Life

Big Bang was a weekly game show and its host was notorious to do something outrageous, spectacular and thrilling every week. The show had continued for almost ten years but it was now getting monotonous and boring. To bring back the viewership and to boost its rating, producers of the show promised the next show to be astonishing, mind-blowing and breathtaking. This week, a large crowd was gathered in a stadium of a small town to witness the game of Russian roulette and there were several million viewers watching it live on television sets worldwide. Selection of the show site was done carefully to avoid intricate legal issues in the big cities. The game selected for the show this week was Russian roulette.   In the actual game of Russian roulette, a person would be loading a bullet into one chamber of a revolver, spinning the cylinder, and then pulling the trigger while pointing the gun at his head. It is a lethal game of chance where a player bets his life to try his luck....

Short Story by Nadeem Alam It is not funny at all, not for me at least. I found a bag full of cash and felt like the luckiest person alive but what happened next has nothing to do with luck. It was Monday evening and I heard police siren outside my office. I came out in the parking area and spotted a man standing near my car and fiddling with its door. As soon as he saw me, he ran away. I hurriedly reached to my car and found a bag placed on ground near driver's door. At first I tried to ignore it but then I had to move it to open the car's door. It was heavy and it made me curious. I opened its zip and peeked inside. It was difficult for me to hide my excitement. I put the bag on back seat and drove past a police party which had arrested that man. As our eyes met, he glazed at me and few drops of sweat appeared on my forehead. I sped away and reached back to my one room rented apartment. Without changing clothes I sat down and opened the bag. It was full of cas...

Short Story by Nadeem Alam My world consisted of a few yards under a bridge. I had not seen my father. My mother was all that I had. I spent all of my time playing with a small toy and looking at my sky, which was actually the belly of the bridge. One day, when my mother was not around, someone picked me up and took me away from my world. I was too little to protest. I did make some noise, but nobody paid heed to my sobs and whines. The man who kidnapped me took me to his home, which was a little bigger than mine. He kept me locked inside a room and only came thrice a day to feed me. My world was changed. The sky was now a roof with a noisy ceiling fan and a gigantic spider web. I missed my old world and I missed my mom. I felt lonely and scared. I cried most of the time. My kidnapper did not have any marketing sense. He showed me to many people, but they all rejected me. I was kept very untidy. I smelled bad, too. But one day, a lovely, old couple came and ...

Short Story by Nadeem Alam He was the only child of his parents and a lonely child. He spent his entire school life without making a single friend. In college however just on the very first day, he met Amjad. They both had different subjects and studied in different lecture halls but they soon became fast friends. They daily met in college cafeteria, spent spare time together, played xbox, went on drive together and even prepared for tests at the same place. He knew everything about Amjad but had never been to his house. Amjad however visited him occasionally on weekends or holidays. They both enjoyed their time on sea view. They have been friends now for an entire semester. Final exams were near and Amjad started coming to his home and helped him in his preparation for exams. He was surprised to see that Amjad knew everything about his subjects although he had different courses. He had recognized from the beginning that Amjad has a brilliant mind so he very often took his h...

Short Story by Nadeem Alam 7.45 am . She is getting late and he is still asleep. They both recently got married and it is her first day to work after two weeks’ leave. She teaches in a nearby school which commences at 8. He works in a multinational company and has few more days to enjoy. So she leaves him sleeping and proceeds to her school. 8.30 am . Assembly is over. She is receiving facilitations from everyone at school. She thinks of her sleeping hubby and smiles. Her thoughts are soon shattered by the voices of children who are now running all around her. She could not think of anything else for next two hours. 10.30 am . Break Time. She sends a text to him. No reply. She sends another text. Still no reply. She thinks of his casual attitude and smiles again. 10.50 am . Break is over and she gets busy like a bee. 01.30 pm . Home Time. She hurriedly collects all her stuff and rushes towards the gate. She is intercepted by a peon who tells her to report to Pri...

