Library of Life
Part I
Suppose each one of us is a story teller. We have our individual novels called ‘Life’. Let these life stories be written down in the form of books, story books! And let there be a library that has all these story books. Anyone is allowed inside the library and is allowed to read any book.
There are several shelves in the library, where the books are sorted under different headings. There are genres like winner, loser, destined, traveler, listener, lover and then there is a rare section called ‘One’. There is no librarian here but everyone follows the rules. They are afraid that their life stories are also scribbled here somewhere in this library. If they read out loud one of the books, who knows, someone else might read out theirs. Also, they don’t talk to each other. Perhaps they might find some similarity of someone with a book they have read! Though just anyone can read any of the books by judging the book by its cover, each book here, has two owners — one, whose life story it is, two, the one who is going to take the book home. Mind you, one person can take only one book home and that is going to affect his story as well.
There is a strange thing about these books. If you are reading your own book, you will be able to read only those chapters that has already taken place in your life. The other pages will look blank to you, as if something is written there with invisible ink. Others can read just any chapter they want from your book starting from anywhere they like. They might like some chapters, they might dislike some, they might judge the entire book from a single chapter, or they might skip a chapter and read a new chapter and might not understand it completely.
The books are available in all the languages of the world, even Braille versions are available. For audio books, there are people who read out the stories. In that case you will have to believe in what your reader says. Your reader on the other hand holds the right to read out whatever is written or narrate it as per his wish.
You walk up to one of the shelves in the library, pick a random book. You might like the cover at first. You read the preface, seems good. Let’s read some part of it. So, you like it? That’s awesome! Your temporary attachment with the book is marvelous. As a result, a few extra chapters are also being added to your book. The second owner of your story book is smiling while reading those chapters. Every time she re-reads the book, she finds a new chapter and the book becomes all the more interesting to her. Yes, you can only take the book home if you feel that reading this book for the rest of your life will suffice every thirst of yours. You must be genuinely interested and confident about your book.
And this book you were reading right now, that you thought could be the ‘One’, things seem to change when you think of carrying it home. You place the book back on the shelf. What if, you can not find a book of your liking? Hey, it’s ok, the library is huge anyway. It has got seven huge halls, each divided into several compartments, which are further divided into sections, genres, shelves. There are more than 7 billion original story books. And you will be surprised to know that other story books have one or more chapters about you. You can play any role you like but not the hero, because that role is reserved for the narrator of the story himself. So, back to the question, what if you don’t find any book to your liking? You need to wait, because if you don’t find a book to your liking, someone else will surely choose your story over others!
And if you find the second owner of your book in person, then both of you won’t be able to see the upcoming chapters of both your books. Yes, by then, your books would be in their destined places.
To be continued…
