Good you asked me this question. Long ago, about 2 decades ago, I met this Muslim fakir on the roadside. He looked most ordinary but he had the power to change and ruin a person’s destiny. He took one look at me and started narrating my life from my childhood. He reminded me of incidents that even I had forgotten. He was actually engaged by my enemies who wanted to ruin my life. At that time I was interested in this beautiful girl in the office where I did business. But she had no time for me. The Muslim fakir guaranteed to use his occult powers to bring the girl to me. Like a fool I agreed and gave him a huge sum. That was it. He did not give his real address. He was miles away by the time I realised what had happened. If only I could confront this person. His witchcraft had put an end to my thriving business and caused great misery to my family.

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I miss everything I did as a kid, but most of all it was this riding that small tricycle. My dad bought it for me for my fifth birthday. I distinctly remember how I went to town all over our building in that tiny tricycle. I had once knocked down the old woman next door. The spanking I received from Dad then? I couldn’t go to that kinder garden for days together. And there was this best girl friend next door (I heard years later that she became a prominent athlete competing for the state championship!). She insisted on sitting in the back seat of the tricycle all the time. Oh, those were the good old days! I cannot even ride a regular bicycle now. I wonder what my neighbours would say.

There is only major goal left for me now. All others can be met if only I can reach this one. The idea of living in the United States as a Writer has kept me going all these years till now. The United States is the finest country in the world and it was here that God put all my favourite writers of the last century. Living here and looking for writing material in the common streets and houses has excited me all along. I will publish my book “Joy to the World” now even if it kills me. I have at least three publishers willing for an advance if I gave them the final manuscript. They are all put up in New York. The goal of spending time in parties and broads can all come later. And I am determined to follow this vision to its logical bright end.

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The last five years should better be forgotten. My dad was in the final stage of his life on earth after his sickness and my mother was also being unwell again and again. Of course both of them were in their advanced age. It was not unnatural that Dad could fall sick like that. I would like to change his condition of his not falling sick at all if I could relive those years. But more important we spent those years not in our home in Chennai but that of my brother-in-law (my sister’s husband had this home as a dying gift from his own father). We had sold our own place after the severe loss in business. If you only knew the trouble I had because of this one mistake. My brother-in-law and I, we never got along well at any time. To have lived in that house for years created the kind of trouble that even I did not expect. He would constantly complain of something or the other all the time. But it was always the taunt of not paying a higher rent that bothered me so much. And I could not move elsewhere with my dad sick like that. Even I was not prepared for the dire consequences when we first moved here.