All’s well that ends in love!

It was Valentine’s Day & the sight of bright red cardboard hearts, roses and other decorations at various places made Tia rather uneasy. She wanted to rush back home, so she could avoid seeing the various embellishments that celebrated love.

Tia wasn’t in the best of her moods as she going through a ‘not so smooth’ time with her fiancee- Rahul. A small misunderstanding was blown out of proportion & it was three days since she last spoke to Rahul. She was very upset with him & as a result, she expected an initiative for patch up from Rahul, but there hadn’t been a single call from him since morning & this, Tia really did not appreciate.

She was done with her classes for that day. Not the one to be excited about this day, she decided to head home to tend to her little pup that she had recently adopted. After spending some time with her best buddy Salma, Tia started for home. Just as she was about to board the auto rickshaw that would have taken her home, she heard her phone beep faintly from the abyss of her bag. Rahul! she thought, with a smile. No. It was her best friend- Akshay. Akshay invited Tia to join him at a cafe bar, so he could help her understand the basics of HTML coding. Considering the fact that it was a weekday afternoon, there wouldn’t be many at the cafe and the two of them could go about their business with little or no disturbance. This seemed like a great idea! Finally Akshay made time out of his ever busy schedule for her and she would by no way let this opportunity slip by.

Tia had always nagged Akshay, who also was her batch mate to help her understand HTML coding, which somehow she could never follow when it was being taught in the class, ‘cos due to unavoidable circumstances, she had to miss the first few important classes of this subject. However, with a degree in computer science already, HTML was child’s play for Akshay. And who better to teach her the subject than her best buddy?

The two caught up at the nearest Cafe Coffee Day and after some meaningless chat and a fight over who should order what, they finally decided to start with HTML. Tia hated the subject & also the fact that Akshay was its top scorer, which gave him an opportunity to pull Tia’s leg whenever there was a discussion on this subject. Since Akshay had a bachelor’s party to attend that evening, he had forewarned Tia that he’d only be able teach her the basics of HTML that day. After close to 45mins of HTML basics, Tia felt that she had studied enough for one day. Closing her books shut and thanking Akshay for helping her out, she was about to leave from there, when through the window of the cafe, her eyes fell on a familiar Hyundai car parked on the opposite side of the street and directly in front of where they sat. When she squinted a little to see who was behind the wheels of the car, she was in for a big surprise, though she wasn’t very sure if she had to term it a ‘pleasant’ or an ‘unpleasant’ one going by the situation. It was none other than Rahul and from his expression, Tia could easily say that he was heart-broken & fuming mad at her. She instantly realized why. Tia didn’t know how to react.

Rahul was always very protective of Tia & sometimes reasonably possessive of her, just as anybody in love would be. Being a little tom boyish and totally unlike any other girl, she always had many friends and admirers from both genders. Rahul, however, wasn’t very happy & appreciative of some her friends who shared their gender with him.

Tia knew what she had gotten into. Perplexed on reading Tia’s expression and mind, Akshay paid the bill and hurriedly left the place. Tia knew that Rahul wouldn’t have been this mad at her, had all been fine between them. Their current rough phase and a brief break up of three days would have made Rahul think that she has moved on & is currently dating some another guy on Valentine’s. How horrible! Tia rushed to Rahul in order to clear the air and avoid any further misunderstandings between the two. As she entered his car, her eyes couldn’t miss the huge bouquet of red roses and a gift box on the seat behind Rahul’s. He had come for a patch up, and what an irony, I’ve turned the situation into something that aided a break up, she thought. With her eyes welling up in tears, she struggled to talk. When she finally managed to, she found herself telling- ‘Rahul… look, please don’t jump into conclusions… Akshay is just a… ’ That’s when Rahul gestured her to stop whatever she was saying. Tia knew she was standing at the brink of a failed relationship. Her heart sank. She felt utterly stupid for having met up with Akshay especially on Valentine’s, without thinking of consequences. She knew she had to now prepare herself for an untimely & a very painful break up. Anything she’d now tell wouldn’t be convincing enough for a person blinded by rage.

Tia was wondering how to make Rahul see the truth & the innocence of the entire episode, when she felt his hand around hers. He kissed her on the forehead and said- ‘Tia, remember, you’ll never have to explain yourself to me & not even in my wildest dream would I imagine something like what you are trying to explain is not. The reason I was so mad at you, was because you did not call me, where I was actually hoping & praying for your call at least on Valentine’s, thinking here is my opportunity for a quick patch up. Moreover, you hadn’t picked a single call of mine since last two days… Tia, it’s you or no one for me & I can never live without you. I have always loved you unconditionally & will continue to do so. Explanations are for shallow relationships, and I‘d consider it as an insult to me & for my love towards you, if ever you try to explain yourself to me again.’

