Daily Prompt: Greetings, Stranger

You’re sitting at a cafe when a stranger approaches you. This person asks what your name is and for some reason you reply. The stranger nods, “I’ve been looking for you.” What happens next?

I was sitting at ,Second Cup, enjoying my coffee, I suddenly noticed someone coming towards me. I pretended to look sideways, hoping this person will turn around and leave,much to my dismay I heard the word, “Shuprobhat”(good day). I turned around and saw the stranger addressing me.

I wasn’t in a mood to answer in  Bengali. I was irritated  and  said,”Are you talking to me”?

My attitude didn’t deter the stranger from continuing to speak to me, ignoring my reply, he smiled and replied,”Apnar naam ki”?( what’s your name)

Without thinking any further, “I mumbled, Ranu.”

The stranger nodded,”I’ve been looking for you.”

He seemed quite pleased and without hesitation pulled a chair to sit. I felt very uncomfortable as I had never seen him before and wasn’t sure of his motives.

Before settling down he excused himself , stood up to grab a cup of coffee for himself. He  came back and asked  what I was doing in this city. I kept my conversation to a minimum, I wasn’t interested to tell him anymore about me.

He was not willing to give up, he started telling me about his uncle whom he had never seen but heard a lot about. While he was talking I wondered why he was talking to me about his uncle and what’s that got to do with me.

My irritation reached it’s height, I looked at him and could not help asking, “Why are you talking to me about your uncle?”

He frowned and said, “My uncle is your father.”

I was shocked and could not speak for a few minutes, I then replied, “How do you know your uncle was my father?”

“Your father was the older brother of my father.”

I was embarrassed I apologized for my unfriendly behavior.

He invited me to go and meet his wife and children, I happily agreed . I was surprised to know he lived only a few blocks from me.

Meanwhile his wife had cooked a lavish dinner, the aroma of the food reminded me of my mother’s cooking.We had a delicious meal.

After dinner I invited the family to visit me. The stranger amazingly enough turned out to be my cousin, wow I thought!

……………………………………. 🙂

 

Writing Prompt: Alma Mater

You’ve been asked to speak at your high school Alma Mater about the path of life, Draft the speech.

Good evening ladies and gentlemen, I am here to to talk about the “Path Of Life”. Before I begin my speech,I’d like to use this quote:

“We are what we think.All that we are arises with our thoughts. With our thoughts we make the world”. Buddha

Our thoughts can be our friends or our foes depends on which path we choose or what makes us comfortable. Good thoughts will bring good results. If we try to be selfless because it makes us feel good ,we can help those in need.

I have witnessed some terrible people who because of their selfish motives did not follow through a dying man’s wish. I do realize money was the motive,the said person couldn’t give up her greed, I sometimes wonder,yes she has the money but does she have piece of mind knowing she betrayed a brother’s trust? She knows the brother can’t come after her, but what about her conscience,I am told these people are devoid of it, so I guess it works for them.

Buddha is right about ,” All that we are arises with our thoughts”.

When I was in the lower grades in school I imagined myself becoming a teacher. I watched my siblings learning Urdu from a teacher,instantly I knew they were not learning to read but were memorizing the words by repeating the words of the teacher.I asked my sister to read, when she repeated the words without looking at the page I knew I was right.

I took the proper courses to fulfill my dream. It’s the path I chose for myself.

Another part of Buddha’s quote, “With our thoughts we make the world”, all the inventions by famous inventors came to fruition because they thought how to improve our world. Their invention of telephone,airplane, camera,video , TV , automobile etc., has made our lives much more comfortable than the people who didn’t have these things.

Today change of climate is on the list of things we have to think about and do our part of taking care of our planet.

Thank you all for listening to my speech, I hope I did not bore you.

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