The Law of Outcome: A Guide for Living a Blissful Life

By Nuraj Pradhan

It's important to understand the principles and laws of cooking in order to create delicious meals consistently. If you don't like the taste of something you've cooked, it's important to learn from the experience and figure out what went wrong. Similarly, if someone else's cooking tastes better than yours, it's important to understand what they're doing differently and learn from their methods.

The same can be said for achieving desired outcomes in life. If you're not happy with the results you're getting, it's important to understand the laws and principles that govern those outcomes. This may involve learning new skills, developing new habits, or changing your mindset.

In this book, you will learn about the three mental forces that can influence your performance and ultimately determine your level of happiness, satisfaction, or frustration. By understanding these forces and implementing the ten rituals outlined in the book, you can redesign your mental capacity and drive yourself to perform at your fullest potential, leading to greater peace, joy, and happiness in your life.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Partridge Publishing India
• Release date: Jan 11, 2023
• ISBN: 9781543708660

Nuraj Pradhan

Nuraj Pradhan's passion for bringing happiness and peace to people's lives has been a lifelong journey. Since childhood, he has been exploring and experimenting with various methods to achieve this goal. By 2011, he had developed a deep understanding of the sutras of success and happiness and began teaching and practicing them. Through his seminars and workshops, Nuraj Pradhan helps people understand the fundamentals of leading a joyful life and trains them to master it. His dedication to this work has earned him a reputation as a skilled and compassionate teacher.

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Copyright © 2023 by Nuraj Pradhan.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the author except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

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Dedication

Thank you will be too short to express my

indebtedness for all the pains that you welcomed

in carving me as one that I am today.

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If someone has to discover anything greater in me,

they will find you.

You will be missed forever, Dear Mom.

My deepest love, gratefulness, and remembrance

To the people

Without whom

This book would not have happened.

Binay Tsong Limboo

Kailash Thatal

Hissey Lanzum Bhutia

Dr. Kesang Wangmo Bhutia

Fr. S. Antony Raj

Mrs Songmit Lepcha (Wife)

Shri Laxuman Pradhan (Father)

Contents

Dedication

Preface

Chapter I       Three Directors, Three Decisions, Three Actions, Three Results

Chapter II      The Three Directors— How Do They Differ?

Chapter III    The Three Directors— The Three Dimensions

Chapter IV    Connecting to the State of Strong Desire

Chapter V     Ten Rituals

Ritual 1       Ritual of Early Waking

Ritual 2       Ritual of Exercise and Yoga

Ritual 3       Ritual of Internal Communication

Ritual 4       Ritual of Personal Improvement

Ritual 5       Ritual of Healthy Diet

Ritual 6       Ritual of Quality Engagement with Family

Ritual 7       Ritual of Quality Sleep

Ritual 8       Ritual ofDaily Journal

Ritual 9       Ritual of Recreation and Refreshment

Ritual 10     Ritual of Cleanliness and Hygiene

Preface

This book reveals the secrets of happiness in your life and explains how to earn them.

‘Why are we on this planet?’-A question that has been asked from years to years, decades to decades, simple, short, yet powerful, exciting, and sometimes annoying to us. The people who took this question with their deep desire to understand its meaning relevant to their life have travelled through the splendiferous path of happiness. And the people who were annoyed of this question and never thought of submitting any seriousness to the inquiry of treasured meaning from their life always have survived a life of unhappiness.

Other animals cannot ask this question to themselves, but we as human beings are gifted with this quality to ask and seek the meaning of our own life. Perhaps this is one of the most significant qualities that separate us from other animals born on this planet. People spend years of years researching and experimenting with so many computations in their life to find the true meaning of what they exist for on this planet. But the list of people who really have made a journey to the end in finding the meaning of life is very few.

While sitting for meditation, doing exercises, or during the course of my other personal engagements, often these questions had been travelling from my mind: How should a person get the answer to this question Why is he on this planet? What would be the process of finding the answer to this question? How would he start?

See, wherever we go, we do not go empty. If we go to the market, we go with money. If we go to the sea, we go with boats and ships. If we go to the playground, we go with playing tools and kits. What we take with us defines what our purpose is.

