Continued from Chapter 3

Rohan felt happier and more satisfied for many weeks after that crazy dream/encounter.
He was balancing his work and home life better, stopped fretting about trivial things and just generally felt a bounce in his step always.

A few months passed and a new interesting opportunity presented itself at work. Happy with his performance as the youngest India CEO of the company, the board of directors asked him to take up a much bigger role and made him CEO of the entire Asia Pacific region.
This was huge! His work scope more than doubles and suddenly he was responsible for 60% of the company’s revenue.
Rohan felt pretty excited about this opportunity, but gradually as the new grind started he started feeling that same emptiness that he was feeling on that fateful day. Every few weeks, he would think about that day and then about that supernatural encounter he had whilst being in his sleep throughout. Thinking about the entire conversation with the old lady would bring him some solace and worked like a fuel but again in a few weeks, that fuel will burn off and he would find himself questioning everything around.

“This is not sustainable” , he thought. “My current professional and personal stage requires me to operate at 100% capacity all the time. I can’t do that if I am unsure of what is right, what to focus on, and what to ignore”
“I need some answers. And there is only one person/soul who can give those to me”

With a resolve in his voice and determination in his eyes, he got into his car and drove out of the city. The skyscrapers, traffic lights and big vehicles gave way to lush green hills and empty roads. Cacophony of the city replaced by the sound of cool breeze hitting his speeding car. Rohan didn’t notice all this, he continued driving. His mind was fixated somewhere else.
Another hour would have passed. He took a turn on an ungraveled road winding upwards steeply. There was a small board right there that said “Echo point”. The road ended at the end of a cliff that overlooked a vast and deep valley. On most days, it is easy to find hoardes of youngsters and tourists howling at the top of their voices here but today the area wore a very deserted look. A Wednesday afternoon with Covid restrictions still partially applicable – what else can one expect.

Rohan parked the car and walked out to the edge of the cliff. Frustration was apparent on his face from just a cursory look. He took a few deep breaths and then shouted with all his power – ” Where are you?”
WHERE ARE YOU??? … where ARE YOU??… where are YOU?… Youuu…. the valley replied with echo.
“I know I wasn’t just dreaming that day. I can feel even today that you were real.” he continued, “Come in front of me. I need answers. I need answers, please.” he stopped, almost in a sobbing voice.

It seemed like that the valley couldn’t gather much since it echoed back some garbled sentences and only 2 words really hung around at the end – “ANSWERS, PLEASE… ANSWERS…answers….ANSWERS???”

Rohan was stunned for a moment. Did the valley just talk to him and ask a question? Did it really work?
A few confused moments later, he hesitantly shouted out “Yes, Answers”. He wasn’t sure why he said it and was not very optimistic that the valley will talk back.

“ANSWERS TO WHAT?” , the valley roared back instead of echoing his words.

Rohan got pretty excited now, he could feel a surge of adrenaline in his body because of what could be a second super natural encounter of his life. While he couldn’t recognise the voice as the same of that old lady from his ‘dream’, he was clear that that wouldn’t matter. Whoever is there at the back of this voice, would know his story and his encounter already, he thought. Controlling his emotions and bringing his mind back to the real reason he was here, he started speaking.

“The things we spoke about last time, I have more questions on those. More fundamental questions; and I don’t know anyone else who can give me the right answers”, he said, still putting in a little effort to speak out loud to a vast empty valley.

“I know what you are talking about but let me tell you at the outset that you spoke to someone else in that encounter. That was our sister from the soul management department. I handle something else.” , the valley roared back. The echoes had completely stopped by now. Instead of relaying back what Rohan said, the valley was just relaying back responses to Rohan’s remarks.

“Oh ok. I didn’t know that but yes, I expected that if this approach of mine works, whoever I speak to will know my story. Did she tell you my story herself by the way? and what do you handle, just curious.”, Rohan said.

“Why don’t you focus your curious energy on your actual questions, my friend”, the valley quipped.

Embarrassed by the straight counter, Rohan nervously said, “Yes, yes. I am sorry. Getting to it right away.”
“So, while the conversation I had with the ‘sister’ helps me every time I am trying to micromanage my days and hours, what I am getting stuck on is the point of all this. Why am I doing any of it? To what end?”, Rohan said, his frustration now clear in his voice.

“Explain more” said the valley.

“Alright. See, the whole conundrum started building in my head as I started getting bigger responsibilities at work while also moving ahead in the personal life. Being the youngest CEO at any company isn’t easy and doing that while also wanting to spend time with your family is tougher.
I really want to do both but it needs me to do these constant trade-offs all the time; it gets exhausting. I stop feeling in control of my life and then to get that control back, micromanaging starts.
That was the point when the whole shebang happened. But I now realize, the real question for me was not how to stop micromanagement but why that trade-off exists in the first place. Why isn’t putting all my time and focus on one thing enough”, Rohan said.

“Who is stopping you from putting all focus on one thing? Go ahead and do it.” the valley quipped.

“Then the other thing gets neglected, doesn’t it?”

“Of course it does. But you would know which is more important, right?”

“I don’t! That’s why I came here hoping to get more answers from that lady like last time.”

“Oh! This is embarrassing to see. You humans claim to be the smartest species on the planet and give so much trouble to almost everything else, including all our departments here, but you don’t even know what is it that is most important for you in your life? Which, I may add, is not a very long life to begin with”, the valley sounded frustrated.

Noticing the irritation, Rohan tried to explain his confusion once more.
“Listen, I am just trying to figure this out for myself. Maybe other humans are all smart and know this already. Let me try once again.
From what I understand, any living being on the planet will look to maximize their own happiness & satisfaction. We humans are no different. While for most species, that simply means getting the next meal, sleep and mate; for humans it is much more complex because of the world we have created for ourselves.
There are books to read, degrees to get, jobs to do, kids to raise, families to take care of, money to earn, assets to own, success to be achieved and so on. With so much to do, the question arises – what out of the plethora of possible things is really that matters for eventual happiness & satisfaction. What should be my goal and ambition? Because spending time & effort on anything that is not directly or indirectly related to that is a waste, isn’t it?”, Rohan stopped, hoping his dilemma is clear to the valley now.

The valley quickly responded, “Ah! Now I get what you are trying to ask. This is actually quite common in your species, so much so that we have a name for it here. We call it The Dichotomy of Human Ambition.”

Rohan was by now used to these ‘supernatural beings’ talking about human troubles in a slight inconsiderate tone but he was still amazed and actually slightly amused that there is a name in the God department for what he is going through. Hopefully, he said, “Wow! If that’s the case, then I am sure you will have some answers too for me?”

To be continued…

Chapter 5