Guess, if you can, and choose, if you dare.

She wakes up to a beautiful morning, smiling and chuffed about yet another day to live learn and linger. Coffee tastes perfect with the right mixture of milk, sugar and caffaine, ah that does not happen everyday or does it? She gets dressed and leaves home on a high, walking ambitiously towards a multi storied state of the art building. She is a hard worker and seldom misses work. She sees her friends, beaming with joy like herself, after all, it takes a lot of potential and talent to work for companies with international repute, that which pays a big fat cheque every month catering to the luxury of an exhorbitant flat, a car, and a content family with loads of money to spare on the other end of a lavish lifestyle!! Fortunate few eh!? There's more, it is indeed a question of dignity and self gratifying societal status. The benefits are endless and it grows exponentially.

She keeps marching toward the building when she hears her cell phone ring! Technology keeps everything connected, although it gives a damn about whether you want to be connected at the first place! Such are the laws of a technological dependence. It is a friend who called to invite her over for a tea party which she elegantly refuses and goes straight to her work place on the street right next to the multi storied state of the art building. You see, she does not conform to the 'fortunate few' dignified cartel as her friends do.

It is simply the choice she made to not attend the tea party. Where she could do one or more of things that she will rejoice. As she is about to enter the work place she is joined by her colleagues who giggle about a text message and dote over a latest wallpaper of a music band. These are school kids spending their vacation quite lucratively. She removes her over coat and her neatly pressed uniform becomes visible. She is a part time general assistant at a super market. All she has to do is arrange and rearrange shelves with goods and be there for a customer who is lost or looking for something. At times, pay heed to an outrageous and dissatisfied customer with a smile and sincere apology. Thanks to her Masters Degree in a reputed university, her indigenous HR skills are quite put to use. This is just a four hour task but it is one hell of a workout!

A loud honk startles her while she was lost day dreaming. Quickly checking for her uniform only to be fooled by her illusion. She runs towards the multi storied building and to the super market's customer desk to enquire about her application for a job which technically even a school kid would reject, she knew what was coming. Almost as if she lived this moment an instant ago and is reliving it now. So the customer desk's answer does not shock her, it rather amuses her. "While you demonstrated some of the skills we’re looking for, there were other candidates who were a closer match for the role. Therefore, we regret to inform you that we won’t be progressing your application any further on this occasion. Should you wish to receive feedback, please do not hesitate to contact the HR Resourcing department. We would like to take this opportunity to thank you for your interest in furthering your career and for the time you’ve taken with your application." So much for arranging shelves and getting yelled at by customers! Long live the flourishing economy!!

Movies have always fascinated her and she comes from the clan that calls in sick to the college office for watching a movie that just released. It has often become quite a nightmare when it comes to arranging 'necessary funds' for buying tickets and other nibbles for a complete movie experience. Sadly, movies at Cinema have now become one of the previleges of being the 'fortunate few' that she often wonders if it was a wise decision to not take up a place in this undisputable faction?!! Not after she enrolled to volunteer at a cinema that not just lets her watch films that she usher the customers in to but EVERY SINGLE MOVIE AT THE CINEMA and HOW MANY EVER TIMES SHE WANTS!! Beat that!! This apart, she indulges in the complete movie experience with discounted perks at the cafe. She thinks, she'd rather be here watch all the movies, meet the 'whos's who' at the premier than stand out of the cinema and gape at the posters with the mouth wide open, feel sad and pressed for time.
There are people like her, who watch movies out of passion and love for acting and the mere experience and there are others who watch movies as a means to get out of the four walls of a hospital. Yes, she helps those people who are not like us but are special in more than one way. She takes certain special people to cinemas to watch the movie of their choice and catch up on a heated discussion over a hot cuppa coffee at a cafe. Wow that is one hell of an experience she wonders!! After which she gets home, and they....to the hospital. One of the reasons why she had to say NO to the tea party.

She has to stop somewhere before she gets home to her most favourite person. Wondering if she could ever give back the world that has given her enough to be content, she did a bit of research online and ended up at the website of a reputed charity organisation who say "We are a volunteer-led humanitarian organisation that helps people in crisis, whoever and wherever they are.We enable vulnerable people at home and overseas to prepare for and respond to emergencies in their own communities. And when the crisis is over, we help people recover and move on with their lives." Being able to help someone by gaining expertise in ERT, being an ordinary person yet be able to save someone's life, gain experience in first aid, medical equipment, refugee services, shop volunteering et al and be directly or indirectly the impetus behind a good deed. She decided that moment that she would be part of this organisation and do her bit in thanking the world. She is greeted at the regional branch of the organisation with a smile that is perennial and infectious. These people are achievers, they all have their own reasons to be volunteering for a noble cause, but for herself, it is a rather simple reason, to make a difference, to BE the difference.

She has to walk past couple of children's parks on the way home. She falls in love with the innocence and the immaculate smile of the children that it would have been hours before she knows it. Once she asked a kid who almost resembled the 'angel like cartoon characters' that what motivates the kid to visit the park everyday? To which the kid replied, i love to watch the birds, i love it when they swim in the pond or fly in the sky. She couldn't agree more, apart from the kids at the park, the only other thing that fascinates her the most was these birds both migratory and native. She fails to recollect their names so she links it to some prominent thing that she would not otherwise forget and somehow link the bird and the thing in a funny way. One example would be the way she remembered the bird magpie. The linking word here was to imagine Magpie playing a BAG PIper. Easy now isn't it!? :-)
But these birds as humans do not have rights to protect themselves but thankfully there are organisations to take care of them or protect them from becoming extinct or to just look out for a bird to say the least. She would not let go of an opportunity to contribute to this too. The organisation she got involved with is quite the type she liked!! The members of the organisation are filled with dedication that is so overwhelming. The process of lending a helping hand is quite simple. Just a casual chat and you are handed a bag full of badges with pictures of variety of birds on each badge. So she walks up to the kids at the park, show them the badges and ask the kids to pick one, as she explains the unique characteristics of each bird she also tells how each kid could save the birds by buying the badge. That way the kids are never going to forget their favourite birds ans she would raise some funds albeit trivial per badge but quite a bit in the broader sense.

She has been eyeing the community centre lately where there are classes for singing and dancing. She would soon be going and enrolling herself there. And the library has such a repository of books that amazes her. She is glued on to some book or the other. Yet she feels she isn't doing enough!

She gets thoughtful on and off about the choice she has made. Does she have the luxury of the fortunate few? Does she enjoy a big fat cheque every month catering to the luxury of an exhorbitant flat, a car, and a content family with loads of money to spare on the other end of a lavish lifestyle!! The pride and self gratifying societal status. She does not!! But is she happy? Hell YEAH!!!