Paint the City . .

Story of A

He sat with his head in his hands. He had hardly slept the previous. night As he looked around his office he felt that it was suffocating. The air conditioner did not help much. His palms still sweated.

He had built his small business with great perseverance. He had studied the chemistry of paints, to make a success of his business. He sometimes sardonically thought that if he had studied with the same intensity when in college, he would have been a topper. But the business needed him to know all that he could. He had managed the finances cleverly too.

Just when he thought that all that was behind him and he was on safe grounds at last, this had hit him. A client had placed an order for some special paints. They were for unusual colours. When he had manufactured them and readied them for despatch, the client had cancelled the order. Of course, the order was not on paper. Like many other things in the construction industry, this was also on trust. Especially this particular client had always been reliable.

Now he was stuck with a load of paint that nobody else seemed to want. He had tried selling them at half the price. There were no takers. He was at his wits end.

Story of B

How things had changed in the last decade! He had finished the Bachelor of Architecture course at the top of his class. He had an independent streak in him and from day one had planned to design houses for people. Within fifteen years he had become a well known architect. He had a large office and an impressive list of clients. Just to keep his creative juices flowing, he had taken all kinds of assignments. He was enjoying his work.

But now he was facing an irksome phenomenon. He would take on an assignment and make the preliminary designs and the client wanted to show it to a Vaastu expert. He would then come back with restrictions on where what could be. His whole concept for the house would be destroyed.

Oh, he hated these pseudo experts.

Story of A

He finally decided that he should seek some advice from someone. He had once been told that the gates to his factory were in the wrong place. The Vaastu was not correct. He racked his brains about who had told him that. Then he remembered who it was. He contacted him and he in turn directed him to The Guru, the Vaastu expert.

He went to him to consult him.

Story of B

He decided that he himself should acquire some knowledge of this thing called Vaastu and Feng Shui or whatever. He was told that The Guru was the best, whatever that meant, anyway.

Story of A and B

A and B met at The Guru’s house. They had to make a few visits before they could meet The Guru himself. This provided them an opportunity to know each other. After all, they were from the same “industry”. Their conversation gave rise to a plan.

Story of B

Now, whenever a client came to him, he would ask him if he wanted his house designed according to Vaastu - “Vaastu compliant”, according to the jargon of the industry. Whatever the answer of the client, he designed the house as he wanted, developing the concept of the house with great care as he had always done.

If the client came back with objections, he would make minor alterations, if at all, and tell them that there was a Feng Shui solution to the problem. The client, already softened by the detailed description of the concept of the house would be eager to consider this solution. If he still had doubts, he would be sent to The Guru and he would confirm that it was indeed a solution.

Story of A

In a few years, the whole stock of the unusually coloured paints was cleared. At a price that was double that of the normal, ordinary paints. He even had further orders and all the work he had put in to make the paints in the first place was not a waste after all.

Story of C and D

C: There seems to be a new phenomenon at work. Have you seen that many new houses have some wall or the other painted with some weird colour?

D: Yaa, I know. I am told that it is a well known principle of Feng Shui that if you paint one of the walls with an eye catching colour, it can nullify the effects of bad Vaastu.

Both the cynics continued their walk after shaking their heads uncomprehendingly.

If only they knew that the real story was weirder than anything even their cynical minds could conjure up ......