My Living World

By Manas Roy Chowdhuri

Manas Roy Chowdhuri was an unknown writer who was never exposed as one. Even so, he had a dream to publish a collection of stories dealing with subject matters very commonly visible in our society. The reader may experience all these stories in their daily lives, occurring all around them.

As always, society is dynamic and constantly changing. These twelve stories reflect our society from many different angles. This author was hopeful that acculturation and modernization might ultimately have a positive influence on our society.

• Language: English
• Publisher: iUniverse
• Release date: Oct 8, 2013
• ISBN: 9781491708767

Manas Roy Chowdhuri

Manas Roy Chowdhuri was born and raised in Calcutta, India. He moved to the US more than thirty years ago and resided in Los Angeles, California. He always had a keen interest in creative writing and perfecting the art of storytelling. He dreamt of one day publishing a book. This collection of short stories reflects his observations of society. During the writing of this book, he lost his life to cancer in March of 2013. This book was compiled and published as a tribute to his memory.

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MY LIVING WORLD

Copyright © 2013 Manas Roy Chowdhuri.

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 publisher except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

This is a work of fiction. All of the characters, names, incidents, organizations, and dialogue in this novel are either the products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.

iUniverse books may be ordered through booksellers or by contacting:

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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.

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Thinkstock are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Thinkstock.

ISBN: 978-1-4917-0875-0 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4917-0877-4 (hc)

ISBN: 978-1-4917-0876-7 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2013917352

iUniverse rev. date: 10/02/2013

Contents

Trickle Toffy

The Beautiful Americi

Fire Her

Flamenco

Promise / At A Glimpse

Love’s Laugh

Offspring

Welcome To Hollywood

Freak Timing

Poor Boss

Pure Sleep

Teleconference

Note From Author

The author of this book was an unknown writer who was never exposed as one. But he had a dream to publish a collection of stories dealing with subject matters very commonly visible in our society. The reader will experience all these stories in their daily lives, occurring all around them.

As always, society is dynamic and constantly changing. These twelve stories reflect our society from many different angles. This author was hopeful that acculturation and modernization will ultimately have a positive influence on our society.

Acknowledgement

Story writing is a process that begins with a vision, and is fueled by excitement, ideas, creativity, research, and facts.

We all worked together to make this a valuable book for today and beyond.

In this process, Cathy Palpallatoc has provided strong support from the very beginning. Among many things, she assisted with conceptualizing ideas, structuring and writing, which is unforgettable. No doubt, without her this book could never have been published. I thankfully remember her.

James Powell, the editor of this book, is appreciated for his caring efforts to assist me in turning my manuscript into a book, which I had long dreamt of and had the passion for many years.

Lastly, iUniverse, my publisher, has given me the encouragement I needed to publish this book. They essentially motivated me to write and keep a mindset to think at a higher level.

Dedication

To my parents and my sister who have always cared for me and who are my angels up above.

To my loving and wonderful wife, Jayasri, my son, Parthajeet, my daughter-in-law, Himani, and my granddaughter, Ajuni, who are the center of my world.

Although they did not know how it happened, they knew that their trip to Trickle Toffy had something to do with this change. A miracle had happened. Their prayers had been answered.

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Trickle Toffy

Every year it happens again. All the kids are home for summer vacation. Parents become frustratingly busy, sometimes angry, overly careful, and impatient. Each family plans how to spend the summer.

In addition, each family has its own problems and sometimes finds no easy solutions. Kids, after all, are kids. Notoriously. All kinds of bad things are happening everywhere. Teenage crimes are increasing day by day. All types of nasty, horrible, and destructive events show up in the newspapers, unprecedented in history. Children are troubled. Sociologists say that perhaps there is not one cause, but many: attention disorders, stress, peer pressure, and dysfunctional families.

In every relevant field, professionals are engaged with these complex issues. Government spending is increasing to cope up with the problems and situations. Even then, we still don’t have good solutions. Some troubled kids are more violent than others. Time cannot change them. And juvenile crimes seem to be getting progressively worse.

Parents do not know how to respond. They try to educate themselves in order to cope with these problems. Virtually all will sacrifice and give any amount of effort for a solution. And although society cannot change overnight, we know we must improve parenting, the education system, and the social and cultural environments.

