The Wise Man

So... it's all planned. I don't have my life in my control. I'm just a breathing puppet.

It was a normal day in Delhi. I was wandering around searching for purpose. I was headed straight for Buzz, a bar in the Saket area, with a girl.

There he was, sitting right outside the entrance to the bar on the first floor, as if waiting just for me - a jyotshi covered in orange, a long beard growing down his face.

Something in me... I was pulled towards him.

"Sit," he said, looking straight into my eye.

"Libran," he voiced again.

"Yes," I said, a little taken aback.

"Name starts with R." He didn't even look up to me for a reaction, as if he was dead sure - I was the guy he was waiting for.

He opened a book of his. "No no no," he said. "It's all wrong. You are not supposed to be here."

"What?" I asked, confused.

"I am surprised. What are you doing here? You are not supposed to be here."

"What the fuck you talkin about man?"

With his finger on the text of the book, he read (said), "The sea... your life starts near the sea. You are supposed to be near a sea. Your life's waiting near the sea side. Go... Go fast," he kept on saying.

I got goose bumps the way he was talking.

"But," he said after a while. "It won't be all hunky dory. Nothing will seem right. Nothing. Nothing will go right."

"What do you mean? If I go to a new place, why will nothing be alright. I'll make it alright. I'll change my identity. Everything."

"2 and a half years," he said. "Eight months halve already passed. For two and a half years you'll wander around like a man lost. There will be problems everywhere. Let that time pass."

"Whatever man."

I held the girl's hand and walked up to Buzz. Ordered a beer.

Ten minutes later, my phone rang.

A phone call from Qatar. Job offer. "Join immediately."

Stunned, I ran down to catch the jyotshi. He was nowhere.

10 days later, I was flying over the Arabian sea, and landed right beside it.

No matter how much I wanted to change myself here, it didn't happen. There are problems still. I thought I had found my life in her, her who I met because of Qatar, certainly. But that wasn't how it was meant to be. Or was it?

What's happening?

What's next?

I'm just a breathing puppet awaiting the planner's next move on me.

What next?

Who is she? Where is she? Where do I go next? What turn would my life take?

What's the plan? Why did you bring me to Qatar?

Who is here?

Why are you not letting me go?

God...