Finding the key to my Peace

“Finding the key to my Peace” is one of the outstanding stories of the first biannual International Short Story Contest 2018 written by Rakshit Garg, Maharaja Agarsain Public School, India.

Finding the key to my Peace

Oh my god! Today was such a hectic day. Continuous lectures, projects and activities. I was tired. I can’t relish upon my food in the break. At departure, one of my friends exclaimed, “What a restless day it was today. No fun and relaxing moments.” Even I was depressed and shattered. It seemed like someone has put a big log on my head. We all were frantic with worry. To put cherry on the cake, we were given 5 home tasks as well.

After 2 hours journey, I reached home with a gloomy face. I climbed up the stairs slowly, sadly. As soon as my mother opened the door, she could sense my expression and she asked, “Rakshit, what happened? Has someone hit you or…?” She is very particular about me. I answered her back, “Nothing Mom, just a restless day. We have got bundle of projects to do. I can't complete in a day” she replied, “You can do it afterwards. See I have bought pizza for you.” “Later Maa.” I replied. Being a particular kind of student, I cannot be at peace until my work is finished.

I kept my bag, changed clothes and sat down sadly. I started with my home tasks. Two hours passed, I couldn’t finish even one of them. Not because I don’t know how to do it, it was because I couldn’t concentrate. I was worried which took no longer to turn into anger.

My brother, who was happily playing with his remote control car, became the first one to bear it. I yelled at him, “Can’t you see I am trying to work? Go outside and make these stupid noises there.” He was in tears, I was guilty.

BANG! I banged my head on table. With my loud sound, my mother came running. She said, “PEACE! YOU NEED PEACE!” I was fed up with the word peace. I replied with my angry voice, “Saying is easier than doing. You don’t have so many tasks to do. You won’t understand.” Everybody is just saying this word only, if I try to obtain it, it fails.

Even my dog was not spared of my irritation. He was chided by me as well. Half of the day was gone and I was still at the same place from where I started.

I bursted in tears. I kept aside all my books and stationery and thought for a while. “I cannot complete work with so much worry. I have to be in-charge of my own peace. No one will help me to find my inner-self peace.” I meditated for some time and started everything again. I was peaceful and got energy to do work. Next day, I got all my assignments checked. I bursted out in happiness and thought, “This was all due to my own-self peace that I found.”

“From my happiness, I derived peace.” I reframed my own definition of peace. “It was to complete all the work. It’s all up to you how you handle your worries. Your peace of mind is in your hands.”