The Warning Letter - Story 1 Chapter1

It is 6 am in the morning. Sheth Dwarikaprasad Keshavdas Tiwari, the tycoon from the city of Lucknow, gets up from his cozy bed, before the alarm clock rings. Immediately He puts himself into action as he walks with swift steps towards the washing room. He believes in tight schedules for every day and this one is not an exception.

He is 67, but feels like 37 yet! That's because of his ability to adapt and a sharp presence of mind. He has seen it all - the Indo-China war of 1962, the Indo-pakistan wars of 1965, 1971 and 1999, and lately the pandemic caused by the coronavirus in 2020. He has been in the most vulnerable areas, where life did become very difficult for a certain period of time. But his momentum and inbuilt resilience made sure he survives. That happened, whilst most of his friends and relatives succumbed to different circumstances and calamities. Now he is confident enough to live another 30 years or so, because his lifestyle has gone from very tough to easy. It's the year 2025, and Dwarika thinks he will easily see through the year 2050.

After finishing all the morning choirs, he turns towards his "पूजा वाला कमरा" (the worship room.) But then he suddenly decides against it and goes towards that comfortable sofa in his extra-large drawing room. This is not the first time in the last 1 week, he is doing so. He has avoided doing Pooja (worship) of his favorite god Lord Shiva in fact for the 3rd time in this week and maybe the 7th time in the last fortnight. He feels it's getting "boring" to chant those mantras now! He assures himself: "Look DK (shorter form of Dwarikadas Keshavdas), you too know Shiva is with you. You don't need to be so formal now as to chant those mantras. Do you? Those mantras are for rookies in doing worship, yaar, and you are not a rookie any more... You are Sheth Dwarikadas, the owner of a 190,000 crore business empire, one of the richest in India! You are, as they call you so belovedly, the Cement King of India now, having beaten all the major brands in sales turnover and net profits. You have triviliazed your rivals so much so that they have started looking like idiots in front of you!! You are now an expert at everything - even at worshipping! Yes, you are.. So it's okay, young man(!), if you don't undergo the efforts of doing all those boring rituals of worshipping Mahadev (synonym of Shiva) It won't affect your life...!"

As a matter of fact, a clear paradigm shift is now visible in his behavior. The once very careful, down-to-earth, God-fearing, righteous gentleman is swiftly getting converted into a careless, complicated & sinful, unrighteous idiot, the one who thinks worshipping is so boring. The more shocking point is, he is changing from good to evil without even noticing it himself! Or maybe the level of arrogance inside him has risen to such levels that there is no room for wisdom, rationale & clear thought, anywhere in his brain now. He is already thinking like a narsiccist..yes..and there is absolutely nobody to remind him about the moral degradation he is going through!🤔

This is what happens to those who have ONLY materialistic goals in their lives. God, Good deeds, Love - all these things of heart matter to them only till the point they are struggling. Once they become succesful and very rich, these things stop being of any substantial importance to them! They are replaced by things of mind or let me say things created by human mind - money, social status, victory at any cost, power. They forget the real meaning of life alongwith it's unpredictable nature and perhaps its shortness too. They start taking things for granted, as if they will continue to live with the same kind of royal affluence, forever and forever! 🤔

At 67, DK too is thinking the same way - "I have so much money & property now that I can live like a king for another 100 years! Yes man, if not 100 years more, atleast I will be 100 in total, right, before I die? Comeon... that's not an exaggeration at all...I will live minimum till I am 100...maybe get married once again, with some beautiful lady around 45...or maybe some young widow? Oh wow! How about that?" Goosebumps start all over his body, as he continues indulging in those dreams - "How about Karishma Kapoor ❤️...that very gorgeous diva of bollywood from the highly prestigious Kapoor clan, who accidentally became a widow recently...?? Yes, I am going for her...she should be my wife...yesss..." - his शेखचल्ली dreams have no end! 

Moral degradation can make people go insane too. There are so many rich, who have gone absolutely mad too. For the society they make look okay. But their quickly descending sense of morality does make them loose their sense of propriety too. In other words, they do go mad from within. Sheth DK is one such example. Having avoided worshipping Shiva, he decides to sit on the sofa and watch TV. Stock market channels are his favorite. It's 9:20 am, on 24th October, 2025. All the stocks of companies owned by the Tiwari Group are moving upwards. DK is very happy. 

Suddenly, his house-maid Tarabai gives him a letter, saying it had arrived yesterday in the letter box but she forgot to give it to him immediately. He scolds her for late action. She apologizes and moves away.

He opens the letter. Looks out for the sender and finds, "Your well-wisher" written there. That intensifies his curiosity as he searches for the content - "Dear DK, Change your life. Stop being bad any more. Be good. Else...." The message is short but gripping. 

"Who can this be?" - He begins to think. "Who is this new "well-wisher!" I have had hundreds of thousands of well-wisher, spread across the length and breadth of this country. But no one has ever threatened me like this - "Be good, else..." Else what? What will you do? Kill me? And above all, when am I not good? I am doing so much charity, afterall. These new hospitals, new schools & colleges - spread across the state of Uttar Pradesh - who is providing the largest amounts of funds to them...in crores...who? Who? Who?😡 It's me...Sheth Dwarika... And this idiot here tells me I need to be "good"??? When was I not good? When did I turn from good to bad?? When did I become a villain from a hero?😀😀"

He suddenly feels like laughing. Looks around to check is someone is not watching. There is nobody around. So he gives himself the permission to laugh...laugh all alone!!😂😀

"This fool, whosoever he is, claims that I am turning evil from being good...😂 What a stupid point...I am very sure, I am not turning bad, dear idiot!😀😀 And after all who are you to claim all these!?? What authority do you have to tell Sheth DK that he is gradually turning into a villain?😡" Again he is feeling angry! His mood is shifting from angry to funnyback to angry in no time at all! Is it a sign he is going insane? Noooo, the boss doesn't think so. And once the boss doesn't think that way, nobody can. There is full-stop to that topic, immediately. Nobody has the authority to think against or beyond the boss. 

He gets up from the sofa, tears that letter and throws it into his dustbin, "What a piece of shit! Don't know from where all this shit guys are produced!" 

Starts whistling to change his mood, back to being joyful..but finds himself whistling the tune of "Kaha Jaa Raha hai, tu ae jaane wale, andhera hai mann ka diya to jalaa le (Where are you going, Oh traveller. Please enlighten the lamp your mind, because it's getting darker over there gradually...) His subconscious mind awakes him,"Hey, what the hell are you whistling? Tere Mann me andhera hai hi nahi...ye kaisa gaana whistle kar raha hai tu? Kahi us stupid khat ka asar to nahi pad gayaa tere pe? Tujhe to malum ho hai waha koi andhera fandhera nahi hai...chhod ye sab bakwaas aur tune change kar saale...(There is no darkness prevailing in your mind as of now. Then why are you whistling such a boring tune? Is it because of that stupid letter from an anonymous guy, you just received? Comeon, forget it... Your mind is one of the brightest places on earth, young man... a place where you are going to invite younger women like Karishma Kapoor and have romance with them...so change that stupid tune immediately!) 

He again goes back to sofa and starts scrolling across news channels. There is no intersting /sexy news out there right now. Before long, his eyes slowly close and he is sleeping on his sofa at 9:55 am, a time when the rest of the world is rushing towards work or already working.