Sins was feeling totally whacked out of his mind courtesy the woman he had just met. The woman was the Brand Manager of a company which had just posted its record year in terms of both turnover and profits, and naturally Sins had smelt money waiting to be spent on their marketing activities for this financial year, because, naturally, they would try to hold on or improve their performance in the market again, and that meant increasing awareness among newer sets of audiences. The company made nutrition supplements in the form of ready-to-drink protein drinks and energy bars. Sins was representing a professional sports team, so naturally there were synergies between both the entities, and Sins had been optimistic of closing a deal with her. He had instead been rebuked, badly.
Outside, standing under the hot tropical sun, smoking his first cigarette in months, he wondered why people didn’t like other people. Retrospectively, every sales deal happened because either the property or product made amazing business sense for both parties, or because the sales person had been able to spin an engaging story around his property and come across a good person to do business with, and in Sins’ case today, he was sure it was the latter. He threw the cigarette away half-finished disgusted with himself for breaking his stance towards smoking, especially in light of the personal development process he was undergoing, which was geared towards mental positivity and embracing a fitness lifestyle.
Maybe people had conflicts because everyone was different from the other, maybe the sum of ‘material circumstances’ just didn’t add up for two individuals to understand the frequency of each other’s thoughts. He debated about asking for another meeting, but let the matter rest, thinking that it probably wasn’t his day. He had been on a hot streak for the past few months, snagging one deal after the other, earning a huge promotion and had asked Starr, who herself was thriving because she had written a blockbuster of a script for a new hotshot film director, to move in with him. Starr had refused, asking him to move in with her, and to prove her point, asked her roommate to leave the house politely. Sins had moved in the next day much to Starr’s delight.
Starr was better than him in so many ways. Sins felt incredibly lucky to have her with him.
She cooked better, was much fitter, was a better writer in more ways than one and was incredibly amazing with numbers among a host of other skills like public speaking. She was also the founder of a women’s only fitness company, where Sins helped her with raising new sources of capital, as he was glad to do so, and probably the only one of a few things he was good at. He admired her unlimited drive, desire and passion on display for everyone to see, day after day, week after week, month after month. He wondered how she got the motivation. From her ‘material circumstances’? They were both privileged in the sense that they had liberal parents who had allowed them the freedom and space to do whatever they wanted as long as it wasn’t illegal, which didn’t help Sins much because he wanted to be a drug dealer after college. So he had continued it, clandestinely, away from Starr’s gaze, in much smaller quantities and limiting himself to his favourite plant of marijuana, which he was currently sourcing from a farm one hundred miles away.
He loved both his jobs. Because he was making a difference. He was diverting money to Athletes, who deserved every penny of their hard work which went into pushing their bodies to physical limits every day for nine months, and farmers, who toiled day and night to harvest the last flower lovingly, with gentle care, only doing it out of the love they had for the precious earth and its bounty. Helping them gave Sins a joy he had never known, like a deep moral compass inside his soul which had stirred slowly, awakened after a deep slumber. He lived to watch the hard workers smile in joy, at him, thanking him profusely, which he play down modestly, because he felt they, as creators deserved it unfailingly. He was doing the same for Starr’s venture, because it would make a difference to other lives, not as fortunate as his or Starr’s.
While falling asleep everyday, he would imagine all the smiles he had helped create, before entering into a deep slumber.
Marijuana Maharaj 