When you enter a pool room, you could be the manager of that pool house, you could be one of the attenders of that specific pool room, you could be the one servicing tea and drinks, or you could be one of the finest players. You could be anyone associated with that pool room. Whoever you are and for whatever purpose you have entered that room will be disclosed with what you have entered the room. Similarly, why we are on this planet is all related to what we have brought with us.

All the great people knew what they could do because they knew what they had. I find we have brought enormous sense to observe and enjoy happiness. In common, while distinguishing human beings from animals, the common objective that every human looks for is an abundance of happiness and fulfilment. However, this sense of happiness is earned when we realise the qualities we have brought or developed and lead them towards the attainment of a specific goal and finally knowing the meaning of our own life. We see people busy with their schedules. And if we ask what all of their busy schedules concern, the answer comes ‘to discover peace, love, happiness, and a sense of fulfilment’.

Close your eyes and think deeply; everything is related to your happiness, whatever you are doing. Isn’t it? You wake up early, go for exercise, do meditation, have breakfast, read newspapers, watch television, read books, get ready, go to the office, meet your friends, work in the office, have lunch, return back, meet your child, play with the child, talk with your wife/husband, read books, sit with a computer, make your schedule for next day, have dinner, write books, write diary, do meditation, and, at the end of the day, you sleep. Now just question yourself, Isn’t it all related to bringing a sense of inner peace and happiness to you? Every good work we do, we do it for our happiness, and even if we are performing with an unconstructive mood, we intend to look for happiness coming out of it too. The core of every outcome from our performance is centred on bringing peace and happiness within us.

I hope I have made you clear in understanding that, finally, the acquisitive purpose we look from our life every day is happiness, happiness, and happiness. But are we happy with the outcome of every work that we are dealing with?

Here in this book, I have shared my leading views discovered out of all the observations so far within my reach, which I believe can position some clues in finding the answer of ‘how to earn happiness!’ The book Law of Outcome will tell you how happiness results.

A story: One fine Sunday, you are alone at your home. You are reading a book. The book is so interesting that it has made you put all your important tasks out of your mind. You had even forgotten to prepare your food. You had to make a few important calls, which you had absolutely forgotten. One of your friends is coming to visit you whom you must receive at the airport by 1:00 p.m. While reading the book, your sight somehow managed to escape over to run over the wall clock. You see it’s fifteen minutes to 1:00 p.m. You know the greatest urgency of the moment is to throw the book, get ready, and drive over to the airport. You overlook the urgency and boil a thought in your mind: It’s OK! My friend won’t mind if I attend to him late by fifteen minutes.

Suddenly, you realise that one of your rear tires wss punctured, and you had scheduled to fix it by morning today. This realisation strikes you as an alarm to remind you of the task that needs to be through before you leave for the airport. Now you are running your whole situation in a piecemeal way. Your mind is now acting like a traffic police performing at some traffic point. He only can give signals of direction to the vehicles. He neither can remember any identity, colour, number of all the vehicles passed by him, nor can tell which direction any of the vehicles had gone. Likewise, lots of thoughts are arousing simultaneously at the same point, and your mind reasons to inconspicuously bypass many of the important signals of your thought.

This mental turmoil is well seen in your consequential physical performances. Imagine the levels of anxiety; you have fifteen minutes left to finish your fifteen tasks. Let’s count them: you have to fix your car; you have to go to the bathroom, take a shower, brush your teeth, polish your shoes, iron your clothes, arrange your clothes, arrange or clean your room, make a call to your friend, prepare tea, prepare breakfast. All these tasks again comprise a series of more than a hundred small activities.

Your activities are intersecting and overlapping over each other. Somehow you managed to finish your most important tasks and look at the time. It’s already one hour late to the time given by your friend. With some relief, you sit in the car. But what! You find no car key anywhere. You search your pockets, dashboard, other car compartments, your room, everywhere that came to your mind. At least at this moment, you cannot think that you will find the key within the next few minutes. So you are left with no other choice except to hire a taxi as soon as possible.