Tia dint know how to react, again. She was so relived & there were tears in her eyes, only this time, it was tears of joy & love. Rahul loved the Tia who was always bubbly, full of life & had a perennial twinkle of mischief in her eyes. Tears didn’t suit her too well & he couldn’t bear to see the tears, that had blurred his much loved twinkle in her eyes. Rahul hugged her tight in a reassuring way, so she’d feel fine again. Later that day, they set out for a quiet, open air, roof top, candle light dinner.

It was a very special day, not only because it was Valentine’s, but because it was on this day that Rahul had ‘first’ proposed to Tia. First, because Tia had taken a good 3 years to accept it & Rahul had to propose to her many times, before she finally accepted it. Tia however, was left with many questions unanswered, to start with, like- how did Rahul locate her? She decided to spare them for some other day, ‘cos that day was meant  for celebration alone. Celebration of trust, togetherness, friendship, companionship & of course ‘love’!

HaPpY Valentine’s Day

Happy Valentine’s day, dear friends. May love make its permanent abode in your lives.

MOONLIGHT

Started my day on a bad note. Had a disagreement with my husband and was very furious with him, vowing that I’d not speak to him at least for a fortnight, I set out for work. I was supposed to have a very important meeting with my offshore clients as soon as I got there. Cursing my company for not providing conveyance on that day, I took the now glamorous public transport Volvo-‘Vajra’ to commute to & fro, between office and home. Feeling upset about the latest turn of events, I plugged on to my earphones after claiming the window-side seat of the bus and listened to some of my personal collection of songs as I dreamily gazed out of the window. I have a different playlist altogether for days like these, which consists mostly of sad songs.

I soon got bored when my playlist threatened to repeat itself, adding to the woes was the fact that I had not even covered half my journey to work. It takes me a good 2 hours ride approx. to reach my office on a normal day with decent traffic. Running out of songs, and that too so soon, terrified me. I quickly turned to a novel in my backpack for rescue (about which I had easily forgotten, thanks to the way morning had taken off) & in the hope of saving my sanity, at least till I reached my destination.

It was a best-selling novel- ‘New Moon’ (such a situational name, reflecting my mood). I flipped past the pages where I was done with reading. Since my bookmark was moved, it took me few minutes to locate the page in the book I had last read . All the while I was blissfully oblivious of the person who sat on the seat opposite to mine. Having nothing much or interesting to do, he decided I was an ideal specimen to commence his observation on. Then, what I dreaded the most, happened: bottle neck and a long trail of traffic jam. Wow! I was now sure that things could not get any worse! I preferred not to look out of the window as it was sure to cause me a panic attack. Time now seemed to fly by faster than before, coming dangerously close to my log-in time, worse, my meeting time!

I took a deep breath, gave a small bribe, in the form of a small prayer to my favorite God and hoped for a miracle from the bottom of my heart. I hoped for a sudden announcement from the state government to declare that day a holiday due to unheard of traffic blockages at several parts in the city. This crazy thought convinced me that I just suffered a symptom of panic attack and my sanity was menacingly thinking of deserting me. I quickly untied my watch and dropped it into the abyss of my bag (to resist my temptation of looking into it every few seconds!), with the feeling as though I chucked the very time itself somewhere, somewhere from where it could not tick!

That was when the stranger who sat opposite me, decided to talk to his specimen for the first time, maybe to gather more information needed to conclude his observation. He looked at me and exclaimed: ‘What a traffic block! I think WE would surely be late for work today!’. Like as if I didn’t know that already and I did not miss the ‘we’ in his exclamation. It was in other words, an invitation to join the conversation.

