In Vacant or in Pensive Mood

I had quite a rough day at work today. My boss kept asking me to rework what was a perfectly good promotional writeup. I was forced to work late, and when I left office two hours later than usual, he still didn't look so satisfied. I was frustrated by the end of the day. When I'm feeling an emotion, any emotion at all, my immediate reaction is to vent it out. As I walked out of office, I decided it wouldn't be such a good idea to talk loudly to my alter ego in public. So I decided to call someone I thought might listen empathetically. I called twice, but there was no answer. So much for empathy! Feeling more frustrated,and a little hurt, I called my dad. When he answered the phone, I told him that I was just leaving office then. He enquired why I was leaving that late; I grabbed the question as an opportunity to vent out my emotional story. My dad heard half the story, and at some point when I paused (for dramatic effect), thought I was done, and hung up! Disappointed,...

It was late August in the year 2014; and 'Catharsis', the inter-collegiate cultural face-off for social work students, was round the corner. Pinky was both officially and undoubtedly in charge, and she excitedly made a list of twenty student names and put down events next to each of them. Before I go on, I will let you in on some background information: one, if our professors at MCCSWD allow us to participate in any cultural event, they expect us to come back winning the overall championship, and two, we won the Catharsis championship the previous year! Catharsis Winners - 2013 As a junior last year, I hadn't felt the pressure to win. I was just excited to be having an excuse to visit Trichy (where the event was organised, by Bishop Heber College) and was looking forward to enjoying myself. This year, as a senior, I felt the pressure. One of our professors was literally breathing down our necks, pushing us to practice over a short span of two days before the event. ...

After an all-night worship session, everyone had decided to rest for a while in their tents. But you know, in this place, it is seldom that one needed to rest because of fatigue or exhaustion. Perhaps that was why he was able to go back out to the Garden after spending just a few brief minutes in the tent. Here, he didn't really feel the need to sleep. Sometimes, when he thought about his old home, he laughed at how much he loved to sleep there! Here, he just liked to spend as much time as possible singing, or playing the swanky guitar they gave him sometimes. During other times, he liked to walk in the Garden, as he was doing now, or just sit and watch the fountain as its gleaming water gushed out in different directions. It was a beautiful place, no doubt, much better than the people back home described it. Someone touched him on his shoulder and he turned to see who it was. It was a man wearing a beautiful white tux, holding a letter in his hand. Alan's eyes brimmed wit...