Chapter 3: Jishnu’s Obsession
Making himself comfortable on the chair he ran his fingers over the cover of the book feeling the dust. The front cover had an abstract picture of a clock and a calendar with the shadow of a man in the center holds his head with both hands; a clear depiction of sorrow without showing any facial features. He certainly looked like a man in distress, a man who could not follow his schedules or probably a man who felt lonely and could not take it anymore or perhaps a man in his kingdom of obsession that the world could not understand. It was an apt depiction of the obsession written in the book.
The back cover gave a small brief about the book “Welcome to the Jishnu’s Kingdom of Obsession. Once entered, dead is the only way you go out”.
“His obsession started off a small game which blossomed into a tool for his success and later lead to the mania which saw his downfall, his loneliness, and his end.”
“Come join in the journey, in the obsession of Jishnu, in his ups and downs and beware I warned you once you enter only death can get you out”.
“Hmmm amazing…” Vivek thought as he smiled at himself at his success of landing his hands on this gem.
Making himself another drink he settled down in the chair to start reading.
After the initial pages of dedications, there was a single page with this a single sentence “The obsession
you could die for”.
The story starts with Jishnu waking up one night with a terrible nightmare; a nightmare where he has failed to follow the schedule and missed his deadlines. For Jishnu who was terribly obsessed with his schedule, this was a nightmare of nightmares. He is sweaty with bloodshot eyes and shaking and shouting “no no no”.
Besides him, Divya wakes up in shock. “What! What happened baby?”
“I missed it, oh no I missed”, he was still in shock.
“What? What did you miss?”, she was terrified.
“The deadline… Oh no I missed it… My God I missed”, he still could not come out of his shock.
“What? What are you blabbering about? What deadline? Don’t tell me it’s one of your stupid timetables.” She scowled at him realizing what was happening.
“Yes baby I missed my timetable. Oh no how could I do that?” he bent down holding his head in shock.
“God! for Christ’s sake Jish, it’s just a dream and it’s just a timetable. Why are you so obsessed about it? You didn’t follow the timetable so what? Just change the time table accordingly. And for the love of God don’t make a big issue out of it. It’s just a stupid dream and you think it’hs a nightmare. ” she said in an exasperated tone.
She could not take it anymore with this obsession. This was not the first time he had reacted like this on his stupid timetables. She was getting tired of it.
“No baby how can you say that? How can I change the timetable as per my wish? If I am changing the timetable there is no need to make a timetable in the first place” he tried to be reasonable.
“Then don’t make one” she was getting frustrated.
“First of all it’s not a timetable it’s a schedule and you know I have to follow it”.
“God your timetable will one day take you down. Now go back to sleep and allow me to do the same”, she pulled the covers over her head and tried to catch up with the sleep she had lost.
“But baby”
She removed the covers and said, “aren’t you supposed to be sleeping as per your schedule at the moment?”
“Yes”
“Then follow your schedule and go to sleep and allow me too. God! For Christ’s sake, Jish just go to sleep” her voice muffled under the sheets.
Jishnu frowned and went back to sleep try to catch up with his schedule.
“Wow, that’s too much of obsession with time,” Vivek thought and had a sip of his drink.
Then there is a flashback of Jishnu’s life; the day when his friend told him about this seminar on Time Management.
It’s called “Simple Steps to Plan Your Success,” his friend told him with excitement. “It’s a one hour seminar on time management by this famous YouTuber Arun,” he said.
Jishnu was not keen on attending any seminars. He was never interested in sitting in a class and listening to some boring gibberish. And moreover, he knew that these motivational speakers these YouTubers never actually practiced what they said. Just like politicians they were gifted orators who had good convincing skills. He had made up his mind not to attend the seminar but due to the constant persuasion of his friend, he had to decide otherwise.
Till then Jishnu had never planned his day, nor did he have any schedules prepared for his day to day activities. He just did what he felt like doing. No setting of short term or long term goals, no planners or timetables to reach to those goals; nothing… nothing at all. There were times when he would lay down on the couch and stare at the ceiling for hours without any purpose just because he felt like doing so. He was not going to gain anything from this stupid seminar he was almost sure about it. But life had other plans for him.
Jishnu attended the seminar and it turned out that his friend was right. He did like the seminar.
The seminar was so influential that it kindled the long lost fire in him; the fire of one day becoming an entrepreneur. The YouTuber was famous for his inspirational speech his real-life examples, his scientific approach, his method of trying to beat your conscience and get out the answers from within. The seminar had the same impact on Jishnu too. He instantly wanted to be an entrepreneur and he had to knock at his inner conscience for answers, for directions and there it was an app to connect people. He had his answers. His coding skills and his software engineering was going to be put to good use.
After the mind-blowing seminar Jishnu bought books on Time Management and indulged himself in reading them. He spent sleepless nights taking in the ideas from the books. Grasping the concepts he set out to design a plan for his success. Simultaneously, he also brushed up on his long-forgotten coding skills.
As soon as he knew what he was supposed to do, he began jotting down the plan on paper. First he made the list of his short term and long term goals. He made a list of things he had to do to achieve those goals and created more sub-goals. He gave a time frame a deadline to each task and started acting on it.
For the first time in his life, it felt like he had a purpose in life. Vivek looked at the pages he had read. Almost 25 percent of the book was completed and it was getting boring. Moreover, the disappointment was of not getting any memorabilia yet. The glass was empty and so he got up to fix himself a drink. A sip and he resumed reading.
For Jishnu money was not a problem. His dad had loads of it. Only he had to make up his mind to be an entrepreneur and stick on to it. Also, he needed the help of his friends. He quickly roped in Firoz with him.
Firoz was a fellow software engineer who studied with him and most of all was a close buddy. He was the partner in crime for all their mischiefs. As soon as Firoz heard the plan he readily accepted to join. They were going to create an online messenger app that connects people with text, video and voice recording options. Simultaneously there were other features to the app like online shopping, medical
care, traffic and weather updates, and dating services.
Quickly they formed a group of friends and each one was given a specific task; marketing, sales, planning, programming, etc. It took them 6 months to finish the project and that meant the marketing team worked day and night to market the app on various platforms and also started getting alliances with different vendors to get the required assistance. The app was made popular and everyone was eagerly waiting for it release.
All the while during the inception period of these 6 months Jishnu not for once deviated from his schedules. He also urged his team to strictly follow the schedules without fail. And in the event of someone failing to follow the schedule, he would get furious with them. He was beginning to get a bad name for himself because of this. But his all inspiring speeches kept them going with eager enthusiasm.
The days passed by and the day for the release of the app was getting closer. And just then a terrible tragedy struck.
“Ah finally this is getting interesting” Vivek said you himself though still frowning that there was no luck getting to the memorabilia yet.
Just when he was about to turn the page and find out what was the tragedy, the doorbell rang. “Room service”.
Sydney Billford Monteiro
Sydney Billford Monteiro was born and brought up in Mangalore, Karnataka. An HR by profession, he has a Masters in Social Work and is working for the Hospitality Industry in Bangalore. He is an avid reader of Crime Thrillers, Mystery novels, and Science books. Creative writing and poetry is his passion.
He loves exploring the world of stories. His favourite pastime is experimenting with real-life events, creating characters, and turning them into engaging storylines.
Apart from reading and writing the author loves football; his favourite game and watching movies that depict unusual concepts and real-life events.
He also loves to have a healthy debate over a scientific idea.
Also Read
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Chapter 2: The Kingdom Of Obsession – Brushing through the Memorabilia
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The Kingdom Of Obsession -Chapter 1
