Franz Kafka and the girl’s lost doll..

(Another interesting forward. Thought of sharing)

Franz Kafka, the story goes, encountered a little girl in the park where he went walking daily. She was crying. She had lost her doll and was desolate.

Kafka offered to help her look for the doll and arranged to meet her the next day at the same spot.

Unable to find the doll he composed a letter from the doll and read it to her when they met.

‘Please do not mourn me, I have gone on a trip to see the world. I will write you of my adventures.’

This was the beginning of many letters. When he and the little girl met he read her from these carefully composed letters the imagined adventures of the beloved doll. The little girl was comforted.

When the meetings came to an end Kafka presented her with a doll. She obviously looked different from the original doll. An attached letter explained ‘My travels have changed me.’

Many years later, the now grown girl found a letter stuffed into an unnoticed crevice in the cherished replacement doll.

In summary it said:
*Every thing that you love, you will eventually lose, but in the end, love will return in a different form.’*

– Kafka and the Doll, The Pervasiveness of Loss ♥

Suffering by chance/ choice

Scene 1: A warm summer evening in New Delhi, at a metro station,  with the hot dusty breeze blowing over our faces, and something still felt nice about the vibes of dilli. Dr.Rakesh was superbly frustrated with himself that he wasn’t able to answer the entrance exam well and how he had spent the past two years just studying. There was a general feeling of Mope amongst the other students too. None were sure of their exam performance either. He didn’t know whether to continue studying for another year in the Library, or quit and start working  in a corporate place. He had a wife, a family to look after, a society to answer to, who swarmed him like journalists probing a corrupt politician.

Scene 2: The Street was buzzing with activity. Sounds of automobile horns, filled the air. Raksha was unhappy about the way her husband treated her and how her father had forced her into an arranged marriage with a guy she didn’t like. She was turning 30 and this guy had appeared to be the last bus out of town for the day. He had a relationship with his receptionist and though Raksha wanted to leave him, she was scared of the society and reputation of her family.

Scene 3: Children ran across to their classroom as the bell rang. Their Lunch Break was over. Ramesh had brought the lunch box to his six yr old daughter. He was worried about his career and work. Being a software engineer trained in the 1990’s, most of the knowledge he had was outdated and the younger kids, barely out of their teens had been performing well in his office. He had a choice to stay humiliated or to move to some other place which was a better fit for him. But he was scared of the what if……..!! He had to look after his family, rent, kids education, parents health bills etc

All are real stories of good friends, with names changed, of course.

One thing is common in all. Suffering!!

Was this suffering by chance or by choice??

Who you are Today, is a consequence of the actions you did yesterday. – Sadhguru

Either ways, the more apt question would be, Should they continue to suffer??

The answer is undoubtedly a BIG NO!!

Life somehow has a way of teaching lessons and making us repeat lessons until we are fit enough to graduate to the next level, and handle the situations offered in the next level.

So we ought to somehow learn the lessons and move on, and not stay stagnant in the same place or problem situation.

Now Back to the story..

Dr.Rakesh found a match to his program six months later and I was surprised to meet him in a tertiary care center, happy, and cheerfully working. He said how he had a tough time convincing himself not to give up, and to work hard for few more months. How his gut feeling had said he was so close to his dream and how he chose to study like a student in the library, while his engineer friends were having fun going clubbing, trekkning, foreign trips etc. But see, it all paid off, he said.

Raksha, on the other hand divorced her husband and two years later is now happily married and has a teenager step son. She has also set up a huge software company in Bangalore and happily showed her cabin, and got us some imported herbal tea and biscuits. Life is all about choices we make at every juncture. All of us face situations, but its about when we say enough is enough, and take the next best option which makes all the difference she said. The contented smile on her face when she said bye, said it all.

Ramesh quit the job an year ago. He is now into full time trading and says he’s making a decent sum every day. It’s all about adapting, and ageing gracefully he said.

Moral: Situations keep changing. It’s probably all about how we adapt and how we evolve, the decisions we take at junctures that matters. Plan, break it into steps and work towards it. Move on!

Guess, this is one of the best lessons on 2016, that I learnt.

Happy New Year!