If You are Different, Doesn’t Really Mean You are Useful! — A Short Story
I distinctly remember the day. My friend named Nikhil comes to the street below my house with his car. A white Maruti WagonR. He always used to come up to my house, and gave a signal by honking in a special pattern!
Beep….. Beep….. Beep..Beep..Beep!
Beep….. Beep….. Beep..Beep..Beep!
I used to run away from my home wearing slippers or shoes, whatever came in my way, sometimes even my father's, which were two sizes bigger than mine. Why not? This was the excitement when I had to go outside with him.
We were 17 years old. He knew how to drive a car and I didn’t, so I always sat beside him right next to the driver’s seat. He drove me around various places while we shared chats and listened to the radio. Yes, radio, cause the car didn’t have Bluetooth, nor did we have a smartphone that would play the music of our demand.
We both had very basic phones that were only capable of giving a call and sending an SMS or sometimes you may play that old Snake’s game we all are familiar with. He had a Nokia and I had a Samsung! Nothing fancy but just boxes, as we called them.
Interestingly, his car featured a mobile holder, installed on the windshield, which his father might have installed as he had a smartphone. When the car was in our hands, it remained empty.
One day, at a red light, I hooked up my phone in that holder.
“What are you doing, Piyush?” he said.
“It’s made for holding a phone, Nikhil! Let it serve its purpose,” I replied.
“But that doesn’t look good at all! See other cars around you? They have smartphones hooked up in the holder and they are using them to see the GPS navigation!” he said, pointing towards one of the cars.
“Let them use GPS. That doesn’t mean we will mimic them. Why not make a trend to use this holder to hold the phone just idle,” I said.
“No Piyush No! See, everyone is laughing at us, mocking us! Please remove that phone from the holder,” he appealed in embarrassment.
“Let them laugh Nikhil! People are meant to laugh at you. They don’t have any other job! Every time you are doing something different, people will bring you down by laughing and making fun of you! Ignore them! Ignorance is bliss,” I replied.
“If you are different, doesn’t really mean you are useful,” he stated.
This was the statement that changed it all! It got me thinking that what this guy just said! Sometimes it's not the beings that are talking but the voice from their soul! It was kind of enlightening! A message from the divine! Like some great man has said it!
But I controlled my emotion, cause why will you praise your friend? I stayed normal and acted normal as if nothing had happened!
He reached his house after dropping me off. After about an hour or so, I see a message from him on Facebook Messenger. A photo:
It was still not finished for him. I smiled looking at the photo and understood what he wanted to convey.
If You are Different, Doesn’t Really Mean You are Useful!
Destiny also played its part in my life. I became a manufacturing engineer and part of my study was Product Design!
During one of the lectures, I remember my professor saying that sometimes few designers have gone way ahead while designing a product to chase distinction and differentiation.
They ended up making a product that is incredibly beautiful and complex. But absolutely useless!
The lesson I had already with my friend years ago! Resonated! I smiled.
So this was all from my side. I hope you liked the story.
In case we’re meeting for the first time,
Hi, I’m Piyush Sharma, I share my life lessons here on Medium.
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Thanks for reading…