You call your friend and express a deep compunction for being late by an hour in attending to him. Your friend compensates with a formal sentence: ‘Never mind. Sometimes we make our time escape, and it’s extremely OK with the reason you have explained to me. So now, don’t be late more. Please come soon. I was worrying, and now I am getting tired.’ Without giving any more time to be delayed, you stop a taxi and run for the airport.

You are about to reach the airport with many hesitancies and few excitements. Lost in the pictures of your imagination about the scenario that would build after meeting your friend, unexpectedly, all of a sudden, you are shuddered by your mobile ring. You take out the mobile from your pocket. Your eyes run over the mobile screen to read another exasperating message from your other friend that says, ‘Where are you? It’s time we must leave now. We have already waited too long for you. You wanted to send some documents in our hand to be delivered to your daughter, and I hope you haven’t forgotten that our flight is at 2:30 p.m.’

You are upset and confused. You are so stupefied by your circumstances; probably you do not see any clues to solve your matter. You were till yesterday only reminding yourself of the visit you had to do today by 2:00 p.m. to one of your friends who works with you. You had to hand him one important document to be delivered to your daughter studying in another city to which your friend and their family are visiting to cheer and enjoy their holiday break. How will you deal with such a situation now?

On one side is your one friend waiting for your arrival at the airport, and on another side, another friend is waiting for you at home, peeping at his watch every second. This morning, you were obsessed with your lust grown in the book, and you forgot your daily schedule, including reading your daily routine, which you write every Sunday. From nowhere, all of a sudden, a decision comes. You shout at the driver, ‘Take me back -my home, quick . . . fast . . . faster . . . faster!’

You reach the street across your home. Your house lies on the other side of the road now, which you can reach only by crossing the huge road in front of you. There is a huge rush of traffic on the road. And nearly somebody can take a chance of his life to run through that busy road. But you have a big reason to take this challenge and run. You are sometimes jumping, standing, running, and crossing cars. You hear the people shouting at you; you have no time to listen and look back. A car notices your run and stops to let you go; you put your full speed to cross the car. As you cross the car, one huge truck overtakes that car from its back and hits you. You see darkness with your eyes closed.

When your eyes open, your body is aching; you find yourself in one of the beds in some hospital. You feel like you are in the middle of some nightmare; however, it does not take much time to help you realise everything and discover your story behind the present situation. You try to raise your right hand to lift the blanket and make a quick inspection of your body, but it’s not moving. You try to raise your other hand, but even the other hand is not moving. A nurse is entering the room. You quickly ask the nurse, ‘Nurse! Please see, my hands are not moving.’ It is a very hard time for the nurse to release the fact, but she has to somehow. And with lots of panic written on her face, she speaks. ‘Sir, I am sorry to tell you, you lost both your arms in the accident.’

I leave it to you to imagine the kind of emotional sensation now that would bind your mental atmosphere at this moment. Will you be happy with the kind of result that has happened to you at the end of the day? You lost your arms, which cannot be recovered. Is this what you wanted from the very beginning of your day? No! Everything you were doing since morning, you were relating directly or indirectly as a part of the job in bringing yourself happiness. But now you are left with disappointments about the happenings of that particular day, and every moment, you are regretting the start you gave that day.

Though this is an exemplary story, similar kinds of tragedies might have appeared to you once, twice, or many times of which you were not certain, nor had planned for it, during the course of your life you have lived so far. It could be loss in business, health detriments, official conflicts, dissatisfaction in the job, divorce, relationship with family, cheating in business, unfinished projects, work lying pending in office, break-up with your partner, accidents, displeasure in sexual life, and many more.

Our business strategies depend upon forecasting. Be it a management field as big as Microsoft, Reliance, KFC, Amazon, Walmart, or as simple as any household or individual. Our day-to-day engagements are planned with expectations. We cannot perform any action in vague and hope for nothing. The Holy Gita says, ‘You have the only right on your work, not on its result.’ But that does not point to throw stones on a tree without mango. Hence, it is very natural and a true character of the human being to live with expectations.

