As the award ceremony is yet to begin she starts reading the following from a random page of her book.
“Dear diary,
You are my true happiness amidst my busy IT work life. I am glad that I meet you every day. So, this is my record for today.
It was a much-needed weekend after one hectic week at work. The feeling of emptiness in my life has never changed despite having enough money and a sophisticated lifestyle. After all, that is the reason for this aspiring writer to seek your company daily.
The book that I read this morning spoke about how God guides us indirectly through omens that we fail to understand. It also spoke about how the universe conspires to help someone achieve their dreams.
The evening visit to the sea-shore was interesting as well. It was nice watching the waves playing among themselves. The wave that started later was trying to race the former ones, to reach the shore first. And…”
As I was doing my routine of journal writing for the day, my mind was refusing to get back from the evening visit to the sea-shore. It was searching for some answers that made my day incomplete.
There is something that I was trying to resolve as if I was given a puzzle. I knew, it would not let me sleep if it’s left unsolved.
I walked up to the terrace to get some fresh air.
All my life, I had tried to figure out my dream job. However, I couldn’t find anything else interesting as much as writing/ blogging. I knew and regret the fact that it was my fault to have quit writing in order to become an IT professional, the career that I had to choose by default, because that’s how the society has trained the young graduates in our country.
Being an Engineer by profession, I have always gone through the agony of living between ‘Not liking my profession’ and ‘finding difficult to work on my passion’. I fight hard to be logical and rational at my work, where I was forced, not to be so.
I know that the career I chose looks too good from outside. I had judged the book by its cover is what I can say. Today, I’m sitting like a cat on the wall, not knowing where to jump. I wanted to resign and start learning the art of writing but I know I wouldn’t. However, I make it a point to write whenever I get a chance.
No matter how many times I lose in the writing contests, I never fail to participate in any such event that makes me write. My every day struggle in a love-hate relationship with my career continued.
At times, I write to forget. Most of the times, I forget to write.
After all, life goes on. And, I have now gone to the terrace.
The terrace was calm with the silent wind. I closed my eyes, inhaled some fresh air and let my mind to wander around, so that it could find the answers that it was searching for.
Travelling to the sea-shore, where I was spending some ‘my time’ that evening, my mind recollected that soft touch of a tiny finger on my shoulder. The scene gets played sequentially in my mind.
I turned back and shared a warm smile with the little girl who would be around 3 to 4 years old. Her tender face was so familiar to me that helped us to communicate with ease. She asked me if she could share with me, the story that she had narrated in her school’s storytelling competition. Even before I nodded, the tiny tot that stood behind me had started narrating the story.
“One fine evening, there was a parrot that was flying all over the forest in order to find its way out.”
As soon as, she started narrating the story in her mesmerizing voice, I went into it completely, staring at the sea in front of me. That tone of the narration was so serene and magical that would attract anyone to it easily.
She continued uninterrupted.
The forest turned dark and the parrot was almost tired that it sat and wept praying to God for help. Pitying the weeping parrot, God appeared and asked what it wanted from him.
The parrot said, “I was living in the palace nearby, where I was given a golden cage and was treated well as I was the King’s lucky charm. My work seems to be okay though it is not interesting. My King was visiting the neighborhood and I accompanied him as usual.
Now that, I have missed my way while travelling with the King, I am suffering in this jungle tired of flying the whole evening. Please, help me find my way back to my Golden cage in the kingdom.”
God replied to the parrot’s plea saying, “But oh my dear parrot, you were born to fly high in the open sky and the place you are trying hard to escape is your home. The golden cage or the livelihood you were living in the palace is not permanent and also, is not meant for you. Anytime, the King feels you are not a good fortune for the kingdom, you will end up losing your life inside that golden cage. And, the truth is that, it was me who brought you back to your home by making you lose the way.”
“Yes, I was happy flying around the forest. But I got used to live inside the golden cage. I don’t know if I can make my life here in the jungle. Also, why didn’t you tell me about this while I was flying through the jungle all evening to seek my way out?” The tired and angry parrot asked God.
God patiently answered the parrot with a smile.
“Oh dear, I wanted you to realize that you could fly high and enjoy the beautiful nature which is your home as you were all time staying in the golden cage living how others wanted you to live.
Now that you are confused between the profession that pays you well and your passion that you have forgotten amidst your sophisticated busy life in the King’s palace, I give you 60 seconds to think and decide from your heart, if you would want to stay home in the forest and do what you were born to do, or continue to live your life as the King’s favorite parrot.”
It was a perfect silence in the ambiance.
I am not sure if the parrot did, but I keenly started watching my wrist watch counting from 1 to 59 in mind and rushed back in curiosity to ask the little girl about the parrot’s decision.
To my shock, there was no one around. I was breathless for a second. My eyes wandered around the entire sea-shore in search of that girl.
I involuntarily picked up my ringing mobile and said, “Yes mom, I am heading home right now”.
Recollecting this magical memory in the silent terrace, I felt the tear drops rolling down my cheeks. I wipe them and smile staring at the alluring bright moon in the dark sky. Yes, God had played with words. Not just in the ‘Parrot story’.
“Who was telling the story? And whose story was it anyway?”
The words fluttered and flew in the wind.
I, then walked into my room to complete my journal writing and slept in peace as I came to know what the parrot has decided for its life.
The next morning, holding a cup of coffee in my left hand, I opened the laptop to write my resignation letter. As I was drafting it, the doorbell rang, and it was a call letter from a familiar magazine that I had applied for my internship a few months ago.
Neither was I surprised nor was I shocked this time. Because, I knew it was godsend. Not the internship invite but the little angel that had changed my life in 60 seconds.
The page flips and the photograph of the famous writer came out of the book peeping the huge crowd that came to visit her.
Turning to the last page of the book, the writer smiles as the random page that she had read has reminded her about her early days of struggle becoming a successful writer and her life-changing visit to the sea-shore.
Realizing that her fans were standing in a long queue to get their copy autographed by her, she started signing them one after the other. She now knew that the taste of success is not in earning money but in doing more of what she loves.
She proudly goes to the podium, receives the award, and starts her short but sharp speech.
“A very pleasant morning to All!
It is all about living the life that your heart yearns for. If you are labelled by the society as irresponsible or crazy, it is ok. Live your dreams even if you are hit several times, get molded, and come out as a beautiful statue.
Your success will write a dictionary to let the world understand you better.”
