There was this desert.

A big, bad desert. Nothing survived there.

Everywhere there were sand and ....loneliness.

One day a cloud lost it’s way and came there. He wandered over the desert for some time.

He wanted to shed some water over the parched cactus plants there.

“They are pining for water,” the cloud thought. “They need water, otherwise they will die.”

The cacti were the only living beings on the sand. They were the only deep green spots on the dark yellow cover.

They made the desert look like a desert. Otherwise it would have been a mohenjo daro. “The mound of dead”.

The cloud sprinkled some droplets over the a plant.

It immediately responded!!!

It grew in size. It wore a greener look and even produced a flower after a few weeks.

The cloud was very happy. Next year, he brought some of his friends and told them: “look!!!! I am great!!! I made this plant see the colours of life!!!”

His friends were jealous of him. And his audacity made them even more jealous.

They all gathered over the plant and flooded him with rain.

It rained incessantly for days together. For weeks. For months.

The cloud had lots and lots of friends.

So it went on raining and raining and.....raining. Until one day when the cactus died.

The clouds thought: “Our friend is a genius”.

They went on thinking: “When he did it, he was successful. But when we tried to do the same thing, in the same way and that too, all of us together...we failed. And that too, so miserably.”

The cloud didn’t know what to say. He believed it was luck.

But it was pure coincidence. He was there at the right place, at the right time and at the moment. He did what he should have done. Now that’s more than coincidence.

That’s luck.

Best of luck.

Don’t believe me. You don’t have to. Nobody has asked you to. But I stopped checking my mail-box after I had sent you the mail.

It’s a weird feeling. You open your mail box everyday and see all these stupid offers from all over the world...Not a single one for which you were waiting.

It’s a damn sickening feeling that leaves you restless. You can’t tell yourself that the next minute you will have to re-gather yourself and write a stupid article about what’s happening in a city that has carved a niche for itself for being the most non-chalant city in the world.

Anyway, a lot of things have been happening in my life. And most hilarious part of it is that I won’t be able to tell anybody about it...for reasons unknown to you and best known to me.

Believe me this time, it’s different.

I can challenge the world that nobody can point a finger at me next time and say : “Boy. God forgot to give you a spine when you were born.” The world will rather say : “Oh boy!”

That things are happening in my life have become cliched. Like those trams moving over the same tracks for days, months...years together. Even when the roads are unable to bear them anymore.

Sometimes, you just have to carry on. No matter what. Come what may. Because you simply don’t have an option. It’s like choice between one devil and the other. Then you start longing for the deep sea...even if it’s deep and fatal.

But nevertheless a choice. A change. An option.

Imagine someday, you suddenly realise that you will get a change and that you don’t have a single option in your life. I mean, you suddenly realise that you can do without the devil and you do not need the deep sea anymore. It’s inexplicable. But you feel it. It’s a bad feeling with a good aftermath.

You can do without the devil. You really can. Because you suddenly realise that it was a devil that was no good. And trust me...you don’t need an angel to tell you this.

Let me tell you a story.

Once fine day, there was a dark horse. It was pitch dark. But it knew how to run fast. Because every time it’s trainer asked him to run, he ran as if he is mad.

One fine day, it became the fastest moving thing on the tracks. Soon it began to beat all the horses around him. And there was no one that would challenge his legs. Soon they thought that he knows black magic, which was as black as the colour of his fur.

One fine day, all the trainers decided that they won’t compete with this beast anymore. They will find a different track somewhere in the world. They said : “The results of the races have become far too predictable. Nobody is ready to put his money anymore. Everybody wanted to bet on this black beast. And now it’s not a race anymore. It’s a one horse show.”

One fine day, the black horse found that he was alone on the grass. There was no track, no trainers, no horses, no patrons, no gallery, no shrieks, no cries...no life.

One fine day, the horse was dead. He was buried in heaven.

God said that he lost the race because he was the best.

I am the best.

Bye. Take care.