Every work we do and with every project we are involved in, our most common and biggest expectation would be nothing different from achievement and happiness, and it is. But are we happy with the result of our work all the time? Like the story demonstrated, the uncertainties come to us, which we have not chosen. Our works result in a way that does not match our expectations. Our happiness is not met by the degree of our outcome. Frustrations are experienced, and the sense of fulfilment lies miles away. What could be the reason for such a sense of failure? What could be the reason for such unhappiness? Why does your work not result in the amount of achievement you count for? Why are your expectations not met? Why are you unhappy? Though we are on track with an extreme intention of bringing peace and happiness in our life, why does that track take us somewhere else?

If you cook someday and you do not find the taste from what you have cooked, you should learn first the law of cooking. You prepared tea, and if your tea is not serving you the same taste as the tea prepared by your wife, then you must understand the law of the tea prepared by your wife. If your outcome is not able to bring a sense of happiness, your outcome is not matching the picture of the outcome you have estimated and dreamed. Your outcome is not really what you wanted it to be. You need to know the law of outcome.

As there are fundamental laws, principles, and constitutional rules governing different social, political, economic, national, and international activities, some natural laws exist on our planet that are beyond our reach. These laws cannot be twisted, stretched, or given any change. Law of gravitation, law of motion, third law of motion, and law of attraction are some examples of such laws of nature. I believe there must be unseen forces that rule the result of our actions, which determines the degree of achievement and happiness to be paid back to us as a payment for the contribution we made to this planet, at the same time, which also penalises by bringing frustrations, unhappiness, and dissatisfaction in the life of those who do not value the potentialities they brought to contribute to this world and to those who neglect its rules and laws. I call this law the ‘law of outcome’.

Whatever you deal with, whether it be a bigger project or smaller, every situation of day-to-day life is governed by the law of outcome. If you are not happy with the result reflected from the course of your performance, it is so simple that you had not understood and followed the law of outcome. Hence, to arrive at the end with the desired result and to be blessed with happiness in life, you must master the law of outcome.

I hope, with utmost belief over the core of experiences and wisdom I have collected, the book written thereby will bestow you with true guidance and help you initiate your life towards the path of glory, prosperity, and happiness. I am sure every line and every chapter will find a deep concern in prospering you with the wisdom and enlightening you about the hidden power that you possess within yourself. Now, this book, Law of Outcome, is in your hand, which I sincerely dedicate to your service in the way of bringing happiness and fulfilment to your life. I always welcome feedback, comments, or any kind of message that you feel to pass me after reading this book, and in return, I will love to reply to you. You can email me, write a review, write on my blog or website, post me a letter, or leave me to comment on the social network.

Finally, for all the excitements, for all the curiosity, for all the hope, for all the faith, for all the trust, for all the change, for all the inspiration, for all the goodness that have aroused in you to read this book, I arm it with million hugs of appreciation and love. With the change that you bring in yourself for betterment, let us contribute to the betterment that we can bring to this world. This book will bestow you its best as you bestow its teachings to others. As the words from this book add minerals to your life, I hope for the aspiration that could grow in your mind, not only to change yourself but also to touch the lives of other people and transfer their life to a greater meaning.

Once again, I welcome you and thank you for choosing this book.

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In the first chapter, you will read about the three mental conditions in whose direction our decisions are processed. We will also discuss the action coming out from the particular decision and the emotions building in us thereafter.

Chapter 1

Three Directors,

Three Decisions,

Three Actions,

Three Results

I have studied to the depth and came out with this insight that human activities are controlled by three mental conditions. These are the states of mind that I call mental directors. I would like to open this chapter by explaining the word hospitality in the way I have understood. Hospitality is a kind of emotion that gets built in us towards a specific guest, according to the quality of that specific guest, and comes out of us as a means of any action to prove our affection towards that guest.

A Sunday morning is always a good morning. Imagine such one fine Sunday morning. Let’s suppose it’s your story.

