Tuesday, October 21, 2008

Slippery

To Raghu’s utter disgust it happened for five days straight.

Moving across the hotel’s lobby, to provide the hotel staff with tea and snacks from time to time, Raghu always slipped and fell down. Every fall brought him thorny teases from the staff and a bite of embarrassment from within. In the end it was only Akbar chacha, the older security guard at the entrance, who used to offer his help.

As the first week got over he asked Akbar chacha about it. “Why do I fall in the same place every time? Though I repeatedly remind myself not to but still …”

“You fall because you don’t learn from the floor. You only focus on the fall while walking and thus a part of you always remains ignorant about the slippery floor. It’s always how-did-I-fall for you whereas it should be why-did-I-fall. Do you get me son?”

He didn’t get him completely but since his practice of what Akbar chacha told him Raghu never slipped again either.



By: NovoneeL ChakrabortY


Saturday, October 4, 2008

Plus - Minus

"Today" The teacher said, "I will tell you about the mathematics of life." He immediately turned around and drew a horizontal line on the black board. "What's this?" He asked aloud to the class.
Since it was a mathematics class the students were pretty much clear about it. "A minus sign."
"Right. It indeed is a minus sign. Each one of us has or will experience a minus, or minuses, at some point in our lives. What then?"
A boy raised his hand and after a nod from the teacher said, "Screw-time."
A wave of laughter touched the entire class.
"Exactly!" The teacher continued, "And I presume nobody likes that. So how do we turn the minus into a plus?" Blank faces gaped at the teacher.
"Let us suppose 'I' is an individual and 'I' chooses to confront the minus by being at the middle of things then lets see what happens to the minus." He again turned around and this time drew an 'I' vertically over the minus.

"That's a plus!" He heard the awe-struck voices and instantly knew his job was done.


By: NovoneeL ChakrabortY