( I've been writing a lot these days. Taking part in contests and doing what not. Today I authored this story. It needs to be polished. The title may be changed. But I've got the start towards fulfilling my long-cherished dream. Happy reading.)

The Truth-Seeker:

As Mr.Sen steps inside the school premises, the overhead skies darken and thunder. The frightened child beside him under the same umbrella, in a pitiable voice cries out ,"I don't like such days, Sir. Makes me homesick."

"I understand, Surya. Such gloomy days make me feel the same way, that someone is taking his final leave of the world or something terrible is about to happen..."

Back in the class, Surya asks his favourite teacher, Mr. Sen, " Yesterday you told us that it is well neigh impossible to seek out the complete truth. The bell went then bringing an end to our discussion. Would you tell us today why it is difficult to know the complete truth, if it's okay for you?"

"You know, Surya, I'm very impressed with your curiosity. Now tell me something. What shape is the earth?"

"It's oval shaped, Sir."

"Till recently people thought that the earth was round. What was held as the ultimate truth then has been scientifically proved wrong now. So, you see, our views, our perspectives of the complete truth keep on changing with the change of time. What may be considered to be the ultimate truth today, may turn out to be partially true some years down the line. Now, let's get back to todays lesson..."

And back in heaven The Almighty takes a deep breath on his cushioned throne beside His consort and cringes : I didn't design such a miserable life for this adorable child of mine. Call it karma or whatever, most of it is due to his own doing. He didn't even know that harming others even for the sake of truths, is the greatest sin that one may commit in life. "

In a far-flung corner of Chaitanyadham, Naren Babu was lying in his death bed. He had already lost his consciousness. With his eyes closed and moving his head from side to side, he was heard murmuring something incomprehensible to himself. The maid was already gone by then in search of help as the doctor had given up on Naren Babu and asked the maid to inform the people in the municipality for the final rites for her master. "He won't last another night, " said the doctor as he, putting the stethoscope inside, forced his bag shut and proceeded to the door. Standing at the door, Maya, the maid, wiped her eyes with the edge of her sari. Naren Babu went on hallucinating. But what she didn't know was the complaint being put forward to his Maker by Naren Babu then, I his last hour. "Zhy......zhat.....ash. ...my..... shshshhhhhh? ( Why? What was my fault, my mistake? Did I not live a righteous life to the best of my abilities?")

Naren Chatterjee was born in a reputed family in Bengal. His father, Dr. Smaran Chatterjee, was a clerk in Chaitanydham College.An honest and amicable man, he took it upon himself to bring his only child up since his wife died at childbirth. Naren learnt the best values from his father. He learnt Honesty, Truthfulness, Sympathy, Empathy, Understanding, Fellow-feeling and a lot more from his father quite early in life. Though from a middle class background, Naren turned out to be a brilliant student quite early in life. His teachers thought the world about his brilliance. It was no wonder therefore, when he produced the best result from the district and passed the Board Examinations ranked seven over all. Beside his academic excellence, the other thing that separated him from the rest of his friends was his practice of and adherence to most of the qualities that he had learnt from his father down to a T. Sanjeeb wouldn't have been beaten like hell by the school authorities if Naren preferred to keep quiet like the rest of the class. But it was Naren who blurted out Sanjeeb's name when the Maths teacher was shouting at the top of his lungs asking for the name of the miscreant. Everyone kept quiet when he asked them who had aimed the paperball at the top of his bald head from behind. The class boycotted Naren for two days after he had stood up to point at Sanjeeb's direction to give him away. He later told some friends that he was doing it for the good of Sanjeeb. Would it be nice if Sanjeeb remained a coward, a liar for the rest of his life?

Such incidents occurred in his life, on and off till the last moment when he was bed-ridden, suffering from a terminal disease, in unbearable pain.

He was studying in class nine at that time.That day there was a wedding at their home. Many relatives had come a day or two earlier. Amidst all the hustle and bustle as Naren was suffocating for space, he decided to go up to the roof of the three-storyed building. It was while he was tiptoeing past the attic that he saw Prakash uncle holding Ratnadi tightly in a bear hug. Ratnadi's shame was unfathomable as she ran out of the living room when Naren spilled the beans of what he had seen beween Prakash uncle and Ratnadi. Ratnadi was married off soon afterwards and she never talked to Naren again. When Prakash uncle told him after years, that he shouldn't have disclosed about their friendly embrace to all and sundry.

"What's that? A friendly embrace? Thank me and your lucky stars that I coughed up at the time. I don't know how you two, cooing like two love-lorns into one anothers lips, sorry, ears .... would have ended up otherswise." Naren didn't give a chance to Prakash to defend himself by telling him point blank that he had done it exclusively for the benefit of both of them. A lady of Ratnadi's standing shouldn't have been locked hidingly and hungrily in a 'friendly embrace' in a house packed with people, that too with someone who was like an older brother to her. And Prakash uncle shouldn't have taken advantage of such a decent lady!

Naren landed with a job as the Lecturer of a college some 42 kilometre away from his home after his Master's, having secured the third position from his university. Girls were by then, beginning to fall head over heels in love with this handsome bloke. At 5 feet 9, with a body that would put a model to shame and a face that looked like sculpted by a Greek artisan, Naren was destined to break hearts.and he did. Tanima was the sister of a neighbour of his age. Poor girl, she was just a high school student when she met him on the day of the Saraswati Puja. She lost her heart straight away to this handsome youngman who looked like a movie star. Next day she sent him a letter with her love expressed passionately and poetically. She wrote that she had never felt this way about anyone else. That Narenda was and would remain her first and last love for ever. Naren called the neighbour, a classmate, outside the classroom and showed Tanima's letter to her brother. Naren told him that he was doing it thinking about his sister’s good only. What he would never know was how his neighbour railed and yelled at his sister in the confines of their rented house once he was back home. How he went to the extent of telling her sister to go and hang herself. He couldn't face anyone either in college or in their locality for such a shameless sister. They shifted to someplace soon afterwards. At one go, Naren lost a neighbour and an admirer.

But the height of everything happened after his marriage. He learnt about his wife's past from her own mouth - an honest confession about an innocent mistake of the youth. Did he not make life hell for her from then on? He would take her to a relative's and against the run of the turn of events, make her wish that she was taken in by mother earth, by talking about her character. After staying with him for close to a year, Suparna, for that was the name of his wife, knew Naren would never change, went back to her father's and sought a legal divorce. Naren lived a lonely life till his last breath. He considered himself to be a good man, spent a lot on charities. His qualities were many and enviable, but for his only flaw. A flaw that far outweighed all his good qualities. He believed in preaching and practising the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth, even to the extent of ruining others lives, without realising it.

The End.