The ocean waves touched his feet
and it felt nice. Raghav liked to walk on the sand to lift his spirits and calm
his mind. Every time he came here, the waves seemed to tell him to erase his
worries and start writing on a clean slate again. Raghav was a Marketing
Manager at a reputed firm and wanted to climb the ladder desperately. He had
been brought up in a low income household and had seen not so good days. That
day when he was back home late night, his mother was still awake and looked
worried.
“What happened, beta? Why are you
not picking up your phone? Anyway the dinner is on the table. Take care.” She
knew that he would not share his worries with her, never did, and so didn’t
want to probe him any further. But she did show her concern. His parents were
humble people who wanted to spend the rest of their life by modest means. Though
Raghav thought that by bringing home new gadgets he is making their life
easier, they were okay as it is but made it a point to appreciate the new
stuff. All they wanted now was a daughter-in-law who could take care of their
son so that they can visit the holy places as they had planned earlier. But
Raghav was not ready, as yet. Being the only child, he wanted to earn plenty to
support the parents and the wife but it was still not enough.
Another issue was his discomfort
in front of girls. In office, he would become nervous if a girl started up a
chat with him. He knew he had to overcome this otherwise it would be difficult
to climb ahead. Communication is the key to success and he was uncomfortable
with almost 50% of the population. His latest worry was that his current boss
was shifting to another department and his new boss is going to be a lady! He
was pretty friendly with his current boss and used to chat with him informally
too. But how will he deal with a lady; this was troubling him to no end.
Finally, the day arrived when the
new boss, Trisha came to the office. Trisha was not very beautiful but had a
charm around her. She seemed to spin tales at the drop of the hat and made the
atmosphere light in a moment’s time. In a group especially, she lead by
example. She was in a habit of making people comfortable by listening to them.
Her only drawback was that she was a bit short tempered. When Trisha met Raghav,
he was in one of those moods not open to communication. But she wanted to ask
something and he had to respond. Over a period of time, Trisha started
listening to his concerns and they grew comfortable with each other. Now,
Raghav could gather courage to engage in an informal chat with his colleagues,
which slowly restored his sanity.
Back home, one day he called his
mom and told her to look for suitable matches. His parents had assumed that he
wouldn’t marry and were elated with this change in stance. Soon enough, they
found a pretty girl for their eligible bachelor and they were married with pomp
and show. When he got promoted soon after, they said that the girl is very
lucky for Raghav, which he too acknowledged. But deep down he understood that it
was the magic of perfect communication that has seen him through. He went to
the ocean and sands once again not alone but with his wife and they witnessed a
beautiful sunset together.
