The Journey So Far #An Inspirational Tale of Hope, Love & Life#: Friendship & Love, #1

By SWAPAN KARMAKAR

This is a story of believing in Hope.

This is a story that will make you believe, Past always launches us towards a blessed Present.

You just need to Believe in Hope & Stay Focused.

• Language: English
• Publisher: SWAPAN KARMAKAR
• Release date: Mar 14, 2017
• ISBN: 9781386785057

SWAPAN KARMAKAR

Swapan Karmakar is a Travel Industry Professional from the exotic and emerald islands of Andaman & Nicobar.

Book preview

# harsh situations, tough challenges in the past thrown towards you can end up being Blessings for the present only if you have the composure, focus, will power and attitude to get inspired and move on in life no matter what. Every storm is temporary. Learn from the Past to build a blessed present #

The Prologue

I never aspired to be a full time writer nor do I wish to. I always wanted to write that ONE story. The stories were always there right around me; some of them were finished tales while some other with an unfinished touch.

Not Everyone has the courage to rewrite their past no matter how painful it was. Not everyone can regather, learn from their past and with focus, can build a blessed present.

Here I am, writing what I can ever write in my life time. It’s not a fiction, it’s not a reel of an upcoming movie, it may be not supreme but each story is from real-life experience, each character is someone you may know from your life.

Each of my tale is to touch your heart, for you to learn something from, for you to fall in love with the characters.  I want you to connect with these characters, cherish your own childhood as you

read through the stories.

I want you to find yourself in these journeys-the days of happiness, days of struggle, world of love, world of fear and the mistakes made and then the inspirations which kept you going. I want you to find yourself, in each character and someday to tell your close ones about Your Journey So Far.

It's in fact the journey of self and few of my friends with whom somehow I lost touch after schooling but then the characters have started to meet each other by the time I turned 36 and it seems we are connected well to each other in an unbounded pattern.

For now, it’s about.....The Journey So Far!

PART 1

‘3rd Dec, 2016’.

Air India announces, rescheduling of its flight AI-549 from Chennai to Port Blair due to technical reason and the new departure time is 09:30am.

Having reached the Chennai Domestic Terminal at around 3AM, this delay of exactly 4hours and 45minutes meant it was going to be dull day for me. I don’t like these flight delays at all, especially when I am on a business trip, I never like it. However nothing was in my control except the fact that I could control expressing my anger to some staff of Air India.

My colleague Ipshita looked rouge after this announcement. ‘This is disgusting-she said, getting irritated by the delay’.

‘Take a seat and relax, Ipshita’- I replied trying to calm her.

‘Let’s have a cup of coffee and burger’-Ipshita replied.

So, we two went to the coffee shop near the Gate 3 inside the terminal. The weather was quite pleasant outside but the inside buzzed with lots of travelers waiting for their boarding.

Hey SK! do you see that guy standing at the ‘Coffee Day’, doesn’t he look familiar?-Ipshita asked me pointing towards the man, dressed in Black-n-Checks, sipping his coffee while he conversed with couple of staffs from the Indigo Airline.

‘Oh yes, you are right. He looks very familiar’-I replied to her and took out my cell phone and searched through the friend list of facebook account. ‘Shubham, my childhood classmate and now FB friend as I recall his facebook profile that has all the photos from our young school days’- I told Ipshita.

Yes there he is....Shubham!, in my FB list. Let’s go and meet him- I urged Ipshita.

While we had our shares of burger, I told Ipshita, You know dear, when I look up to Shubham I feel that he deserves everything he has now on the professional front. He is one of the well known and respected faces in the airline industry. Neither is he a business tycoon nor some egoistic rude top management boss. He is one of his rarest prototype, admired by everyone he has met in his life so far and inspiration to many of us during our days of struggle for getting a job and career, very helping he was and a guy to share our secrets. But whatever he has achieved in the present wasn’t a cake walk for him. He has overcome so many hardships in the past to become what he is today.

Is it so, SK? Then you must tell me his story someday- Ipshita felt anxious to know more about Shubham.

I have an idea, SK!- Ipshita said.

What idea?

"Why don’t you write about Shubham’s journey

in your novel?"

‘Wow Ipshita! That would be great’. –I thanked and assured her that she will learn about his inspirational journey to success soon. But I hardly knew anything about him in detail. This was a chance I didn’t want to let go waste.

We finished eating in next ten minutes and started to walk towards Shubham who was then sitting on the chair near to Gate 7. He was tapping his mobile every now & then, looked quite unusual to me. As far as I remember he disliked being glued to cell phones.

‘Hi Shubham’... How are you?

O hi! Nice surprise, SK. It's so nice to see you here. After a long time, finally we meet out of facebook pages ha!...Although we had us, on each other's facebook friend list, we never had any chats in past two years.

‘The clock ticks so fast, doesn’t it?’

‘Shubham!’ Meet Ipshita, my colleague.

‘Hi Ipshita!’-he greeted.

‘Great to see you Shubham sir. I have heard about you from SK’.-Ipshita replied.

So? How come you have been in Chennai, Shubham? And you still travel a lot?-I asked.

Pointing to the lady who was sitting next to him, he said, SK, meet Avni-my wife and Nirvaan- my son. This time I was here for a minor surgery for Avni.

Namaste! - His wife stood up and greeted me and Ipshita.

Namaste Bhabi ! Hi Nirvaan !

What about you, SK? -Shubham asked.

I? For my usual industry training plus I am planning to venture into book-publishing-printing business. So I was here to meet some of the publishing houses. We both got a week leave and our company has sponsored a leisure-trip to the Islands-I replied.

I and Shubham did our young schooling days

together for few years and now we belong to the Airline Industry in India. It’s been almost ten years I know him but not enough. He was my mentor at the RedHat Academy during the RedHat Training Program in 2005. He has been inspirational for me and I always believed that there is an untold story behind this inspirational man.

Well Shubham, I must tell you -you look the same person as you were then in school. You never changed for friends. You did great to keep up friendship with everyone. You are the only string who kept all friends tied together- I thanked Shubham! He is still in touch with most of the ex-classmates.

Thanks SK! -he said.

By the way, which flight are you boarding?

Well, the delayed Air India -he said.

‘Oh great, we too.’-I replied.

SK, would you like to give me a company to the book shop? I have to buy some books.

Sure, Shubham. I will.

While Ipshita and Avni took their seats and started chatting, I and Shubham took a walk