Once upon a time a king gave a banquet to his entire people and fed them a large variety of dishes. After the banquet on the same night, he sent his detectives to know the thoughts of the people about the banquet. The detectives discovered that the people were gossiping that the king did not provide Papadum in the banquet. They did not expect such a blunder or stinginess from such a great king.

“How long will you take to finish this project?”

The business tycoon Robert Williamson asked the project engineer sat opposite him, David Smith. On hearing this, a victorious smile appeared on David’s face for a moment, before disappearing. He understood that his boss liked his project.

Immediately he replied, “Exactly within one year of the day the finances have been sorted.”

“Ok, I will transfer the entire cost of your project, that is, $ 100 million into the project’s current account today, or rather, right now.” On saying this the boss picked up his phone and began to transfer the money.

“Very well, thank you sir.”

“It’s okay. Keep up the good work.”

“Sir if you don’t mind i would like to ask you something.”

“Go ahead.”

“You do such huge bank transactions simply through your mobile phone. In the interest of security and safety, is this not a dangerous practice?” he stuttered.

Robert Williamson looked at him, smiling as if amused at a child’s innocent question. He then turned the phone towards him and said “I have logged in. Can you try to transfer the money with your hand, so that you can finally be expelled from your doubt?”

David glanced at the screen and saw that he was indeed logged in, and the figure showing on the account was beyond his comprehension. He could not bring himself to take the phone in his own hand. Taken aback, he uttered, “Sir, I…”

Seeing his apprehension, the boss said coolly “Hey, I’m telling you. There’s nothing to be worried about. Go ahead.” On saying this he forced David to take the phone. Suddenly the screen began to show an error message: We are sorry. We have noticed something unusual. Please enter a password within ten seconds for verification or your account will be disabled.

Underneath the message, a countdown appeared and started. David panicked . . .

It has been about 5 years since Girish started working at this company, and because of his hard work he has already risen to a manager’s position. There’s only two people at home, him and I, his wife Sarita. We don’t even have any kids yet.

We have a maid at home to help me with the house work, and every morning I make breakfast with her help and we eat together as husband and wife. Girish goes to work and I lock the house and take the maid shopping or just out and about. When I don’t go out, I like to sit on the swing in the verandah and read. Even if I do go out, I like to be back home before my husband so that we can have tea together in the evening. After that, in the time Girish takes to shower and freshen up after work, the maid and I whip up dinner – it’s not much work for just the two of us anyway.

I know that the neighbours often talk behind my back about my life and how I have it easy, “sitting on the swing all day”. Perhaps this gossip had circulated and reached Mrs Chawla, a social worker living locally, because one day she decided to spontaneously pay me a visit at home.

I was sitting on the swing when she arrived. When I saw her, I got up and greeted her. After exchanging pleasantries, she asked me, “What are you reading, Sarita?”

. . .