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Content Tip |
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Children's
Story Writing is a good creative outlet and can be used to
inspire others. |
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Taking Life, One Day At A Time
The exams were over. The
fields of Fun Nagar’ had been quite silent of late owing to these
examinations. Fun Nagar, located in north Mumbai was a colony where Rajen
lived with his parents amidst many such other families. Rajen looked
forward to two big months of uninterrupted fun. Clearly, nothing could be
as much awaited as the summer vacation by Rajen and his pals. The time had
come- for them to sit in groups and pass afternoon hours sharing their
dreams and pursuits for them to go to the playground and discover the
Tendulkars in them, for them to visit their relatives’ place and have the
time of their lives. Rajen’s parents also would impose no restrictions,
now that the exams were over. Not that Rajen needed any restrictions, for
he was a dedicated student who understood his responsibilities. While he
didn’t take his studies lightly, quite ironically, he wasn’t clear about
his career as well. Rajen had just another year left before he would enter
his X standard- undisputedly a very important year for anyone’s career.
Rajen was an average
student and had no clear plans about his career. He was a happy-go-lucky
child, taking life one day at a time. He used to approach studies
differently. His pursuit was knowledge. Competition couldn’t ruffle him in
any way. He also was an ideas-student. He liked to think strongly about
how major discoveries happened and what was the origin of breakthrough
inventions. This uncertainty and randomness was a bit disturbing for
Rajen’s parents who wanted him to think more seriously about his career.
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His goal in life was to marry imagination with knowledge to result in
social benefit. He strongly felt that every educated person should take up
the responsibility of at least turning one illiterate person into a
literate one. This, according to him would end partly exploitation of
uneducated workers who had to work as liftmen or watchmen. He didn’t see
any worth in such jobs. He was often trying to unscramble how if
technology had made such great breakthroughs, we still needed people to
sit at one place the whole day and act as a watchdog. He also used to
frequently visit the nearby newspaper vendor and chat with him for hours
trying to understand from him, why he had only inclination to sell and not
read the newspaper. He had partly succeeded in his pursuit by making the
vendor read at least the local supplement that accompanies the main paper
everyday. |
The day after the exams got over, Rajen took out a pencil and a paper and
started drawing cartoons, much to the amusement of his mother. His mother
gave out an instant reaction, “Rajen, this will lead you nowhere. Your
sketches are not going to be auctioned for big sums of money.”
“Mummy, let me live this moment,
let me quench this thirst
let me not worry about the future
let me live the present first!”
”Oh, there you are Mr Wordsworth, with one more of your silly
compositions.”
“What is silly?
Sparrows will chirp,
Birds will fly
Writers will write
So, please don’t sigh!”
“Decide what you are – a social activist, an artist or a writer or a
professional Mr. Confusion?” “Let me follow my heart, it will take me
where I have to go.”
The vacations ended. Rajen set his heart free and did everything from
writing poems to drawing sketches to urging uneducated people to enroll
themselves for schooling. The classes for Standard X began and also
started the lectures on profession- you should become an engineer, they
get paid well you know- said the nieghbour Mrs. Bhushan. “You should try
your hand at architecture- with the no of celebrities increasing, this has
ample scope you know” foresaw Mr Rawat, Rajen’s friend’s dad.
“How about earning a living out of playing marbles?”
“What”- The shock was evident on Mrs Bhushan’s and Mr Rawat’s faces. Quite
predictably, they didn’t take this very lightly and got annoyed. Mr Rawat
told Rajen, “You have no sense of seriousness for your life. You will have
to pay a price for this. Mark my words.”
Rajen didn’t bother. He kept studying the way he used to. He wondered
often whether it was such a big sin to be interested in almost everything.
He involved himself in whatever he did and couldn’t find himself doing
just one thing all his life. Time moved on. His results
for SSC came out. He secured 80% and his parents were delighted. Let’s
take an admission for Science stream. Rajen refused. He said that he
wanted to be a freelancer- write short stories, draw, do some social work
here and there and so on. His parents were unhappy about this. However,
Rajen had already sent his works to many publishers and his illustrations
had also been posted on the net. Rajen was confident that he would get the
break he needed.
One fine day, he got a
call from a venture capitalist company (which had been impressed with his
unusual and useful thoughts) called ‘Heartforart’ and offered him a deal-
he would have to do what he loved doing- sketch, write poems, enlighten
people etc. This would be for a government project in order to increase
literacy and promote art as well. This would create the much needed
awareness for taking up jobs that one would like to do and not just do a
job for a living.
Rajen was excited. He was off for a 5 year period to the quarters of the
company, ‘Heartforart’ at New Delhi, where he would continue his pursuits
with greater freedom and conviction. His parents felt happy for him. His
mother said, “Finally, my son has found a place which deserves him. My
best wishes are with you – My Wordsworth, Michalengelo and Anna Hazare all
rolled into one!”
Mr. Rawat was speechless when he accompanied others to see off Rajen at
the airport. “Hope you take your life seriously”, he told Rajen. Rajen
nodded while accepting the wishes and said, “Sorry, I take life one day at
a time.” It seemed that Rajen’s heart had finally taken him where he
wanted to go.
Contributing Story Teller
Saurabh Niranjan Turakhia is
a 28 year young poet and has lately been dabbling in short story
writing. I am thankful to
Contentwriter.in for
providing a good platform for writers like me
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