He sat on the edge of the lake contemplating the morning event. He had taken to come to this place and play with the pebbles whenever he felt the need for peace. As usual, he took a small pebble and threw it into the lake. It created ripples which reached till the very end of the lake on both the sides, the water reaching to his feet which were dangling ankle deep into the water. Then he realized that he himself had been inadvertently caught in this vast ripples in the lake and his mind went back to the event which his brother had made him go with his sister in law as his brother had been unable to go.
His sister in law had been suffering from some depression issues since the past year. Someone had suggested Dr. Mishra, one of the most renowned therapists in the world and who was fortunately based in the same city where they now lived in, New York. He had heard about her. She had established her clinic four years back. She quickly became renowned for her unique ways of making the patients understand and come out of depression by telling stories and helping them overcome their shame and depression. He himself saw drastic changes in his sister in law only after a few sessions of therapy. Today had been the fourth anniversary of the clinic. Everyone had been invited. His brother had not been able to go, so he had to accompany his sister in law to the event.
He sat back on the designated seat in the very large auditorium. He was clearly amazed by the sheer size of the people that had come for the celebration, let alone the lives of number of people she had managed to prosper. He watched as tens of people came forward and shared their experiences and how Dr. Mishra had managed to bring them back from throes of depression. There were Americans, Indians, Chinese, Africans, young, old, people from all walks of life...
He watched as Xu Yang shared his experiences about his low self esteem and how he overcame it....
He watched as Laxmi told about her anxiety issues and how she was able to overpower it...
He watched as Michael came forward to share his anger issues and the changes which took place after the therapy...
Later Dr. Mishra was called up to share how she came up with her unique way of making the patients understand...She said,
” Today I will tell you a story of a girl, a girl who faced self esteem issues like many of you here, a girl who has been my best friend for the past 20 years. She is sitting right in front of you here and her name is Samantha. You see, Sam here, graduated from one of the most elite engineering colleges of India. She developed a serious crush on one of her seniors in the college.This guy was one of the most popular guys in the college, good looking, studious and helpful. Sam is one of the most introverted girls I have ever met. I urged her many times to at least tell him that she liked him but she always refrained saying that how he would laugh at her and would never take her feelings seriously. He graduated from the college and went to work in a different city. Sam never said but she was heartbroken and unhappy. Then after some months, she took some courage and told him of her feelings and how afraid she had been to tell him on Facebook. This guy knew her somewhat as they had been in the same branch. He replied her back by sending her a video on ‘the power of vulnerability’ and wished her the best in life. After that, their contact ended. But somehow, Sam changed. She started taking life more responsibly I had ever seen and after a long coaxing she finally told me of all that had happened on Facebook and the video the guy had shared. I was completely floored by the video. It was that video that inspired me to manage my therapies in the way I do now. It affected the both of us greatly. It brought me where I am now and made Sam a Harvard Business School graduate”.
To say he was shocked was an understatement when he saw who actually Sam was. This Sam was the same Samantha who had confessed her crush on him nearly eight years ago. He had been the guy who shared the video with her when he felt she had low self esteem. He never knew how big the actual repercussions of sharing the video would be till now. He walked out of the event in daze. He needed some peace of mind. His feet automatically took him to the lake.
He sat there mulling these events over and over. His mind went back to that Facebook post, how amused he had been when he read her ping. He knew at that time there was nothing which could be done because their lives were completely different then but to help her he shared the video and completely forgot about it till now. He had seen Samantha at the event, but the daze that it had been indirectly him responsible for such a huge thing had hit him then. Sam looked different, nice different. She sat straighter, had a breath taking smile and held a spark in her eyes which were not present in college and a feeling rose in his chest.He, too was developing a crush on her. He had heard someone at the event that she was still single. Maybe now was the time to confess his crush on her. He saw the water of the ripples reaching his ankles and thought how even he was caught in the beautiful effect... and how he absolutely loved it...The Butterfly Effect..