“You have nothing to lose, right? It can make you happier, if anything”.  

Rashi was referring to the gift she had got him on Valentine’s Day, a colourful hardback titled “Make yourself happy – a practical guide to fulfillment – Dr.Sharon Talmer PhD.” She had this habit of gifting him stuff that she wanted to buy herself. 

Swadeep was never into the self-improvement genre, and he considered most of the collection a joke, which irked Rashi no end. 

“There are numerous people who have benefited immensely from these books. This book is written by a psychiatrist. How can you question its authenticity?” 

He didn’t have the strength to argue and deftly changed the topic to the weekend getaway they had planned to Khandala.

It wouldn’t hurt to give it a shot, he thought. They had been seeing each other for a couple of years but Swadeep was still not beyond doing things with the sole aim of impressing her. He planned to take this book seriously. He sat with the book and a pencil and started. 

Do you find it immensely difficult to get out of bed everyday? Do you keep procrastinating? Do you frequently worry about the meaninglessness of your life? Tomorrow is the day you have chosen to implement your new diet, your work out, your jog, that phone call to your old friend. That tomorrow somehow never arrives, does it? 

Swadeep could not identify with a single thing that was being said but he continued drowsily. 

Chapter One 

The power of visualization 

Where do you see yourself five years from now? Write down (or draw) in the following space a picture of you as you envision…  

Swadeep was having trouble staying awake now. He just couldn’t focus on the exercise. His mind flipped rapidly between images of various people, a movie he’d seen, his school teachers. He saw Rashi gifting him this very book. He tried to fast forward to the future and saw her running around with two kids and a dog. Obviously inspired by a television commercial, he thought sadly. There was this guy with a moustache who picked up the kids. Where was he in this entire movie? Thud! He woke up with a start. He’d dozed off and the book had fallen from his grasp. He was now worried about the image that he’d dreamt up. That kept him from sleeping for a good hour and a half. 

He’d been uncomfortable around Rashi all day and she’d sensed that immediately, as all women do. Tonight he would read the book with a fresh mind and some Red bull by his side, he decided. 

Chapter Two 

Relationships 

Susie was at her wit’s end. She did not know if she should talk to Peter about his snoring. It was keeping her from sleeping and she was growing increasingly irritable as a result. This looks like a simple enough problem but it is at the core of most of our relationship issues. 

And the article went on to build a case of perfect honesty in a relationship. It asked the reader to come up with a situation when he/she had lied to a close friend and dissect the reasons.

Would hiding a dream fall under lying? Swadeep realized he was being harsh on himself. But what if the book was right? He didn’t know if it was the Red bull or the stress but he tossed and turned till dawn unable to shush the voices in his head. 

“This can’t be happening” It was as if the day was going by in a blur.

“It is. I don’t have anything more to say to you” Rashi ran, crying. 

He hadn’t even told her. She’d found the damned book by accident. She’d found his scribblings “She would feel hurt. I also had this suspicion that she had something for Rohit, who is mustached. So this might lead to confusion…”

Why did he have to give such a detailed answer? Why did she have to take offense? Why did he have to raise his voice? 

After a bout of drinking with his friends, where he tried unsuccessfully to drown his sorrows, he got back home. There it was, lying on the table, his nemesis. He picked it up for further ‘golden advice that will change your life” 

Chapter 3 

Hurt 

Think of a recent hurtful incident. Write down (or draw), in the space provided below… 

***

(Lakshman Sethuraman is a free lancer who firmly believes in self-improvement, but only the kind that doesn’t need a book. He is working on a spoof titled ‘The monk who sold a million copies of his self-improvement book’)