This one is dedicated to a very dear friend. What he shared one day inspired this.

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I hate that guy even today. Had he allowed me that one chance, my life would have been so different today.

'Just a sec. Let me make a call... Hi, I will be home a little late tonight. No, nothing serious. Just chatting with a friend. Yup, ok. Love you too. Bye... You were saying, your life would have been different today. So was it like a different career or something?'

No, not really. Maybe I would have still wound up in this same job. But it would have been different.

'How?'

I... I don't know how to say it. Happy, that's the word. I would have been happy.

'Wow, really? Something that important to you?'

Uh huh. Well, it meant to me a lot at that time. He was a painter. And you know I wanted to be one too. I was really good with arts at that time. So I had gone to him with this painting of mine - it was one of my best paintings, an expression of rebellion - and I asked for his opinion.

But maybe he was in a bad mood or something. He didn't say one word of appreciation for the painting. He just trashed it completely. And on what irrelevant stuff! 'You have not used your strokes properly. You seem to be confused. This is the most horrible colour combination I have seen. It doesn't have any harmony to it. It is just plain random. This is not what one calls art.' Gosh!

'That bad, eh?'

Yeah! I mean, ok fine maybe it wasn't technically correct. But since when does a brushstroke dictate what a painting says? I could never hold a brush ever again after that incident. Painting was one thing that made me feel complete, you know. After that, it just felt like something went missing from my life.

'Hmmm... actually yeah, we never saw you participate in college fests and things like that. We thought maybe you broke up with your girl or something… Haaaah…. So anyway, what do you do these days then?'

Just work. I am on my own. I work as a researcher. You know, all the history and personal profiles stuff that you read about in the newspapers? That's me. I collect that information.

'Hmm-hmm. So does it make you enough money?'

Oh yeah, lots. You see, whenever these people in the media want to run a story on a famous person, they don't have enough time to actually start from scratch. That's where I come in. I provide the info, and get paid for it.

'So you would be knowing a lot about a lot of people.'

Well, not everyone. My expertise is that of the filthy rich people. I have all the information on most of the new celebrities, who rise from nowhere and suddenly become darlings of the world. Like this new Mr. Brook. Celebrated artist. You wouldn't believe, nobody knew him less than 2 years ago.

'Yeah, I am always amazed with these guys. I wish I could become rich so easy.'

No no no... He didn't make it easy through life. Every rich man wants to buy his sculptures now. But did you know, he was thrown out from his school. His ideas were so rebellious at that time, his teacher disowned him and refused to help him get clients. It's only now that he is seen taking credit for training Brook.

'But that's just one incident.'

No, he has led a tough life for more than 8 years, he's only achieved fame, like, in the last 3 years or so.

'Oh really? So tell me something... how many rejections did you face?'