Category: Short Story

The story of Pulkit and Isha

Voruganti Pavan Tanay NagLeave a comment


Both go home after a long day at work. One is greeted with an empty house and the other with a house full of people. They both have the same life, but 2 different opinions.


Life is so confusing.

What one wishes they never get but what one doesn’t wish they always keep getting it as if life wants to see us suffer.

The same is stories of Pulkit and Isha.


Pulkit, a software employee who has never been away from his family had to travel to Hyderabad for work.

He stays in a small 2 BHK apartment. Every day like clockwork he wakes up in the morning, scrolls Instagram and YouTube until his sleep disappears and then gets up from his bed to get ready for the day. He reaches the office, does his work, talks to a few colleagues and after a long busy day, he comes back home. “This” is his life and routine.

Whether it is an amazing day or a long hard day at the office, he is always greeted with an empty house. He often wonders if this is this his life. Wake up, get ready, work, come home eat sleep and repeat and one day pay bills and die? Being alone made him more reserved and closed off from people.

Many times while watching a funny reel or a video he laughs and wants to show the video to people only to realize that he is the only one watching the video and laughing. Whether happiness or sorrow, he feels like he has nobody to share. Most times, he wishes he had someone to come home to because he dreads the feeling of being all alone.

He thinks how lucky others are who have someone waiting at home for them to share their happiness or sorrow or someone just to listen to what they have to say about their day.

He is envious of such people and keeps wishing he also had such a company. But I guess for now it is a far-fetched dream for Pulkit.

Isha, also a software employee who has never been away from her family, works in Hyderabad. She stays in a flat with her family. Her life is also similar to that of Pulkit but she is always welcomed with a house full of people.

One day while having coffee Isha said that Pulkit was so lucky to be able to live all alone and the way he wished like and that she was jealous of him to be able to lead such a life full of freedom and free to do whatever he felt like doing.

When asked why she thinks that way, she said that every day like clockwork, I get up, do household chores, get ready for office, work my ass off until the end of the day and then I go home. Just when I feel like I want to take some rest and some alone time,

I am greeted by my family and am expected to make dinner or sit with the family and spend some time with them. I am not saying I don’t like my family or the idea of spending time with them, but sometimes when I need some time off, away from everyone and everything, I don’t have such a thing as privacy or my time.

Even if I am late from work, by the time I reach home, I get close to 5-6 calls asking by what time I will be reaching home. I understand their concern but sometimes when I have a really bad day I want to be just left alone for some time and you being alone get to do that. If you don’t feel like getting up tomorrow, nobody is going to ask what happened to you nor would they ask if you are going to wake up and do the chores.

You can do what you feel like and nobody is there to question you and I would trade my life if I can to be able to lead such a life.

Life is so funny.

It has given Pulkit all the freedom he can get in his life but all he wants is some company when he comes back home so that he would have someone to share details about his day then again there is Isha, who does love having family around but prefers being alone if given a chance.

We all have been such Pulkits and Ishas at least once in our lives and we know how it feels.

So if you are a Pulkit or an Isha, you should understand that life is about not what you have. But about what you can make do with what you have.

Don’t stop dreaming about what you want but also don’t be sad about what you lack. Just keep going.

How being an Outcast changed my Perception

Voruganti Pavan Tanay NagLeave a comment

Being the only male child in most Indian households in the 90s was a blessing because everyone wanted a legal heir to advance their legacy. I was one such fortunate child among them. Growing up, I was so pampered that I was the ultimate definition of a spoilt brat. I feared none, I listened to none and I did everything I wanted to and how I wanted to without thinking about the consequences nor thinking how my actions would hurt my near and dear. Because I was the “One” you see. I am a male child and the most loved kid. I knew that I had a father who would support me no matter what I did. He supported me if I did not want to go to school, he yelled at the teachers in my school if they punished me for anything stupid that I did and I always used to get my report card signed by him because I knew he wouldn’t say a word to me. I even remember once, in my 5th class, I was the new student in the school and my class teacher was a science faculty. It was rumoured that even the principal was scared to face her wrath. On the first day of my class, I see her kicking a fellow student, and that too a girl. The girl did her homework wrong and copied it from someone who also did it wrong so she made her climb the table and then asked her to bend over and then kicked that student from behind. Such was the faculty and I was terrified. And one fine day, I was also a victim of her anger. My arm was swollen because she hit me. The next day my father stormed off to the Principal’s office demanding an apology from the lecturer and threatened to shut the school down if this was repeated. So having such a dad, you can expect what follows next. At least now we have Pushpa movie to say “rukega nahi, jukhega nahi saala” but back then that was the hype and feeling and no words. I knew that my dad always had my back and slowly that turned me into a bully. Everyone feared me and nobody wanted to mess with me. And just when I was thinking that life is awesome all the deeds that I did previously wanted a payback.

I moved to a new city, a new school. Even though I was the new kid, being a bully myself I knew how to command respect. However, not knowing Hindi changed my bully status. I was asked to sit with nursery students after school until I learnt Hindi as per the school rules as Hindi was a mandatory subject. I managed to keep this arrangement a secret until a few students saw me sitting with nursery students learning Hindi. The next day they invited the entire 6th class students to see me and that’s it. Everyone made fun of me and no matter how hard I tried, I could not make the bullying stop. I also couldn’t make any friends because I didn’t know Hindi and they took advantage of it by mocking me in Hindi. And that’s when I understood how it feels when other people make fun of you or judge you. This one incident changed me to become a better person and understand what others go through because we never know what the other person has gone through or going through. That’s when I learnt not to do anything that I don’t love being done to me by others.

Don’t let fear paralyze your vision.

Voruganti Pavan Tanay Nag2 Comments

 

Just like most people, I thought I cannot be defeated nor can I be wrong. I felt like I cannot become a failure because I work hard and there was no way all my efforts will go in vain, but I was wrong. Just like anybody else, I experienced ups and downs in my life. Though I haven’t seen life much when I did fail, at this point in my life, I did hit rock bottom. I was at a job where I was not happy with where my career path was going, I started an online business with the hopes that it becomes a huge success, and much to my shock, it came crumbling down and I was not able to make that business a success. I was failing both personally and professionally. Amidst all this, I lost my job. I panicked because everything in my life started falling apart and I became exactly what people told me “a failure”. Read More »