In Search of Life........

Prof. Bala Subramaniyam

It all started when Jacques Raymond Hill was questioned during the celebration party for his new product launch arranged for his Research and Development Professionals at long island, New York. He was at his jubilant best, entertaining his clan of innovators, who have brought laurels to the company by bringing product after product which has stunned his competitors, fascinated his supporters and enthralled his customers' world wide by their features through years of painstaking efforts. Raymond Hill Inc's people knew that they were working for a company which was their first home and which understood, "it's all about people and nothing else". And the chairman made it sure that the company made all the ills of the industry seem a distant phenomenon. But the question by this enthusiastic girl working for the cell technology section of the R&D came as a blinder; it was during a small pep talk which he was having with her during the dinner time which caught him unaware. She looked almost like her daughter Lisa; the question she asked him was what had been raking his mind for the past 5 years. The question was simple! "Are YOU OK?" Jack just faltered at it, not able to get the words, it's like pulling wind out of his lungs, and he borrowed some time by asking, "What? I did not get you". "Pardon! Can you come again?" It's a simple question which people ask very often but in different contexts. But this question from a person not that much known except that she is working for him came with a different probing tone caught him off guard. It's seemed as though she had a bit of clairvoyance or she had just buzzed it like that but anyway she had known that there is something disturbing his psyche and it had been running like an audio tape over and over again. "Normally people expect me to be full of confidence, at sync with my thought and action, spreading positive aura into all the gatherings in which I am invited. I am a show man, a rather flamboyant and successful one as they know me" he thought. But here was one person who could see beyond all the layers of paint which he has pasted on his personality. He never thought at that instant he will travel a thousand miles in search of the answer. She just paused for a few seconds then understanding that he had got the real question she meant to ask etched on his heart now, she smiled away and just vanished from his acuity.

The rest of the party just went on in a smoke screen that's what he remembered when he told his driver Russell that he will walk back to his house that night, and he started walking on the bridge which he was so fond of since he shifted his house to long island. He came to a halt at the middle of the bridge and looked into the dark blue water stream. The grey ripples created a fugue effect on him. Jack knew he had lost his true persona, the life he wanted to live and the way he wanted it to be comprehended eons back. It looked as though he was being pushed back into the tunnel of light at a great speed and life leaping beyond his control; he tried to stop at the exact point at which things changed. He pondered about some important phases of his life in a glimpse; at least anybody else would have enjoyed living his life he thought which they could only live in their dreams and which would alternatively vanish in the morning when they get up only to reappear the next night in their beds...........(To be continued.......)