Once upon a time in a South Indian city called Chennai, there lived a young man called Raghav. He was a software engineer in one of the country’s blue-chip IT companies. He was twenty four years old when this story started.

He was a confused soul. He didn’t know why people spent so much time socializing instead of working for the betterment of the economy. He read Robin Sharma’s Monk Who Sold His Ferrari and wondered what it was all about. He knew there was something really deep in that book. He just couldn’t find out what it was.

This was a day after he wondered why people talked excitedly about chickens crossing the road.

He refused to go along with such age-old clichés. He wanted to know what was so neat about saying “So why did the chicken cross the road?” when actually a simple, “I don’t know the answer” would have sufficed.

Such a person as Raghav cannot mingle with the society - Proclaims a great man who is also the author of this story. So Raghav gets hit by a speeding truck one fine November morning. Apparently he was following a chicken on its journey to the other side of the road when the accident happened.

There were a couple of broken bones and a mild clot in the brain but doctors asserted that Raghav should not have any long term health issue. Bed rest of three months was advised. He had to avail leave on loss of pay condition.

It was probably the clot in his brain which made him forget whether he had a life ambition or not. He fought hard with the clot and tried to recollect the finer aspects of his ten year and twenty year goals which he supposedly discussed with his project manager a day before he followed the chicken.

The clot won the battle.

Raghav did not give up. He took a marker and wrote in big black letters that his life ambition was yet to be found and that he would strive towards finalizing it as early as the following weekend.

And then he forgot where he had written all that. He searched all the rooms and could not find what he had written. Gradually he forgot all about that. His ambition to find his life ambition was forgotten.

Then he saw the chicken.

It was the same chicken which crossed the road the other day. It survived the accident and helped Raghav win the battle of wits with the clot. The past came back to him haunting.

He sprang to his feet, outran the chicken and sprinted to his office.

“I found out my life goal” He declared proudly to his manager who was munching a chicken Sub piece-fully.

“Good for you,” the manager told him.

“I am going to work not for money but for answering the inner voice. Am I right?” Raghav asked him

“Yes. That’s what you told me.” His manager confirmed.

Raghav then quit his job on the spot. He was a free bird. He could do whatever he wanted. He could sit in front of the TV and listen to what his inner voice had to say – all through the day.

So he asked his friends, relatives and countrymen not to disturb him for a week. He wanted to be left alone. He bought the poster of Om and stared at it all day hoping his inner voice would rise to the occasion and guide him accordingly.

It didn’t.

He tried meditating and concentrating on the sacred symbol. It was of no use. The inner voice simply didn’t respond. He could not invoke it.

Raghav panicked at the end of the fifth day. What if his inner voice never talked again? What would he do? He had resigned from his job to follow his life’s calling. What if he could not find out what it was?

On the sixth day of his downright seclusion from the material world, he heard his calling – the voice was clear and the message was simple but powerful. He closed his eyes and saw what the future had in store for him. He saw himself chasing the chicken to the correct side of the road and then tying it up so that it would never again try to cross the road.

He heard the voice. It was his own voice. It reverberated through his body and made sure that Raghav absorbed everything.

It told him to

1. Join the organization again as a software engineer.
2. Never again chase chickens or butterflies.
3. Never again read books written by people who sold their Ferraris or talked about phone calls from God.
4. Never again wait for the inner voice to guide him.

Raghav was a transformed man. He loved the message. He went back to his manager and requested him to take him back. His manager asked him three questions.

“Are you done with your inner voice thingy?”

Yes.

“Are you sure you wouldn’t want to talkback to the source of that voice ever again?”

Yes.

“What is your ten-year goal now?”

To become a successful Group Project Manager and aid this organization in achieving its goals and objectives – and at the same time improve my interpersonal and networking skills.

“Good! Welcome back Mr. Raghav.”

So Raghav went back to being a nameless software engineer. He was no more confused. He was pretty clear about what he wanted. He didn’t want the chicken to cross the road at all. He was fine having it on his side of the road – for an eternity – forever – till he ceased to exist as a material human being.

The End.