Story Contest 2016 #2 - Outstanding Stories » Realization

“Realization” is one of the outstanding stories of the second biannual Short Story Contest 2016 written by Navansh, Amritsar, India.

Realization

Salma was a 21-year-old girl, who belonged to a very wealthy family. She was blessed with every luxury known to man. Moreover, she was beautiful and intelligent. She was pampered and admired by everyone. Unfortunately, all this appreciation made her very proud, stubborn, and egoistic. A complete lack of spiritual environment at home also, pushed her into darkness and loneliness.

The only person who always instructed Salma to pray to God was her grandmother. However, she never understood all this.

In her grandmother’s house, there were many pets, which included dogs, cats, and many birds etc. Salma always observed a strange thing in her granny's house. Whenever she visited her home, these pets reacted in a very aggressive nature towards her. Dogs used to bark her, and birds used to fly away at her arrival. And this made Salma lose her temper at them and in return, she used to abuse them and scare them.

Days passed by. One day, while returning from the market, she witnessed an accident in which a poor boy from the nearby slum lost his life. This incident shook her heart from within.This made her realise that in front of destiny and God, no one is poor or rich and her entire ego vanished within seconds.

She came back home, and started crying aloud.She felt a deep pain in her heart, and became very restless. On an impulse, she took the holy Bible, and read a few lines. Then she began to pray. Her behavior began to change slowly.

Seeing Salma’s unusual behavior, her mother thought she had lost her mind. “What happened to you?” she asked.

She replied to her mother that she has now realized the true meaning of happiness and life. “You have taught me every important lesson, but not the most important lesson, which is God,” she said.

Hearing this, her mother felt ashamed and sorry for her. She appreciated her change and joined her in prayers daily. Soon she came closer and closer to God.

Amazingly, the pets in her grandmother’s house were no more scared of her!