Outside the window, she peeked a little, and she immediately could feel the hot humid air

followed by a gush of icy cold wind. She understood that perhaps a thunderstorm is about to
approach sooner; yet, she kept her windows open, to allow the amalgamated winds to touch
her early morning freshly washed face.

She gradually pulled her chair beside the window, and placed a lightweight table in front of
her. Then she kept her diary on top of that table, opened the cap of the pen, and slowly she
turned over to the blank page, and began to write.

Before Anita begins to write her daily morning journal, she flipped the last page and started
scribbling down some random lines, which turned into loops of aggressively shaped circles.
The circles continued till those no longer retains its identity. And then, Anita stopped swirling
over the paper. She closed the diary, moved her chair and got up!

“Ding” the notification in her smartphone rang, and Anita remembers she hasn’t seen her
phone in a while. She tapped to see her email notifications and replied to three out of her
five emails. Next, she scrolled on to her social media profiles, and replied to all the
comments she received on her last post.

“I wonder what happened to Akash! He hasn’t replied to my message for twelve long hours!
Let me quickly check with him”, Anita spoke in her mind; and then, she texted Akash “Hey
how you doing? Everything alright?”; after which she decided to check on Akash’s social
media profile to see if he has uploaded any story recently.

One hour had passed, Anita almost forgot that she has to do the laundry and the dishes as
well. She took her phone along with her into the kitchen, added her favourite playlist and
then started doing the dishes. Amidst the chore, she thought of doing the laundry as well, so
she ran fast and started adding dirty clothes into the washing machine.

She’s already late for the office, and she also hasn’t done her assignments of the data
science course that she has enrolled in, after her office hours.

Her phone rang. Her colleague Meghna is calling. Meghna yelled over the phone as Anita
picked up her call, “Anita…. You are late again! How can you forget you have been already
warned for coming up so late. And today I can assume you’ll be half-an-hour behind the
time!”

“Yeah, I know. I just don’t know how time ran so fast. I mean, I managed to wake up early, I
did my…. (She paused and had a thought for a while, and then continued) … I did my dishes
and laundry, I’m getting ready and it’s already nine fifteen?” Anita is absolutely puzzled as
where exactly she missed out and messed with the time!

“Listen! As per I know you, you sure were doing everything slow or got lost in thoughts!
Anyways, hurry up and don’t waste a minute. Come, we’re waiting. We have a conference in
the second half. Got to gear up!” Meghna replied.
“Oh my God! Yes. The Final Report. It was out of my mind. Okay, I’m coming!”, Anita
concluded.
Yes. She was forty-five minutes late. She barely handled the conference.

Also, she was berated in her after-office summer course as she didn’t complete her
assignments.

“What a bad day!” Anita deduced from how her entire day went.

She didn’t feel like having dinner. So, she skipped it by only having a glass of warm milk and
nothing else.

Meanwhile, the weather is becoming more and more cold and a bit windy outside. And, it
can rain at any moment of time. As pleasant and soothing it was, but for her, it was dark and
gloomy! It was almost eleven o’ clock at night, but Anita couldn’t sleep. Somehow the
absence of the Moon, and stars turned her downhearted.

Her mind hovered with thoughts of loneliness and the notion of being somewhere stuck.

She cannot get over the fact that Mathew, her ex-lover broke up with her. She has reconciled
with his all his opprobrium, with all his criticisms and belittling words.

“You are so unorganized Anita!”

.
“See, I love your passion for working and all, but don’t you think you are getting too over-
ambitious?”
.
“Hey, I support your career decision to be a Content Writer! In fact, my parents support your
passion for writing! But if you were my sister or anyone from my family, I wonder how much
support you would have got!”
.
“Why are you not trying for a Government Job? It’s secure, has fixed timing, so many
facilities and perks! My family would cheerfully accept you.”
.
“My colleague Neha just completed her MBA, and look she’s now having higher package.
You should stop this writing and all, and be practical. Go attain higher degrees, grab a
Government Job, or a decent 9-5 job”
.
“I think you should lose a couple of weight. Look at Neha, well-settled, independent, yet
very social and familial. She also handles household chores besides her job. And yet finds
time for gym”
.
“Sorry I ghosted you for so many days. I think I should tell you that we should break up.”

- Word by word, Anita recalls every demeaning statements that her ex-lover told her.
She’s trapped in guilt of which she’s never been solely responsible for.
She understands, it’s her time to let these thoughts go and focus on her work. She grasps the
knowledge quite well that she needs to focus on her priorities.

Anita, is trying. She is trying her best to come out of this hell hole. But just like the gush of
stormy winds blowing outside her house; her zeal, her goals, her willingness to organize her
life – everything goes carried away by the storms of thoughts she cyclones within her head.

Her biggest support, her maternal grandmother passed away previous year, and ever since
that day, she has lost hope on people. No one apart from her grandma encouraged her in
her career choices. She was always there for her, in her every good and bad times.

That day, she cried the whole night.

5 Years Later……

“Vivek, is the report ready? Okay, I want within 10 minutes in my cabin.”, Anita spoke to
Vivek in phone call.

“Yes, ma’am! It’s ready. I’m coming”, Vivek replied back!

Anita Deol, the current CEO of StoryHubs Pvt Limited, successfully accomplished the deal
with a renowned UK company. The meeting aced the test and her company received one
more milestone.

Yes, it is the same Anita, who was absolutely puzzled five years back! But she pushed all the
way through blood and sweat and now she is the CEO of one of the biggest storytelling and
media publishing house.

So, how did she come this far? What was her mantra to overcome all the stumbling blocks?

Well! Anita was in her struggling phase. And the best part was, she knew she was struggling.
But she couldn’t overcome the impediment at that very moment. She was trying her best to
follow all her routines, but somehow her depression was pulling her down.