Broken

There he stood. His life crumbling before him. One dream at a time. He had lost more money than hope. Hoping to earn more than he had lost.

Anwar. Middle class origins. Classless ambition. A combination so lethal, you never knew which way it would bend. Failure was a friend. One who always showed up, no matter what the circumstances were.

He wanted to be rich. Not to avoid unhappiness. That would be foolish. Unhappiness is like the appendix. You don’t need it, it does nothing for you, but poke it too much, and it can cause a world of pain.

He figured that it’s better to be unhappy in a million dollar car, with a woman looking like a million bucks beside him. But these were dreams. Reality was vastly different.

No money. No prospects. No idea. He was broken. Broken by the beaten path. To an extent, by his own ambitions. Damaged by a delusional future. And delusional about his damaged past.

The future’s bare canvas staring at him with its empty eyes. And somehow, that scared him the most.

Truth was, nothing mattered. Nothing but his head. All this while, he thought he was looking at an empty page of his life. But his mind, had already painted the scary picture. It was time to go blank.

His hands were on the phone. Those magical words on the tip of his tongue. He felt he had everything to lose. And he probably did. But one second. That second of his life, his brain switched off. He felt the impulse. And he spoke.

“Daaldo. 200 shares. 20000 Rupay.”

Relief. Inevitability. Call it whatever you want. The dice had been rolled. His future, cast. He would lose half his money the next day. Feel like crap for losing it. But he gained one thing. His one and only companion. Failure. But failure was not alone this time. He brought his friend. Experience.

And he would have to grow his friends’ circle. Till he reached Success. That elusive bastard.