Every Sunday, you have one special spiritual program, for an hour, listed as an important agenda of your Sunday schedule, which you never afford to miss. It is an hour of spiritual meditation, which you do every Sunday morning, with all your attention. Doing this meditation makes your mind feel relaxed from the entire exhaustion of the weeklong activities. The tensions—if there had been any—which separate you from your inner power of potentiality and growth, fade. The new energy rebounds you and connects you to the giant of productivity again.

As you go along with the program, so focused every time, you feel the energising emotional sensation being reflected in you from the core of your consciousness. Your body does not move an inch. Your inner world becomes different. Imagine one of the same Sunday mornings sitting in your meditational hour. You are in the middle of that spiritual program. Your mental state is already levelled to the state explained above. You are travelling across the land of peace, and you feel no part of your body lying on earth.

As you go deeper with your eyes closed, you feel relaxed and more relaxed. You feel energising vibes connecting to you. You are experiencing a more powerful sensation quivering in you than the other days. And in the middle of such a deep sunken spiritual journey, a noise enters in your ear and causes you to be disconnected from the sensational wave flowing from your spiritual session. The noise drags you back from your spiritual world and awakens you to your material world. Your journey has been interrupted. It’s the doorbell ringing.

Now, stop for a moment; imagine the changes that arrive at the status of your mind. Think of your mental status from the beginning, before you started your regular spiritual program, during the spiritual program, and after the disturbance caused by the doorbell.

While you were in the middle of your spiritual program, your mind was experiencing the magnificence of your internal journey, and it was at its highest level of blissfulness. And as you are startled by the doorbell, there is a different mental tension now. At this moment, the highest probability that your mind will have is the sense of unpleasantness caused by the disturbance of the doorbell. Somebody is at your door, and your mind wonders with negative curiosity who it could be.

Now, figure out the apathetic movement of your mental signals and thoughts inside you while you stand up and walk unenthusiastically towards the door to see who it is. Before you open the door, let me tell you, somebody is knocking at your door, and when you open it, there is always a probability of seeing one of these three, or together:

Someone in close relation

Someone in formal relation

Someone in negative relation

Close relation

In this category, we can take the people we love—for example, our family, parents, relatives, close friends, etc. Here, the purpose of the relationship we have with this category of people is love and care we have. Other than the fact that we care and love this group of people, there are no other conditions that we are bound to the relation with this category of people. We feel happy being in moments shared with these people, and we seldom feel disturbed with the entrance of this kind of people at any point, any place, any situation, and any moment of our life. I call this kind of meeting, meeting the man of your mind.

Formal relation

This type of relationship is maintained with the people with whom we have concern because of some business. Neither do we feel such as the prior (as the group of close relation) to give special attention to this group nor can we ignore them—for example, bosses, classmates, schoolteachers, strangers, co-workers, etc. During the course of our life, we meet this category of people, we work with this category of people, and we depart with this category of people. Our concerns to them remain for a limited period until there remains some mode of transactions in between. I call this kind of meeting, meeting the man of regulation.

Negative relation

There might be some people with whom we may not have a good relationship. We do not have any kind of concern for this category of people. Our meeting with this kind of person will always be a coincidence. It will be uncertainty rather than a plan. We often fail to decide on the actions we require or the manners we require to demonstrate whenever we meet this kind of person. I call this meeting, meeting a man of pessimism.

Now, as you open the door, and as I have said, there is always a probability of seeing someone from one of these three relationships; there follows the probability of three conditions now. Allow me to explain.

Condition 1. When you meet the man of your mind, you meet with strong desire.

Condition 2. When you meet the man of regulation, you meet with compulsion.

Condition 3. When you meet a man of pessimism, you meet in confusion.

Now, let’s imagine the guest appearing at your doorstep falls in the first probability—that is, someone in close relation. Here it goes.

The doorbell is ringing, and you are moving towards it unenthusiastically to see who has disturbed you. Wait! Stop here and, again, feel the lethargic and annoyed state of your mind. Your hand moves with deficient excitement, and you hold the doorknob, turn it, and pull the door inside. You can see a bunch of fresh colourful roses sealed inside a red tag with some message written in it, gently standing inside the hold of some fairy-looking hand. You can sense a surprise waiting to be experienced by you very soon while finding the person standing with those fresh roses. You open the door in a hurry now to see who it is, really.

