In a small cave, far off the mountain in Far East India lived a famous sorceress. While most sorceresses use their power for wrong purposes, this sorceress had a mixed reputation. Some said that she gives a boon, while others said that she curses people. Whatever the case she would always conduct her sorcery only in the full moonlight.
It was not easy to find her because the mountain in which she lived was enchanted. On one such full moon night a group of 3 friends curious to find out the mystery of the witch planned to visit the mountain. They were the kind of youngsters who tries to look cool by doing tattoos, are wannabe football fans and wear yellow reflector sunglass because they think it is cool. But when they open their mouth you can tell that they have come from Bhojpur.
Gajodhar took out a primordial map given to him by his grandmother, it showed that they were standing at the exact place where the mouth of the cave should have been. “I vaj telling from istart all dhis bullseet.” Blabbered Bholaprasad in his thin voice that sounded more like a girl.
Suddenly at that time the cloud uncovered the full moon. “look that istone bro! It ij saining.” Said Ghansham unable to take his eyes off the stone. Progressively the brightness of stone increased so much that all the three friends had to close their eyes. In a trice everything went dark. When they opened their eyes they saw a cave that looked like it belonged to prehistoric times. Bholaprasad and Ghansham stood there open mouthed, Gajodhar ordered “phollow me gaaiz.”
They entered a tunnel leading to the centre of the cave. They had expected the sorceress to be some old hag, wearing tattered clothes in a stinking cave and they were not wrong. There sitting in front of what look like a well was the famous sorceress looking as repulsive as they had thought.
All three friends were somewhat scared and wanted to run away, but then they also wanted to find out whether she will curse them or give them a boon. The witch looked at them and beckoned them forward. They took shaky steps towards her. Although from far away she looked revolting, in close up she was not that bad, in fact she had a thick lustrous and silky hair on which you can see the spiders crawling. She asked them to sit down and they obeyed. In front of them was the well, but instead of water there was a shining white stone inside, the same one that they had seen outside the cave. At the top of the cave was a hole as small as a pin through which the moonlight was falling upon the stone and making it shine.
The sorceress asked them to stretch out their palm and close their eyes. She started reciting some spell+, they could feel something heavy on their palm and their entire body was in intense pain. When they opened their eyes Gajodhar and Bholaprasad saw a black ball with horns sitting on their palm. The witch opened her mouth and a soft and melodious voice came out, a voice that ideally should not belong to such an ugly creature. “In order to be truly happy in life we should love and accept our self unconditionally. Each of us has one major block that prevents us from loving our self fully.”
She looked at Bholaprasad and told him that “you are too much obsessed with looking good. You feel there is nothing interesting in you apart from good looks, where as in reality you don’t even look that much good. Just have a look at your bald pate and protruding belly. Anyways this black ball is this block that you are holding. Release it in the well and your attachment to looks will fade away and you will then love yourself even more. “
She looked at Gajodhar and told him that “you are a very insecure person and a compulsive liar. Whenever you see that someone has something that you want, you try to get it at any cost by hook or crook. You believe in living life king size by acquiring all the material possessions, but a true king is the one who has control over his thoughts, words and actions. Release this black ball in the well and you will be more secure as a person and start to love yourself more.”
She looked at Ghansham and said “you don’t have any major block as such and that is why your ball is grey in colour. However You do have one irritating habit of making other people wait, you don’t value other people’s time and you think it is cool to do that, but in reality you piss other people off. You also have some fetish with free stuff. Whatever is free you just want it, even if you don’t need. It is not a good thing. Also it is important to be clean and hygienic learn to take bath daily, sometimes you do smell like a pig. Release this ball in the well and you will learn to be punctual and take care of your body and will start to love yourself more.”
All three friends came out of the cave wondering whether they were given a boon because they released the ball of their block in the well or cursed them because the way she highlighted their weakness had definitely caused a big dent in their
Balls of Hope