Short Story: Of Dreams And Reality...

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“What is your most special potential?”, he inquired. We stood there, meeting for the first time. His eyes were just like a magnet and my eyes were behaving just like iron. The only thing was that my eyes did not pop out of my head to start moving in his direction. But for almost more than a minute, I was still, and so were my eyes, sinking into his hazel hued eyes. He was not from this world. He possessed an entirely different personality. He appeared to me as the Greek God Mars, who had descended on Earth, for this lesser mortal's gratification. He was far beyond his appearance. Possessing a young face, which reflected maturity, with eyes brimming with love and respect, he had swept me off my feet!

He clicked his fingers in front of my eyes to bring me to the surface, out of his gripping, magnetic pull. “Hello...", he said, with a sweet smile on his face. “Would you like to attempt this most difficult question?”

“I don’t think one needs to draw a distinguishing line between the kinds of potentials one discovers in oneself.”, I replied, and my reply, in a way, surprised him, as if he had never expected such a reply from me. “Moreover, it does not matter for me. Whatever the situation be, I always give it my best.”

“You try to give your best or actually give it your best in every kind of situation?” he asked. The smile on his face was consistent and mesmerizing. It had not deviated by an iota so far.

“I don’t believe in trying, I just give it my best, as trying mostly makes way for excuses for oneself and excuses are enough to deviate oneself from one's best performance.”, I quipped.

His smile was propelling. It was propelling me to give answers without thinking, as if he was providing these answers to me in my mind through his magical smile. Probably this interaction was taking place only for me to realize this myself, to come to terms with something I had never pondered upon, and had never introspected in life.

“You look like Goddess Venus to me. Stay like this only, never get bogged down by any trouble in life.”, he said.

“Sure!”, I said. We were standing on opposite platforms waiting for the Metro trains to arrive in order for us to go home from college. The entire conversation had taken place over Whatsapp. I had seen him there for the first time. Both our trains were to travel in opposite directions. These opposite directions, attracted.

“Who are you? I have never seen you here. Where are you from? Where are you going?” I asked in a jiffy. By then we could see trains coming towards both of us, from opposite directions.

I started moving towards the Ladies coach and his train too, was brought to a stop, at the platform.

“Bye”, he said. “We might not meet again. If we ever meet again, I will reply to all these three questions.”

In a split-second, his eyes were sparkling. The smile was gone. He was sporting a serious look, while appearing taller than his own stature, older than his age, full of wisdom, love and respect.

“Bye”, I said and we stepped into our respective trains. The doors closed at the same time, and both the trains started moving in opposite directions, at high speed.

We both sent a hand waving emoticon to each other at the same time. The smiley emoticons were back too.

“Hello! Wake up, quick. Else you will get late for college!”

Mom was there to wake me up.

“And why were your hands in the air, like you were typing something?”

Oops! I looked at wall clock and smiled, as it was still not too late to reach college in time.

I smiled and rushed to grab my toothbrush, while dodging Mom's question. ;)

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--- I am participating in the #SoundOfLove activity at BlogAdda in association with Bluestone

The Multitude Of Facets...

She is my role model right since childhood. Hers is the first touch I had in my life. Hers is the first voice I heard. She is the one who gave me my first feed. She is the one who taught me to walk, talk and laugh. She is my world, she is my poetry, she is my energy, she is my foremost connect with this world. She is my real power. She is above me, inside me, and in fact she is everywhere with me, in my thoughts, in my eyes, in my dreams.

I remember, there was a time when she had to choose between her career or marriage, as she had told me, and as was the demand by my father’s family. But she had tackled the situation quite intelligently. She not only convinced her to-be husband but her in-laws too that if she continues with her school job as a senior teacher, it will be a boon to the family. She emphasized the fact that her job would act as an extended source of income to the family, apart from offering her a certain sense of self-confidence and keeping intact, her self-respect.

In case of any kind of crisis, there will be a backup to hold the situation in going from good to bad, to worse. My mother’s opinion was held in high spirits at a moment of crisis when everyone in the family praised about her firm stand and how mindfully she had managed to convince everyone, in the past.

This was her first valuable lesson to me for taking the path of “AND” instead of “OR” and showing the world that we women are no less than men.

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Another such moment came in her life again, a couple of months before my birth when everyone opined that she would be leaving her job but there was a unique dedication and perseverance that forced her school Principal not only to grant her leave for a longer duration, but also garner full support from the school management. Her school management was fully convinced that finding a replacement to her strong academic background would be quite difficult. In fact, she ensured that she would be assisting in work as long as possible during this period of leave. Once again she proved her mettle and the power of “AND” in her rather than opting for “OR”, which is usual under these and similar circumstances.

She is a dedicated teacher AND a doting mother, till date! :)

She is also an adept professional AND an ordained home-maker, till date. :)

She is also a perfect Blogger, in my opinion... :)

She has proved that she cannot be limited by a lone label. :)

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This post is a part of #UseYourAnd activity at BlogAdda in association with Gillette Venus.
Theme : Things That Define Me.

The Power Of AND...

Time and again she has proved that she has that special dimension of “AND” in her, apart from the usual “OR” factor that has been tagging along with every woman of my country since decades. Time  has changed and so has the woman of India. She has proclaimed to her people that she is no less than anyone in the world. The woman of my era has gone to space, has become a world champion in sports, has grabbed gold medals in Olympics, has taken charge of the country, has taken top positions in services, has proved herself in every field – be it of medicine, engineering, mountaineering, writing, teaching or banking.

It is my mother who demonstrated to me and taught me the power of “AND”. She also taught me that a woman is not weak in any sense. In fact it is only a woman, who even after proving herself successful in every walk of life, has been at the core of all life.

I remember an important episode which she handled in a beautiful manner that probably nobody else would have been able to handle. It was the day for my JEE Main, and my examination center had been allotted at a college in Gurgaon where I had to report before 9 AM. We started well in time but never knew what we could be facing en-route and that too when we had covered more than fifteen kilometers and hardly five kilometers were left to reach to the destination. The time by my watch was half past eight, which was more than sufficient, for us to reach the examination center.

There was a big mob ahead and a day long strike was about to begin, heralded by the local villagers in wake of no water being supplied in the area since the last three days. Their plan was to stop all vehicles on both sides, and we had no alternate route to take. There was no way to reverse the vehicle as there was a long queue behind our car. My mother got down from the car and did a very sensible thing.

Instead of persuading the old men and women of that village who were initiating that roadblock, she approached a few youngsters standing nearby belonging to the same village. She told them the whole story and convinced the boys of the paucity of time in hand. They made sense of the whole incident and let us go from the side by making much space to let our car pass.


That is something quite intelligent she did, by letting others know that it is only the route of “AND” she takes and not that of “OR”. She decided to go that way only as we had neither the time, nor the space to go back “AND” she was also determined that I must reach the destination
in time to attempt my exam. I am pursuing my engineering successfully and I owe it all to my mother. Thanks Mom, for inculcating and setting an example of this power of “AND” in you.

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This post is a part of #UseYourAnd activity at BlogAdda in association with Gillette Venus.

Theme: Journey From OR to AND.