You see a beautiful woman dressed in purple sari standing in front of you. Her curvaceous, slim, petite figure was quite noticeable and looking bewitching. Her eyes are circled with a light touch of black lines and shiny finishes with blue colour around them. You feel like the face is very close to you—something that you had been longing to see for a long time and uncertainly erased from your memory. You can see her face glowing with an alluring smile and sparkling with joy in meeting you. It was not a bunch of seconds, and you suddenly start hitting by your past. You need not travel a long distance of inquisitive anxiety before it gets answered to you with the recapitulation of one incident from your life—the incident that had devastated your world to the core and forced you to move on with extreme difficulties and the inclined propensity of discouragement over the potential growth that you had focused on with your life. As you meet the point of recognition of the face before you, your lips agape, a wordless exclamation with abundant curiosity revolves around you!

You were a boomed business person has-been. It was not just an ordinary life that you were living with once but, indeed, a life coloured with every aspect of treasures that anyone wishes to possess. What did you not have? Corporate buildings of your own at major towns and cities; a business empire that has ranked a place in Fortune 500; a team of innovative circles in your business organisation; cars that you would like to ride per occasion; more than ten private bungalows built at different sightseeing hubs across the world; your beautiful wife Nirmala, who has not only partnered with your personal life but also shared her level of creativity inside your business arena too; a list of more than hundred names who would love to attend you at any hour of your need; two beautiful daughters, Netraa and Snehaa, who would invigorate your mind with their toddling dances and activities every evening; a mansion house with the apartments to accommodate any kind of social arrangements and facilities; and yet the list of your possessions goes on with the count of many other valuables. Of all these accomplishments, there was a deep, strong conscience within you that the cheers your family brought to you could not be equalled by your other achievements. At that point of fulfilment, your life was just flying over the hills of the seventh heaven until that brutal incident occurred to tear your frolicsome days from your life.

It was one fine December Tuesday; you, along with your wife and kids, had been on a car ride to play with an evening cold. Your wife, dressed in a long glossy black jacket with a red scarf curved on her neck, was sitting in the front seat with you, while you were in the driving seat, nevertheless maintaining equal attention to the two daughters’ fickle activities at the rear seat. In the meantime, on the wing mirror, you notice a red saloon car coming close to your back. You give an overtaking signal through your indicator and look at your rear-view mirror to see the response of the red car.

Surprisingly, the red car slows down and is left back. Engaged in the chattering with your family, somehow, sometimes, your inquisitive eyes were searching for the red car. Eventually, your attention to that car breaks completely with the shriek of Snehaa, ‘Mummy! Look, look, no! There goes my mate Shriya.’

Nirmala, too in a hurry, turns towards the direction the beaked mouth of Snehaa was pointing. ‘Where? Oh! The one walking with that old man in a blue sweater? Yes?’ You, too, give a side look to locate the girl your wife was pointing with her finger inside from the car.

‘Yes, yes, Mummy, did you see her sneakers sparkling at the bottom? I was talking of the same sneakers.’ Snehaa clings to her mother from the back and smiles with a pretty hopeful look to please her mother. "Mummy, please, please, please, you have promised, if you see its type, you will buy for me.’

"OK, honey, OK! We are almost at the park now. Before we enter the park, we’re gonna buy it. Don’t panic and let me park the car first.’ You could see a victory sign from Snehaa as she lifts her small hand for a thumbs-up punch.

The factuality that streets were cold and chill was being proclaimed with the people’s movement with their hands inside their pocket, walking hastened, crossed arms and hands. There was a shopping mall adjacent to the entrance of the park, with one gate opened to the alley sloped down for the parking basement.

You drive through the gate down and make a quick survey of the parking basement. You park the car in one slot available between the cars. You give a final glance before you press the lock button in the car key. On the other side of the car was Nirmala taking final inspection of the clothes of the two girls if they were well dressed to cover the cold. There was a lift on the right corner of the basement. It was usual for you to see your kids running towards the lift every time you came to the basement to park the car. You follow your kids with Snehaa to the lift.