Everyone has felt this unpleasant emotion at least once in their lives, and most likely much more than that. It seems much harder to deal with when other people feel jealous towards us, though. After all, we can control how we feel, but we can’t control other people’s emotions. Recognizing the signs that someone is jealous of you can be the first step to fixing it. 1. FALSE PRAISE When someone is jealous of you, they’re often the first to give you a compliment that sounds sincere, or seems to be dripping with passive aggression. However, you’ll find that these people will be rolling their eyes the minute you leave the room. 2. DOWNPLAY YOUR SUCCESS No matter what you achieve or how hard you worked to do so, jealous people will always try to make it seem like it was a fluke, or that you didn’t work as hard as you did to achieve your success. The reasons that they come up with may be rude or condescending . Rising to their bait will only make them more likely to talk poorly. Stay...

Einstein presented the theory of relativity more than a hundred years ago but it has been proven just recently that time actually passes at varying speeds at different places depending upon the gravitational pull in that area. Psychologically as well, an hour may pass in a jiffy for a happy person spending time with friends and the same time span may take forever to pass for a lonely or a sad person or someone waiting for his turn in a dentist's office. So what is it that sometime makes the time to fly and at other times freezes it. Allama Iqbal said, "Maheeny wasl kay gharion ke soorat urhy jaty hain, magar gharian judai ke guzarti hain maheeno mein." When you are with your loved ones, months pass in seconds and when you are away, then seconds become months. Its all in our brain. Its how we perceive the things, events and places. Its how much something interests us. And of course it all happens when our tummy is full. As someone asked from a hungry person about...

If you’re happy and you know it, clap your hands. Well, if you did not clap your hands then keep reading this article, else just scroll to the last paragraph. All living beings tend to remain happy if they are healthy and are fed properly – less the human beings. Even a human child is contended with the bare minimum provisions. But as we grow up, our necessities divert from physical requirements towards the psychological needs. Abraham Maslow called it the ‘Hierarchy of needs.’ As our lower level requirements are met, we start feeling deficiency of higher level needs. As we go up, the zest keeps rising. And literally there is no end to it. So what makes us unhappy and why do we keep striving hard to achieve more when already we have so much to survive a life time? Here is my take on it: Social Approval When we start seeing ourselves from other people’s eyes then we are never happy. We keep trying to get central place in a social circle and sometimes we lose the position we ...

Communication is perhaps the most important of all the skills which distinguishes humans from other forms of life. We can learn from our predecessors, contribute our bits to the existing knowledge, convince or get convinced, establish rapports and enjoy better relationships, share our emotions, and progress through our lives and careers, all with kind courtesy of an efficient human communication system. Communication is however a two way process. It is twenty percent talking and eighty percent listening. It is in fact mastering the art of when to speak and when to listen and remain quiet. The later attains more importance and is a key factor for succeeding in your professional lives. Let’s see few quotes on silence from some great people in the history: Say what is good or remain silent. (Prophet Muhammad saw, Tirmidhi) I have never regretted my silence. (Hazrat Umer) Silence can sometimes be the most powerful reply. (Hazrat Ali) Silence is a true friend who never bet...

Human mind works in mysterious ways. There are things we do which are above the threshold of our conscious but there are some things we do, unintentionally.  The Central Nervous System (CNS) of our brain controls our conscious and the Autonomic Nervous System (ANS) regulates functions of our various body organs like heart. It is natural that all our emotions deeply impact the functioning of our heart and any change in the normality of our heart effects each and every organ attached to it. Not going in further science behind the body language, we just need to understand that lying creates stress and stress deregulates the functioning of heart. It implies that the person lying will show various reflexive responses and emotions which are beyond his or her conscious control since they are being regulated by ANS. So if you can pick these cues which appear when someone is under stress then you can identify correctly whether a person is trying to deceive you or not. A gist of...