The great fall of a perfectionist - short story

Prajwal by nature was obsessed with perfection. As short he was so was he tolerance with imperfect people. He could not tolerate any type of mistake be it spelling or discipline or cleanliness. People around him were fed up of this obsession. He would scream without reasoning at people who were even minutely imperfect. People used to be scared to share even the same dinning table as his in a restaurant. In any function, he used to be served first all alone, to avoid unpleasantness for other guests.

Prajwal could find a mistake in anything under the Sun ranging from a wedding card to the newspaper or even a letter written by his father. He prided himself on his knowledge and passion to be perfect.

Prajwal had 2 daughters and both hardly stepped out of their rooms when he was around. One of them was Preethi who was of marriageable age but her marriage seemed near impossible given that her father had rejected exactly 77 grooms for being imperfect for reasons ranging such as hairstyle, accent, nose picking in public, etc.

A lot of friends and relatives were puzzled how come his wife Ramya had not eloped or gone mad, given his nagging attitude. One of the reasons for her calmness was she was partially deaf, a secret Prajwal never knew in the 25 years of married life (despite his obsession for perfection!). She had a great knack of judging what Prajwal was screaming about and used to set right the situation immediately. So she was spared of the hurting words and this kept the secret going.

His business could not go beyond being a mid-sized one because of his over insistence for perfection. No employee worked with him for more than 3 months except his sister cum secretary Rajini who was there for the past 25 years. As a boss, Prajwal was the most benevolent one but equally acerbic when it comes to imperfect employees.

Prajwal was well read and through his contacts got an opportunity to pen a book “The Perfectionist”. The publisher agreed to bring out this book only to bring to light how much harm can be done by the obsession for perfection.

It was a Sunday afternoon and the sun was blazing away. Prajwal was busy writing the chapter plan for his book in his 12th floor apartment. His wife and daughters had gone out for a marriage. All of a sudden, a fire broke out in the 11th and 12th floor due a short circuit. The residents tried to run outside but by then the fire had encompassed the stairs. The only option they had was to cross over to a nearby under construction block of flats. They were out of danger but could not go down because the stairs were not fully built. Prajwal called up the fire engine and soon the process of rescue started. One by one the residents were rescued by a crane. They had to fasten a belt around their waist and slowly they would be placed in a nearby mechanical compartment. Later it would be lowered to ground level. There was enough space for four people to stand in the mechanical compartment. There would be two fireman and two rescued persons in each trip.


Even in times of danger, Prajwal could not give up his obsession to be perfect. He took out a brick and drew a line in which people should follow to reach the point of evacuation. He was screaming at anybody who was trying to break the line by saying “Don’t worry this building wont catch fire” or “Don’t be in such a hurry to push everybody down” etc, etc. The firemen were happy with his efforts to bring about discipline but not with his insistence to stick to the drawn line. They were getting irritated by his words and antics. Prajwal as always thought he was doing the right thing and continued with his perfectionist role.

Now it was Prajwal’s turn to go. The safety belt was pushed towards to him. It had instructions to it “Letch on to your waist and fasten the belt”. Prajwal’s corrective instinct came to the fore and he screamed “Who writes such stupid spellings, letch for latch?” . Prajwal’s neighbor abused him in choicest filthy words from the local language and Prajwal silently latched on to his belt and was lifted to the compartment. The compartment was stinking and Prajwal instincts took over again and he screamed “Can’t you idiots clean this stink before bringing it?”. One of the firemen got wild with his antics and extended his arms to punch Prajwal. Prajwal in an attempt to avoid him swayed his head and lost balance. After that it was a free fall and he came down crashing shouting “Aaaaaaaaaaaah” and fell with a thud. He thought he was dead but strangely he could open his eyes. He got up to realise that it was a nightmare. He had fallen asleep on the sofa while writing and he had fallen on the floor.

Prajwal woke up to realise how bad he had been all these years. The whole night he stayed awake to ponder how much his perfectionist role had affected his personal well being. The stimulated experience was sufficient to cure Prajwal of his obsession. He decided to turn over a new leaf from the next morning.

Next morning it did not matter to him that the newspaper had thrown the news paper on the watery spot of the balcony; the neighbor who had wrongly parked the car in his own house; the kids who were screaming from the passing by school bus; the regional newscaster who was wrongly pronouncing “Obama” as “Opama”. Prajwal was a relaxed man at peace with himself and the world at large.

He did not mind that his driver had not buttoned his shirt fully or that the security guard’s shoe laces were wrongly tied or that his face was not visible on the wiped office floors or that Rajini had kept her cup of coffee near her files. Previously he used to bring the roof down for such mistakes. His changed attitude surprised the entire staff. Prajwal was full of smiles compared to the grumpy face he used to wear daily.

After a few minutes, he called all the staff and explained the reasons for his change. Everybody laughed it off. Soon Rajini was on her mobile informing her Bhabi about the change. She could not believe it but was happy. That evening Prajwal went home and the first thing he did was to change the title of his book to “Fall of a Perfectionist”. Life had become an easy proposition for Prajwal to deal with. He found more friends, business and happiness thanks to his ability to accept that life is never a straight line and so is people’s behavior. A fall which lead to his rise!