Not to mention, within a few minutes after you were out of the car, you had been waiting inside the lift for the lift door to be closed. As the doors were getting closer to each other, you suddenly beheld the same car entering the basement. You see a sturdy looking man with a black coat behind the steering wheel. The man had a commanding face with a prominent nose and wide forehead with his hair combed back. The man sitting on the other side was hidden from you. You only see the white hat that man had on. Before you could collect any more details, the doors of the lift closed, obstructing your sight. The lift starts climbing.

After a short while, you, along with your wife and kids, were walking through the street, breathing thin white vapour. Now, as you had promised your daughter, you had to visit the mall to buy her sneakers. Your wife, as always, does the task of assisting the kids in selecting and deciding their choices. And you, as always, keep yourself engaged in examining the environment, browsing, and sometimes going closer and lifting the items that attract and develop any kind of curiosity in you. While walking agog, you get attracted to a jogging suit. It fits well with your imagination, which you had been longing to buy for a few days.

‘Darling, we are done. Do you have anything to take?’ Nirmala inquires you.

‘How is that suit, the third one near the swimming costume?’ You are waiting for some support about your choice.

‘Yeah, looks nice. Why don’t you try it?’ Your wife is excited too.

As you see Snehaa with a carrier bag, you ask Nirmala, your wife, ‘Did you get anything for Netraa?’

Yes, yes, she also has a pair of trainers, Nirmala answers you with a sedate look. "OK! That’s great. I will find your choice at home. You two take this car key and stay inside the car. We will be with you shortly.’ You were sure that making them wait while you go in the process of trying a suit might annoy them, so you ask them to go and wait for you in the car.

After finishing with your jogging suit, you two went to the car. Now, you don’t see any sign of the girls inside the car. ‘You know, Nirmala, this is what I don’t like with these two.’ Their absence makes you worried.

You two start searching all the corners of the parking lot. But they were nowhere. You are getting frantic, and your every restless movement here and there is resulting in you having cold sweat. Regardless of your effort, you are not able to control your mind from dreading something bad behind your daughters’ sudden disappearance. You notice Nirmala and find the same kind of apprehension harrying her. You are tensely looking for some clues to relate your daughters’ loss with any option or anyone to ask about your daughters.

Suddenly, a thought comes to you about looking for some guard or watchman to ask about your daughters. From one of the security guards, you knew that a red saloon had moved from the place with two girl kids fifteen minutes before. You ask about the description of the girls. He describes the appearance of the two men, the girls, and the car. The same red car you had noticed from the road that had entered after you in the basement was not there.

From the depiction made by the guard, you realise the inkling that you had developed towards the red car. But you were not sure of what exactly they were up to. At this hour of anxieties, what could and would anyone think of other than to make a quick run to the police station? Fortuitously, your wife had carried another key of the car.

After reaching the station and reporting the case to the police, they ask for the possible portrayal of those two men. You portrayed it to the police. They show you some photographs. While you flip the photos, you find the same man with a wide forehead in one photograph. The police officer told you that the men are involved in a series of human trafficking, smuggling, and kidnapping. They run the mafia and have been jailed several times.

This was something that you had hardly expected to happen with you. It was sure by now your daughters had been kidnapped. Now your mind just began questioning yourself, What to do?

You look at your wife and notice her face covered with the same bereft consternation. Usually, in other dejected situations, she had a habit of pulling your coat and hanging herself in your arms with a poised trust of some tranquillity. Today, you do not find such movements in your wife. From a distance, you can see the tide of tears shining and floating in her eyes to flow out anytime.

Her face is marked with unravelling panic, and you can understand the question that her winced face is putting on you silently, ‘Oh, dear! What to do now?’

In her floating tears, you can sense her trust in her dear husband that he will find their daughters anyhow, and as she holds your hand, you feel like she is passing some bold statement to you, ‘Yes! My dear husband, you can do it, and you have to.’ A strong voice within roars inside you, Yes, I will. Whatever it takes, I will do everything to find these rascals.

