He landed up in office after a month.

“Good to see you, been so long. You’ve lost a lot of weight. What have you been doing?”

He smiled, nodded his head in acknowledgment  and walked down the corridor towards his room. At the corner, another colleague asked him about his diet plan.

At lunch time, as he sat eating a salad, a colleague joined him. “You’ve slimmed down so much. You’re looking nice. Now don’t lose any more.”

This time he said, “Just a little more. Am almost there.”

Back in his room he thought just how much adoration and appreciation he had received for losing weight. Before this he was just another paunchy man with a receding hairline. Suddenly, he was a role model.

A month later he was dead. He knew he was almost there, but the appreciation felt so much better than the sympathy.