A broad range of entertainment resources are available for teens. Home, library, and classroom, offer various types of entertainment. Caring people in the United States devote countless hours for creating ideal conditions for teenagers, to keep them free from troubles. This is needed because we cannot progress unless we are able to resolve this problem, which remains a burning, central issue. It is a problem we must not avert our attention from. Rather, we must live with this problem with utmost care, consideration, and attention, always nurturing a realistic dream for magical solutions.

Family #1: Jerry & Donna

On June 26th Saturday morning at ten o’clock, Jerry and Donna were talking over their morning coffee. Nothing special, just normal domestic issues like the grocery list, their kids’ behavior, and so on. The local newspaper had assumed its customary position on the table, with Jerry, between snippets of conversation, browsing the front page in his usual distracted manner.

Suddenly, in the lower left corner of the paper, a caption captured his attention: Trickle Toffy. For a while, he was absorbed in the article, written on a subject he had never heard before and was thus difficult for him to believe. He hurriedly read the article through in order to get a meaningful understanding out of it. It struck a chord.

A brief time passed without talking. Jerry was seriously contemplating the inner spiritual meaning of the article. By now Donna had become curious. She stared at Jerry, who looked uncharacteristically pensive. It seemed to her, however, that he was not willing to talk with her about it at the moment.

As days passed with no exchange of words about it, Donna felt a surge of anger and asked Jerry about what he had read. The answer didn’t come until later. The next morning, Jerry explained his complete plan to Donna and about the article he read on the local newspaper. Donna was not responsive in the beginning.

After a sleepless night of worry, Jerry told Donna, We will win this battle together. It seems like a good idea. Our lives depend on it. We can envision a bright outcome. However, Jerry didn’t know what to do. He figured he would talk to friends, relatives, and neighbors. He would also enlist help from the school and churches. Hundreds of complaint letters had been written and many, many horrible incidents had happened. The voices continued their subdued, relentless nagging. His head pounded. They both exchanged the names of everyone they knew. With this conversation, Jerry’s spirits rose.

As time passed, his mind and body continued to heal. Jerry felt himself dragged out of their tears. Jerry did not know who would be accountable for this. He was worried about what this was doing to him. Treating himself to the things he loved and enjoyed was difficult most of the time. Jerry tried to find something positive in this sad situation.

He tried to figure out what he could gain from this for his family. Spending time with the children had become a top priority for Jerry, although it was getting more difficult day-by-day. Jerry forced himself to think positively. But he remained stuck in the traffic of his mind. He wanted to relive a favorite dream; that the worst was over. That this was the dawn of a new day with lot more happiness. A day in which the kids obeyed. That maybe he would even get more time to think now more about his work and for himself. He had never been selfish or self-centered. He had always tried to find happiness by being with his family and friends, never alone.

Jerry was feeling tired of his life and was looking for a good time to concentrate just on himself. He needed to know more about himself and his intrinsic value. He was doing this to make his family happy. Time hung very heavy upon him. He was looking for realistic solutions for his unruly kids. He was facing difficult problems he had not expected: stubborn and destructive kids, unpredictable behavioral patterns. In the beginning, he thought that they would change over time. But instead things had become worse.

Donna also had suffered a lot and had become frustrated. She had no more dreams. She began to think that life was a struggle and that she must accept it. That nothing would change this. That life was just a routine task. That one couldn’t change anything. That, it was her destiny. That the kids couldn’t be thrown out. That life was no more a sweet dream, even though she could enjoy various pleasures. She knew that the burden would not be over soon. That by the time it would be over, she was going to lose all its intrinsic value. In fact, she could not see anything intrinsic.

No family values. All this had become very external and inappropriate for Donna. She couldn’t see that anything better might happen. She asked herself about the uncaring quality of such a life. About how life ultimately means taking responsibility for what may come. But most of the time, she did not have a good answer. She was suspicious and skeptical and lost the value of the concept of life as a whole. She had lost all hope.

Jerry kept on telling her that they had to learn more about their life. That it really did not matter what they expected from life, but rather what life was expected from them. They needed to stop asking about the meaning of life.

