Riad woke up late and had already missed his bus, it was not a good start. He had monthly test exams and previous night he was awake because he spent his whole time studying.
He still decided to go to the bus stop, holding his school bag tightly to his chest. He was eagerly waiting for the next bus but it was gonna arrive after 1 hour. He was scared that he would be late for the exam and his mother would be yelling at him. He couldn't even imagine what would happen if he failed. He kept sighing and thought if he waits for another 1 hour that would be waste of time, so he wanted to start walking by the shortcut road near the old fields.
People barely choose this road because it takes lots of time and kinda quite. The local people do not prefer this road because only the main road had shops on the way or people could easily find rickshaws and of course it's was a busy road. Riad didnt feel like waiting anymore for the bus, so he walked fast towards the shortcut road.
While walking on that road Riad regretted his decisionbecause the road was empty and there was no trace of human beings.
But after a while he realized that the road was not empty at all there were few trees and he could clearly hear his own footsteps. It was noise free not chaotic at all like the main road. All he could feel was silence and sensation of peaceful mind.
“Amazing!” he mumbled to himself. “Never realized walking alone could feel this good.”
As Riad kept walking, the more he started noticing things that he never got his attention into before. He saw some beautiful wild flowers beside the road. Noticed how a drop of rain is beside the grass. The birds were singing and Riad unconsciously began humming.
He started to feel something strange which he has never felt before.
He mumbled to himself "I have been living in this area for so many years but I had never really seen any of this." He laughed with sorrow "Maybe because I was always in a rush, never had some spare time. Always going to school, coaching and doing homeworks."
Riad realized he was in a continous loop, where he was stuck in everyday without knowing. He lived like a machine for years, only doing the things which he was told to do.
He was always in a rush walking fast, eating fast, studying nonstop. He was trying hard for good grades. All he wanted was to make his parents proud. But no one ever asked him what he truly wanted in his life.
When he walked deeper into the road he found an old man who was resting under a tree, beside a bicycle.
The old man noticed Riad he asked for Riad's help for his bicycle.
“Hey son, can you help me? The chain dropped from the bicycle.” Old man asked.
Riad was confused as he never fixed anything in his entire life. But he couldn't reject the old man's request, he put his bag down and walked closer to the old man.
“Grandpa, I don't know how to fix the chain, but if you can cooperate then I can try.”
The old man smiled, "Okay, son let's fix this together."
Both of them failed multiple times and fixed the chain after several attempts.
The old man said proudly. “look, nothing is impossible.”
Riad laughed and said “but it felt like mission impossible.”
The old man said “Here have some water you must be tired, you should sit for a minute,”.
Normally, Riad would refuse because he always feels guilty for resting because he always thought it's gonna waste his time and he need to make every second useful.
But Riad was not feeling that urge to leave early, the time felt slower on that road.
The old man asked him if he was in a hurry. Riad told him it was his exams. If he's late then his world was gonna end.
The old man went silent then asked “Do you know why people don’t wanna usr this road much?”
“Because it’s not that famous?,” Riad said.
Old man softly laughed and replied “No, the reason is that it takes longer. But people don't know that longer doesn’t always mean worse. If they want everything fast in life then they will forget to enjoy their lives.”
His simple words got engraved into Riad's mind. He was never enjoying anything but rushing to become someone.
In a while Riad left for his exams, he was two minutes late but still got entrance to the class. His exam went very well, he felt peaceful.
While going back home he stopped by the pond he sat there and watched the orange sky as the sun was going down.
After that when he reached home his mother was waiting outside their house. She asked “Why are you late?."
Riad couldn't reply as he was unable to explain that being late had somehow made his day better?
“I couldn’t take the bus on time,” Riad replied.
His mother said “Go wash up, food is in the fridge,”
During night Riad was thinking about the incident that happened to him today, his problems didn't magically disappear. But he could feel something lighter and finally he had found himself.
The images are created with Gemini and edited with Canva
