How I Fell for This Beautiful Castle….

The Castle’s Sway on me

One day I was casually walking in the woods.  I saw a beautiful blue castle. That is so beautiful I just fell for it. I thought wow what a beautiful castle. I briskly walked towards it. The whole castle was in the color blue. The edges of the castle color are in red. There is blue water flowing all around the castle.

The whole surrounding looked picturesquely beautiful. There is a massive wall surrounding the castle and a huge entrance door near the front side of the castle. The entrance door was spiked with sharp objects.     

I saw a board hanging outside the castle. There it is written we are recruiting. My heart jumped. I thought to myself, if I have to work… I have to work here. I eagerly read what is written there.  

The board said we are different. Our recruitment is different than the usual recruitment process. The job duties were also mentioned neatly in just a few words and lines. It also said, you can work anytime you want to. The pay is mentioned for each job. That means there is no gender differentiation. I liked the openness.

I thought to myself, ho my…am I dreaming here. This is it. I am going to join here no matter what. My excitement was countless. At last, there is someone out there who can understand others. Everything seemed perfect.

The initial recruitment application was stacked at the entrance. So with all the excitement I filled the minimal application form and dropped it in the box that was kept outside the door. I happily thought to myself…ah…I am surprised. There aren’t many questions. That was so simple. I am already in love. I am super excited.

As I am about to leave, I saw a huge board a little away from the entrance door.  I took a few steps towards the board to read what is written over there. It said…If you have applied for the job…thank you for the application. We are so excited that you’ve applied.  

Now anytime you can finish our pre-test(s) for our recruitment process without any human interaction. These tests might take a few hours to a few days.

As we mentioned earlier we have a different recruitment process. While recruiting you don’t enter from this main entrance. There is a ladder on the other side of the castle. There is a time sensor on that ladder.

Whoever climbs the ladder without falling into the water in the shortest time will be given points. The wall is 30ft, and the ladder has 30 steps and you have to climb in 3 minutes. If you fall in the water you can attempt to climb the ladder again after 90 days.

After you climb the wall, to get down to another side you have more different tests. After you pass all these tests depending on your performance we will allot to you the specified job that we think that you will fit. It might not be the dream job you have applied for. You have to bear with this. As we said we are different.

Ah, reading this my high-level zoomed energy zoomed out to half. What? Standing there staring at the board I thought to myself…Is this test anyway useful for the job I am applying for?  I remembered one of the old stories that my mother told me as a bedtime story when I was small. (That is the story of a cunning fox and innately intelligent crane.)

That too after all these tests I do not know whether I get my dream job that I wanted or not would be still a catch-22. 

The Story of the Fox and the Crane

That is the story of a cunning fox and innately intelligent crane. (Either you can read or skip the story)

Story: One day the fox calls crane for the dinner and serves the food on a plate. The crane could not eat the dinner that is served on a plate because of its long beak. The crane feels sad, ashamed and angry at the same time. The crane goes home on an empty stomach. The crane wanted to teach a lesson to the shrewd fox. This time the crane invites the fox to the dinner and serves the dinner in a long narrow-necked jar. This time it was the fox that gets angry at the crane. Then the crane said to the fox, look we are all made different by the universe. We are differently-abled. You cannot serve the food on a plate for everyone. For some the requirements are different. Moral: Try to understand.  

Hmm…I sighed to myself and thought anyways I will attempt and see. Because I fell for this beautiful castle and my heart did not allow giving up so soon. Though my mind was in a conflicting mode inside, I wanted to try.   

Attempting the Tests       

The next day I came up and started to climb the ladder. I tried to take the wide sturdy steps. For my height, it was something impossible task. Though I did not understand what this test is for? Are we in the rock age or the internet age? Are they checking the speed or accuracy or capability?

Then I thought. I thought to myself, isn’t we are much more than this laborious time test? Finally, I climbed the ladder all the way up.

Obviously, I couldn’t climb within the specified time. Though my mind cried hooray! ….I made it.  I sat there on the wall for a while and started to observe what was going inside the castle walls.

From there the castle is even more stunning under the misty blue sky. I thought once again…ho! what a beautiful place to work for. There were castle guards all over roaming and watching with a keen eye. I looked at them to see….what were they watching at.

They were keenly monitoring the people working at the castle. I observed that everyone seriously doing their work (or pretending). From here to me they all looked having a similar kind of mindset. When I observed even more carefully all the workers are tied to chains. I was stunned.

I waved at one of the castle guards. The guard politely came over and asked, what can I do for you? The guard then continued to say…before you come down you have more tests that need to be finished. Ignoring that…. eagerly I asked the guard, why everyone….are chained here.

The guard replied every minute of the time they spend here is tracked. And, this is tied to the wages they get. You see we are different. We track every minute of the employee who works here.

If they unchain for a few minutes those minutes are not included in the wages. According to that, we pay their weekly wages. I said…ok. That means if I work more than 40 hours I get more wages…how nice.

The guard replied….no…you got it wrong we encourage work-life balance. There is no incentive for working more.

I said…oho…then whatever our thoughts are we have to think just in that chained 8 hours a day or 40 hours per week?…but my thoughts don’t have any time limits or certain time to crack them. I don’t know when I get my…aha moments sometimes.   

The guard smiled and said…mam, this is our tradition. We are not going to change. We all follow it here. I thanked the guard for his time. Since there was no other way I can exit from there. I turned around and carefully climbed down the ladder that I climbed up earlier.

The Silent Thoughts

I silently walked into the woods. I never felt so much happier in that open space. I breathed inhaled all the air that was available there. I rolled and ran like a maniac on the earth. Finally, I sat under a tree. For some reason, my thoughts wavered towards Isaac Newton to Albert Einstein and others. And, I remembered this quote for some reason.  I don’t know why. But…

Everything that is really great and inspiring is created by the individual who can labor in freedom — Albert Einstein 

 In sad…. I thought…to myself, this is not for me, though the castle looked beautiful from outside…hey, don’t get me wrong, I am still in love with that beautiful castle….. And, still, my heart throbs for it. I fell for it for some reason(s).

You know….when you fall for something it is hard to fell out too soon…. I am still open to working there. And, I cannot do anything much for now…..

After a while, I stood up and walked towards the road from those woods….   

The freedom from something is not true freedom. The freedom to do anything you want to do is also not the freedom I am talking about. My vision of freedom is to be yourself. — Osho