Life and Lies of M R Maiti

Maa always wanted to visit Kolkata during Dussehra. Back home, everyone does. Well, she had come with me to Kolkata before but never during Dussehra. This was my third year in the City Of Joy and if everything went according to plan, probably my last. Even I had not experienced the Dussehra here. For the last two years, I have utilized the Dussehra holidays to take a vacation outside the city. It would have been a shame if I didn't this time and Maa would have been very disappointed. I'm not talking about my mother, but the mother of the entire Kolkata: Maa Durga. At work, the third week of October began with colors. Dress color code for the entire week: 16th - Grey, 17th - yellow, 18th - Blue, 19th - Green and 20th - Red. When the cab dropped my parents outside my flat, they were surprised to see me wearing a Green Kurta. I was already late for office. After making some quick necessary arrangements, I left. I had nothing planned for the day. My mother needed to rest. 20th Oct,...

“Say something,” prompted Vishal, his camera pointed at Soumo. “What?” “Anything. Whatever is going through your mind right now.” “Okay, the first thing I said when I set foot here was, God thanks for giving me limbs.” “To make it to the summit?” “No, to live a fantasy,” Soumo looked to the right. Vishal turned the camera in the same direction, slowly and carefully, away from Soumo, until the Sun and the snow-covered mountains entered the frame. “I am living my fantasy as of this moment. Thank you, God!” “Ajay, anything?” Unlike Soumo, Ajay needed no coaxing. He was ready to go. “Dude, it was an arduous climb. Still, it was worth it. I wouldn’t have got this view anywhere else. The vast snowy mountain ranges and overlooking everything him,” he pointed to the small Shiva statue located at a distance. Somebody had created a make-shift temple of sorts. “This is a very humbling experience for me. No matter what I achieve in life, how rich I become, I’ll remember simple pleasures like these...

World War II was in full swing with the Allied War Room at high alert. The Allies were suffering huge losses at the hands of the Axis Powers. But more than anything else, the General heading the War Room was troubled by the loss of bomber planes to enemy fire. The action plan he had in mind was to add armor to the body of the bombers. But there was a challenge. Due to limited resources, he could add armor to only selected parts of the plane, not the entire body. But which parts of the plane, should he prioritize? He called one of his team members, an Analyst expert in Military Strategy. "But I don't know anything about aircraft," replied the Analyst when the General explained the problem to him. "You don't need to," answered the General. "Just go through the records we have and analyse the pattern. Come up with a solution to this." The Analyst was still not convinced but he knew very well not to pester the General anymore who was in a hurry to leav...

Back in the day, my father used to tell me that with the amount of money he had invested in my education, he could have raised three sons. Too much pressure, huh? I won't go into the details about how I evaluated myself a few years ago and found out that despite my best efforts I was doing no better than 1.5 or 1.6 sons. That is when I realized that I was thinking in the wrong direction. There are three sons inside all of us. The first one is the kinsman. He always prioritizes his family before anything else, from being a well-behaved child while growing up to becoming a responsible adult making ends meet. The second one is the stalwart. The studious kid turned employee, he strives hard daily to become a top performer. Employee of every quarter. Huge increments or promotions every other year. And the last one is the wanderer who wants to chill by himself, travel the world, write a book, fall in love, and all that. The kinsman wants to leave the office on time but the stalwart has t...