He told her that some people succeed by what they know, some by what they do, and a few by what they are. He said, Tonight I want to tell you something a little different than my plan in the beginning. Donna, I’ve always lived with my dreams. Many I passed up for our family situation. I want to do better for my family. I want to regain and fulfill our lives. You may not find something to relate to in what I have to say to you, but this is my individual feeling. I have a feeling of trust and hope. You must join with me, Donna. We need to give a last try. Dallas is not too far. It will take only a few days and couple of hundred dollars. We need to fix our van for a long drive. Let’s go, Donna. We are not going to waste the prime years of life. Please give me your word to give it a fair try. We will succeed.

Donna said, Jerry, I’m confused, hesitant, and doubtful. It would be hard for me to accept without questioning. Perhaps you have heard something. When someone wants to establish a different belief, it may work sometimes. I don’t blame you. It does not take any introduction for us. Please tell me what you want, Jerry. I am with you. But I am sure I have no faith to contribute anything to you for anything at this time. I’m not going to tell you all about my feelings, but rather relay my second thoughts. I guess I should be with you. Tell me your plan.

Jerry said, Have you ever felt that nothing was working for us? Our answer was not to give up. I have one interesting idea, and I believe it is true. It will make a big difference in our lives. Let’s go to Dallas. It’s only a twenty-hour drive from here. Nobody has been able to respond to our worry-filled lives. Rather this worry has forced us to pull away from many social events, activities, and people that make up our lives.

In their intellects, feelings, and actions, they had gradually shifted their center of gravity. They had relocated their center of attention and had compromised for the sake of their children. But they saw only violence. They had become only listeners while their kids complained against everyone they did not like. Jerry and Donna were really at the end of the wall. Everything around them was looking bleak. Their spirits were down. They could see all the signs of failure, although they had always looked forward to a world of essential human freedom. Now their freedom had been lost.

They would have liked to have freedom from fear everywhere. They were silent at the beginning and still they were silent before going to sleep. It had been difficult to attain that peace and happiness, because they knew they were a disintegrated, dysfunctional family. They had lifted every voice in the beginning.

Many times Jerry had sung a song full of faith. He had prayed to God, Please give us peace from all our fears. Really, they were at a point where men and women lose hope, where they become powerless and cannot do anything more. Every day they thought that it would be a new day, with new resolutions and new hopes. They might have a fresh start any moment for a better tomorrow.

They didn’t really want to accept any sense of failure. They felt failure not in falling down, but from wanting to stand up again. It was difficult when they did not know where they stood. They couldn’t learn from others unless they learned first from themselves—who or what they were.

This life had given them a chance to love, to work, to play, to dream, and many other freedoms. But now, each day, Jerry suffered a strange fear of insecurity and much doubt clouding their future. He found no other power or force to transform that fear into radiant confidence. He wanted to be free from this agony.

They wanted life to be a holy and infinite center that spoke in them and through them; to the world. They wanted life to be precious. They wanted the best for their family. It was part of their responsibilities as parents. They wanted all their joys, happiness, and satisfaction to come from togetherness. Each day they wanted to experience all such useful and happy moments. But it did not work for them, and they felt it would continue for an indefinite amount of time. He knew that they could not do everything. They needed someone to help them do this. It was always terrible when they failed to be what they wanted. But they felt they could get a right start by accepting the truth and recognizing all the possible changes that they might need to make.

Watching their children suffer, they had also suffered. They knew they must teach their children to be good and kind. But what they had lost was lost. It could not be retrieved, even if the next generation would fulfill auspicious dreams, if common sense and kindness would be the religion of all kids, if gloomy days became beautiful days for their children.

Gradually Jerry started realizing the simplicity of the Great Universe and its fundamental truth. He saw that truth was to calm down and see all the possibilities around. Hoping they might receive help from many unknown sources and that they were not trapped. That it had just been a bad time. Thoughts had tremendous power. They continually work to help find better ways. At that moment, he experienced the presence of an angel helping them to solve all their family problems with the kids.

Their family was on the verge of ruin. They could not stand each other. Only a few years ago, his wife had been a beautiful, loving woman and he had the deepest desire for her. Ever since Jerry was a child he had wanted to see and be around a beautiful