It was a morning full of enthusiasm. I was jumping on the cot doing my best to mess up the room. My brother started shouting coz I was jumping on his new pants on the cot. Papa also shouted hearing the noise in the room. I got scared and ran to the balcony and sat on the old chair.

Thats when I saw the view that I will never forget for rest of my life. A big fire ball emerged from behind the mountains. Sun was looking the biggest that I have ever seen in my life. Rays of sun allayed my body which was shivering because of the cold himalayan winds. It filled me up with warmth when the first rays of the morning fell on me. I felt such peace inside me. All the excitement and enthusiasm about the trip was gone and I felt big calm in me at that moment.

My thoughts started to diverge from the fun filled trip of Darjeeling to my grandpa and grandma. They used to be around me all the time and then suddenly one day they left me. Whenever I asked my mum about them she used to reply that they have gone to a trip in the sky and used to point to the sky at the most shining star and say there they are.

During the days when grandpa and grandma were here with me their stories used to calm me to a good night and peaceful sleep. Since sun had filled me up with same warmth and peace I knew that they were there. Situation reminded me of What my dad used to say, 'Son everyone one day has to make journey to the stars'.

At that time with complete peace in my mind I whispered 'I want to be there where you guys are and want to be like you'. Then suddenly my mom came rushing and pulled me from the chair saying we are late.