From the start of this century, there have been two topics that have attracted attention in the media as well as in books. They are terrorism, and positive thinking and living.

Manifesting Negativity

Our house construction had started. Based on some early experiences with the builder, I came to believe that he was not to be trusted to deliver a good product and it was upto me to supervise and crosscheck. I was constantly looking out for errors, and as one can imagine, there were plenty. It even extended to the other vendors I interacted with for the house construction. For example, while the marble slabs were being delivered to our house, two slabs got broken! After the staircase steps were laid the third time, (for some reason, the experienced workers could not get it right in my house alone…), there was a mishap and two steps were broken by the workers! I seemed to be exuding an aura of negative energy.

I had a veritable war of words with everyone I dealt with for two years. Finally, I had to go abroad on a business visit for five months. And during my absence, things went smoothly! Everyone seemed to be doing their part very well, without any supervision. The house was ready for me!

I realised that what I had constantly thought about was what happened in reality for me. Now I know better. Murphy’s Law manifests now and then, but so what? I look for the silver lining in the cloud. Believe it or not, the builder and I are good friends today. And I have not replaced the broken steps since they symbolise a great learning for me.

-Akila Jaikumar