Magic Book

Tired and disappointed Shreekant went to bed. He lost the little hope that he had on the anchoring force he relied for so many years on.

A little book which was handed over to him by his grandfather when he was 12 years old. Its a book of one-liners which were meant to guide him throughout his life.

However, at a particular point in time, he has to follow just one one-liner. All the oneliners had a starting date to ending date.

When he asked his grandfather while receiving the gift, “What is the basis behind these advises?”.

His grandfather replied, “Astrology.”

He had very little faith on astrology. He opened the first one-liner which was relevant to that period and found it is written, “One thing at a time will make you win the time.”

He asked his grandfather what does that mean, his grandfather who is a man of few words said, “It is your success mantra of the current time, but success depends on your interpretation.”

Being a young boy full of energy he casually kept the book at one corner of his cupboard and went running to play. However, somehow this oneliner remained in his head.

He was chosen for the school football team which will represent the school in a city level competition as well as selected to lead for a science project which his school. He was trying to do both as his teachers and parents wanted him to. He was coming home tired, and his studies were severely affected. He was getting anxious and frustrated. He was also moving towards teenage, so the body was aggravating the situation.

One evening he had locked himself in the room and was cursing himself for not being able to do good at anything. His grandfather knocked on the door. Shreekant opened the door but did not talk. He went back to his video game. He sat next to him and did not speak a single work.

Shreekant after a while felt like chatting. He said, “You could have given me a good game for this birthday than a book of nonsense.”

His grandfather smiled. Then Shreekant opened up telling all things that are not going right for him. His grandfather patiently listened. Shreekant continued venting and finally stopped saying, “Not sure where to focus. I am just running from here to there and losing everywhere”.

Grandfather made eye contact and smiled. Shreekant recalled the one-liner faintly. He went running to the cupboard to find the book. He found it under the heap of other things and read the sentence,

“One thing at a time, will make you win the time.” He thought over it and realized that he wanted to do so many things at a time and that caused the problem. He should have chosen one responsibility, not both. However, the question arose, “But now I am in this soup what should I do?”

His grandfather smiled at him again and asked him, “What is today’s date?”.

He looked at the book and saw the timeline, that day a new oneliner came into effect, “Trust your gut, you will win.”

He had state-level science exhibition the next day, and they had created a battery which can last longest and best suited for the electric cars. However, often it was catching fire; hence they were not sure if they will be able to exhibit that or not. However, he had a gut feeling that it would succeed, but his partners were pessimistic and were trying to go for plan ‘B’ to show just the batteries capacity through other means than in its usage in the car. That would eliminate the chance of catching fire hence disqualification but will weaken the chance of winning as well.

Now after reading this oneliner he thought he would go by car and persuade his friends. He hugged his grandfather and rushed to his friends. He could convince them, and they exhibited the car and won the state-level competition, and now they had enough time to work on it for the national level competition.

He understood that this book is something. It gave the right direction last time. He went on referring it then after and while life was taking the twist and turns this book made him take confident decisions.

He was winning every time with timely advises. Shreekant is now 45 years old, and his grandfather passed away a year back. He was unable to cope up with the loss but always felt this book of his is like having him next to him.

He never showed this book to anybody including his wife. The continued to follow the book. The one-liner for a current time was “Opportunities knock only once, grab them at your first glance.”

He was looking for a new overseas opportunity, but he was skeptical as the economy of the foreign country where he wanted to go was shaky hence might put him in risk.

He wanted his daughter to get admission in the best school in the country which he was in double mind due to the high fees that school charges.

There were discussions about him taking over a new department in his current organization which he was skeptical.

However, none of these opportunities have come to him yet, so he was waiting for that to occur. Despite doubts and hurdles, he was ready to grab the chance as the book said. He waited for long, and none of these opportunities came to him, and he was disappointed. He somehow had a feeling that this book has lost its charm after his grandfather’s death. Now it was coming true.

Tired and exhausted waiting for opportunities he saw the book again and found that the date is the last date of this oneliner and next day will be a new one-liner.

He slept, but suddenly he got chest pain at night. His wife called an ambulance and took him to the hospital. He had a massive heart attack and fortunately he survived. After a couple of weeks in the hospital, he came back home.

The first thing he did was to see the book to read its next one-liner. “Opportunity may knock once again; this may be the last chance to regain.” He was shocked. “Again.” When did it come the first time? I have been waiting all along. He was frustrated and said, “This book has no meaning anymore.” He threw it in the cupboard and tried to forget the existence of such a book.

He could not believe that the book has lost its essence. He recalled his grandfather stating, “have faith in this book.” he re-read all the oneliners and realized that it is usually abstract. Where to apply is up to him. Like once he had issues in his love life and studies and he was more concerned about love life, but the one-liner was not helping. When his grandfather asked him the question, “Are you applying at the right place?”, He realized that he also has a problem in studies. When he focused on that, his studies came back to normalcy as well as his love life. So possibly he has applied this oneliner in the wrong place at this time.

Upon giving much thought, he realized that he has been ignoring his health for a while. He earlier used to complain about lack of time for exercise, yoga and meditation and when he got the time he did not use it at all. Hence he got a heart attack.

Now he realized what the oneliner means, and when he started focusing on his health, he quickly found his other opportunities which he was longing for also came towards him and his life took a beautiful turn.

We all have a magic book with us, and it tells us what to focus on to solve the problem in the most effective way, but we usually ignore it. If we stop reacting to the situations around us by paying attention to what our intuition is trying to tell us, we have access to right advice every time.