Kushal cursed himself. If only I could have secured 10 more marks! He kept on thinking. The CA final results were out a week ago and having missed the chance of prefixing two precious letters of ‘CA’ to his name by just 10 marks couldn’t have been more torturous. His insides churned with frustration and despair. To get himself busy, he joined a CA office and he was assigned an audit of a College.
As days passed by, things started getting normal. But at times, the violent storm of desolation would gnaw at his insides. One day, as he happened to pass by the auditorium room, he heard a great deal of muttering inside. Opening the door, he found a motivational seminar going on. The speaker was an elderly professor. Something about his warm smile, impressive aura and assuring voice made Kushal step in and take a seat among the college students.
“Could anyone give a perfect example of being calm?” The professor asked to the audience, his bright, confident voice had a surprising calming effect on Kushal.
“A tree stands calm…” a girl quipped.
‘Lord Buddha is the symbol of serenity and calmness…” a bookish looking boy chimed in confidently.
“I am calm!” a naughty boy remarked coolly. Everyone laughed.
The professor smiled his twisted smile and Kushal somehow knew that something ‘out of the blue’ was coming. The Prof. pronounced, “Believe me…nothing could be as calm and tranquil as an angry Tornado!”
A deafening silence followed as all stared in disbelief. The naughty boy who had said he was calm didn’t look at all calm.
Tornado? Kushal thought, racking his brains and trying to decipher between these cryptic lines. But a calm tornado was something his mind couldn’t even fantasize. The mighty whirlwind sending things and people flying in the air didn’t look calm even in the slightest.
“You won’t believe me,” The professor stated. He seemed to be enjoying the stunned looks, “until I show you!”
Everyone leaned forward, murmuring with excitement. Show us?! Kushal was all eyes and ears.
The professor played a video on the projection-screen. It was a scene from a Hollywood Film, ‘Tornado’. The audience watched in awe:
Windows shattered, doors blasted off their hinges, walls came crashing down…
A split second later, the entire rubble – bricks, frames, stones, splinters, twigs, branches, and every bits and pieces along with humans and animals – flew spinning in the air as the tempestuous tornado whirled its way wrecking through the city!
The professor made the video pause.
“Whoa! What a calm Tornado!” someone commented sarcastically.
“Sir…could you please end the mystery and explain the logic behind your calm tornado?” a girl asked.
“Definitely!” The Prof. said, “A tornado or twister or hurricane, as we all know, is a dense, swirling vortex of violent winds formed out of disturbances in climatic conditions and temperature. Coming to the point, have you ever seen the Eye of the Tornado?”
“You mean the center of the tornado?” a girl guessed uncertainly.
“Exactly. When a tornado swirls, a void forms in the centre. It looks just like an eye. Here’s the Image.” He displayed the aerial view of a gigantic, swirling tornado. It looked roughly like a Jalebi, coiling inward forming a gaping hole at the center.
“What all these have to do with calmness?” A boy demurred.
“It has everything to do with the calmness,” remarked the witty Professor with a wink, “Scientists were astonished beyond imagination when they stumbled upon a startling conclusion:
At the center of the Angry Tornado there is a perfect void of calmness. The Eye of Peace. The Center of Calmness and Certainty. On the outside, the violent turbulent winds cause havoc. However, the centremost point of Tornado is quite unaffected, impervious and calm. In fact, people who have survived tornadoes shared startling experiences. They were swept off their feet as they came under the sway of a tornado. Flying in circles within it, approaching the center. When they reached the center they experienced, for a few seconds, a complete stillness before being pulled again by the winds!”
“Wow!” everyone gasped.
“Interestingly, we can apply the analogy of Eye of Tornado to our lives too.” The Prof. went on passionately as the audience listened with rapt attention. “We all face the proverbial tornadoes at some point in our lives. Unfavourable events, negativities, despairing lows are nothing short of tornadoes happening around us. And seeing the tornado of these tormenting emotions, what do we do? We panic, freak out, run away, or simply shout or kick our legs and arms! In the end, we end up gaining nothing but more pain!”
Kushal shifted in his chair uneasily. He felt as if the Prof. was describing his inner feelings.
The Prof. went on, “We cannot control them. You can’t calm the storm, so stop trying! What you can do is calm yourself. And the storm will pass…”
The inner certainty and calmness matter. Remember the eye of the tornado is as much the part of the tornado as it is not! The stormy exterior winds do not affect the center. And so do not let the tornado of adversities blow you off. Calmness should be your emphatic choice which will help you take right decisions and right path!”
We all have witnessed highly successful leaders brimming with vivacious vitality, working day and night and achieving seemingly impossible feats. Are they Super-humans? Or Gods? No, they are just like us, four limbs, one mind, one heart and one soul!” The Prof. bantered jovially, “So how can they do what they do when most of us couldn’t? They have a measure of calmness and certainty about their goals. This inner serenity bestows them tremendous power to transform themselves and the world around them!”
Serenity stole over Kushal as he let the depth of his message sink. The Prof. couldn’t be more right. As the conference was over, Kushal thanked the Prof. with all his heart and walked out of the hall, a smile on his face. A huge burden seemed to be receding away. He felt a wave of hope after so many days. He felt calm. Calm like a Tornado…
