Almost Nothing

An aspiring youth joined a daily as an apprentice. After three days of rigorous training and induction, he was asked to go to the field and come back with a story worth publishing. After toiling through the streets and braving the heat for close to six hours, he was returning to office with a sense of failure as he hadn’t collected a worthwhile story. He came to a junction where three roads met in a ‘Y’ formation. He noticed two buses speeding towards the junction from the two opposite roads, oblivious of what they were heading for. An accident seemed almost inevitable. The young reporter used his presence of mind, ran to the meeting point of the two roads, vigorously waved both his hands, screamed at the top of his voice and eventually succeeded in stopping both the buses. Hundreds of passengers from both the buses took the youth’s hand into theirs and thanked him … some even kissed him. However, on hearing this heroic story from the young reporter, the editor of the newsp...

There is a subtle difference between ‘waiting’ and ‘waiting for’, and in that lies the difference between ‘peaceful progress’ and ‘stressful success’. The farmer has ploughed the soil and planted the seeds … now he must wait … Where man’s responsibility ends, existential responsibility takes over. Now if the farmer knows the art of ‘waiting’, he will wait peacefully. Instead, if he waits for the sprouting, then every passing moment will make him restless and stressed. His mind will keep rattling - “Why isn’t it happening? Why not yet?” Even if it eventually sprouts, he has already traded his peace for success. The damage is already done. Have you pressed the button for the elevator … now wait … it will come when it comes. ‘Waiting for’ the elevator will make you pace the floor and make your eyeballs go up and down … as if that will speed up the elevator and make it reach your floor faster. Have you placed your order with the waiter … just wait … waiting for the waiter will make the wai...