One minute Naren

 

Habits are an acquired taste; it comes from our upbringing, mostly from the people around us. At the age of 14, when Naren was about to leave for his exam, he went to take a blessing from his grandmother.

She stops and asks him to wait for a minute and do anything after that. Naren humbly waited for a minute and then took her blessing and then left for his school.

Somehow this action stuck with him. In the exam hall, he got his answer sheet and waited for a minute to start writing. He finished the paper, waited for a minute to give it back. And even after coming home, he waited for a minute to enter the home.

The simple act became a habit, the habit became a routine and the routine became an obsession for him.

After 5 years, when Naren was 19, a beautiful girl approached him and proposed to him. When Naren waited for a minute, his friend intervened and took her for a coffee.  When he was 22, Naren went for a job interview. He was waiting with 5 different candidates in the waiting room. When the interviewer called him, Naren waited for a minute. The interviewers got pissed and called the other guy.

At 25, Naren got a lottery. He saw the numbers on the TV and waited for a minute to make a call. When he made the call, the lottery was already taken by someone else. At 26 he went to a bank for a loan. Like his interview, he was waited with few other men. When the manager called him for his housing loan, he was waiting for a minute as usual. The manager got frustrated and called someone else.

Frustrated Naren comes back and starts his bike. He stops at a signal which showed 45 seconds for Red light. He could not accept the fact and waited for 15 more seconds to finish a minute. By that time the green light was on. The traffic cop suddenly stopped him and asked him for a fine. Even this time when Naren waited for a minute, the traffic cop got angry took his bike.

Naren came home by walk and was pretty depressed.  He tossed his bag, waited for a minute, and started scolding his grandmother's photo frame which denoted that she was no more –

Naren – Why?

Why?

You could have taught me to dance…

To sing

Or even to draw

Why this?

Because of you, I am stuck old lady…

Because of you...Abruptly he dropped the conversation because of frustration and dozed off to sleep.

The next day, Naren got ready to go for work. He followed his 1-minute routine before going to bath, getting dressed, and before leaving home. Since he was not having his bike now he went to the nearest metro station. He stood there in a queue and waited for the train. When the train arrived and the gates opened, Naren started looking at his watch and waited right in front of the gate. The entire train looked at him for his weird behavior.  Few passengers came out, surrounded him, and asked him what was happening and why he was not getting into the train.

Naren got embarrassed and replied – Bad time.

Suddenly from a distance, everyone could hear a thundering rumble sound. It was a huge blast. The heat from the explosion hit everyone across the platform. The people who fell woke up gradually and saw the horror in front of them. The train was in pieces and was burning to a crisp.

The horror expression on people's faces turned into a serious one. They all surrounded Naren. Naren was scared and motionless. Naren stood up and looked at them with fear. Suddenly a fellow passenger approached Naren and asked him - How did you know? It was like final destination movie? 

Naren gave a blank expression and replied – one minute. He quickly saw his watch and waited for a minute. The people around Naren got surprised looking at him and fell on his leg.

From that day he was known as the one minute Baba. His belief and habit took him in a new direction. Though it was all chaos in the start, the consistency got him to a new level. People started loving his one-minute ritual and followed it for life.