Before you leave the police station, you, along with your wife, go through all the legal formalities. The police head gives his assurance in giving his best to find your daughters and requests you to cooperate with them with the information or any phone calls that you will receive henceforth. The assurance was not complete for you to fall into the belief that you need not do anything. While you shook hands with the police officer, you were calculating and planning the steps that you are required to and making the list of people in your circle that you need to talk to.

After reaching home, you make calls to all the people who could render their help. Many well-wishers and your friends have visited you with all their possible effort to support you in this disgraceful moment. The night ended sleeplessly.

For the few days, there stayed constant visits from your friends and office workers. The efforts were made from every possible way to catch the kidnappers. It went on for more than three months, and no positive signs were received from any source or police.

Gradually, the crowd at your home shrank and one day ended with just you and your wife. It had become by now a routine schedule for you giving round at the police station, sometimes arguing disconcertingly with police officers, and sometimes talking politely and calmly; these were all that you do every day at the police station. All your other efforts went in vain, and police had been the only hope left. Every day you go to the police station to inquire if any traces have been discovered. The response is always empty. You know there is nothing to listen to from the police, though you can’t stop yourself from going back to the police station every day. And with empty hands, while you lumber back to your home every day, you dread being knocked with the crumpling face of your wife with the questions and hope running in her eyes. It’s been hard, but you cannot escape the situation. You have to respond to your wife. As you penetrate with your stammering voice, it has not been so hard for her to foresee what news you have brought before you finish your statement. All the time, you notice your wife becoming silent, staying aloof in one corner and glazing out of the window from the bedroom. Day by day, you can see your wife has started falling into depression. You try hard to take your wife out of this anxiety and boredom life, but she expresses no interest in any of the plans you offer. It has been really hard for you to balance your life. One side is your bereft condition on the loss of your daughter; others are the wife, her health, and your work.

With the loss of your two daughters, your house had lost its charisma. Everywhere, there smells a panicking silence. Every day, you and your wife sit on the dining table with glazed faces, leaving your half meal uneaten. Skipping meal after meal, in addition to depression, has made your wife look thin and weaker.

One day, your parents-in-law arrived at your home with one elder brother-in-law. Considering the diminishing health state of your wife, they expressed their worries and thought and suggested sending her with them to recover from this fortuity. You feel the idea wise, as you were not too sound to take care of your wife properly. Besides, you had not been to the office many days, and lots of tasks had remained pending. You call back the commitments that you made to your wife while proposing to her that you will be with her in every good and bad time. But to let her stay with you was doing nothing good and making the condition of your wife tenser. Though it was hard making this decision, you made up your mind to send your wife with her parents.

Now you were alone at your home. You had given a long break to all the housemaids. You hardly go to the kitchen and prepare food for yourself. In lieu, you had been taking cookies, biscuits, and chips. As told, every day, you go to the police station, and later, with the frustration and grief, you find yourself sitting alone on some bench lying at the corner of the park with tears to share with yourself.

One day, a friend meets you in this adrift condition and takes you to a bar, thinking some peg will help you come out of this turbulence. You had never been opened to alcoholic drinks. Your mind was not in the condition to justify wisely, and besides that, you had a big reason to say yes to your friend’s offer. The first taste was not good at all, but your miserable condition made it swallow easy.

The next morning, you went to your office with a thought to go around your office to see how the work was being run in your absence. As you were briefed through the accounting statements, reports, and secretarial specifications about the management of funds and assets, you were desperately disgruntled by discovering the embezzlement carried on by one of your co-workers and friend to whom you had authorised the financial and accounting responsibility of your business in your absence. You had a deep level of trust in him. One was the abduction of your daughters, and another was the knavery uncovered about your friend, who had always occupied a tremendous level of faith in your heart. On the other days in your past, you had always taken such kind of act assertively, but now you do not find enough courage and emotional backup to react to this issue. The loss of your daughter and an incomplete family would have no comparison with any worse situation of your life now. For you, your family was the purpose for whom you have fought, and your family was the strength that you have fought with. The absence of your family gives you no reason to fight any challenges and hurdles seen in your business now.

You know