I faked a smile and nodded in approval. Asked a few formal questions like where he worked, his nature of job, etc. A little doubtful if I should befriend this stranger, I realised soon, that I was left with no choice. He started off jabbering whether I liked it or not, listened or not. I gave up hope and dropped my novel into the unending blackness of my bag too. I used the right exclamations at the right places. He did not seem to understand my subtle hints of disinterestedness even after I plugged myself back to music. His direct conversation with me, forced me to go off music every now & then. It was now time for my earphones to do down my bottomless bag. I then folded my hands across my chest and surrendered to his conversational onslaught which never seemed to get discouraged. His enthusiasm did not seem to get discouraged even by my hostile ‘don’t-know-what-you’re-talking-about’ body language too.
Then something that he spoke made me sit up and pay attention. He mentioned something about his interests in supernatural existences. He said he had experienced one himself, when he was once working late into the night in his office with no one to give him company. That was when he heard someone, a woman it sounded like, screaming and wailing. He was surprised by the proximity of the sound. It sounded as if he heard it from the room besides him. His gut feeling told him that not everything was fine on the floor. He was still thinking about what he had just heard, when the chair in front of him started rocking like as if someone was holding the back of the chair, pulling it backwards and then dropping it back to the floor with a thud! This happened at least 6-7 times before he got unnerved and fled from the place, all the while praying hard to God to get him out of the office before he fainted mid way… I was very skeptical to believe his story initially. He continued saying his Process Head, a woman named Kelly collapsed the following day after seeing something so horrifying that she could not remember what it was after being forcefully bought into consciousness, due to shock. He told me of another girl who came running and screaming out from the rest room, saying she saw a strange apparition on the ceiling of the restroom. It was much later, he said, that he learnt of the violent end that a laborer had met in that very place, where his office building now stood. He told me that such souls find no peace and that it would take a long time before they could attain salvation. I shrugged. He concluded by saying ghosts or spirits surely exist & that he has personally felt their presence on several occasions. I was very,very unsure if I had to believe whatever this stranger was telling me, but then something about this guy made me feel he was genuine & what he was talking about was also genuine. There was definitely some truth in what he had narrated. I was beginning to ponder over all that he had just shared with me and was also contemplating on asking him a question or two about it, just to confirm the truth in the stories.
But then it was his time to alight the bus. He bade a quick goodbye and went his way. I had not realized that I was now nearing my destination too, thanks to all the non stop talking of this stranger, it actually helped take my mind off the snail-paced journey. When I got off the bus and walked towards my office, I was re-running in my mind, all that this guy had told me about. I suddenly realized on an instinct, the hidden message of this whole incident that had happened.
Firstly, life was all about forgiving. It is as true as it is human to err. The more you hold on to a grudge, the more stronger, darker and meaner it  becomes. Like a great man had once said- “To be wronged is nothing, unless you continue to remember it”. We must always be quick to forgive our loved ones and not harbour any ill feelings towards anybody for that matter. The reason being- none of us know the exact tiME & place of our death. It could come suddenly, so suddenly that we might take time to even realise that we are no more now. We would never be able to move on from this life in peace. All our ill feelings, hatred, grudges would hold you back like gravity, not giving you a chance to leave these dark vibrations behind.
Secondly, I came across this stranger for a reason. He was there to subtly warn me from harboring any sad feelings towards love ones. Forgiving makes us light, it rids us off our emotional baggages and makes travel to another land (read: salvation) easy & light. The laborer woman who had died on this stranger’s office plot was still there- haunting the place because she was unable to let go, let go of her mortal remains, mortal existence, unwilling to forgive. This messenger in the bus today, warned me about what not to be doing. He happened for a reason and his purpose was achieved, for I turned out to be a good student and heeded to his far from direct, warning.
That evening, when I went home, I kissed and made up with my husband (much to his surprise, of course). He asked me confused, if I was possessed by some ghost or something, that was making me do all these unbelievable things. Adding more confusion to his already confused & perplexed mind, I smiled and replied that I was doing all these so I would not become one myself! 😉 I thanked the stranger in my mind and hoped that he would receive my thanks in the form of positive vibrations around him. He was a classic example of how even seemingly negligible incidents in our lives could mean a lot if only we paused to give them a second thought!

towards salvation…

Who’s laughing at Romeo & Juliet?

Of late I’ve come to notice a rather disturbing trend here. My cousin brother broke up with his 3^rd girlfriend in a matter of just 2 months and how does he do that? By updating his relationship status on his Facebook profile, it’s just as simple as that! That really astounded me big time. Loyalty, chivalry, fidelity, passion, – all now seemed like virtues of people from a lost world, say like Atlantis for something. Where has all the world’s passion gone? Where have these virtues disappeared to?

The dawn of the digital age, is perhaps to be blamed for this. Back then, the very term ‘love’ used to make our hearts flutter, there was something magical about that very term. And hey, just because I said ‘back then’, please don’t date me back to the Jurassic era or something. I’m talking about only a few years ago, say around 4-5 years ago or so, when technology hadn’t yet taken over mankind the way it has now, by storm. Today every second person you stumble upon, comes with a smart phone that is ever connected to the internet & the social networking sites. With this being the case, our youngsters today are so prone to getting into relationships, even before understanding that term correctly. Relationships are happening very fast and are dying an even faster death. Youngsters today cannot tell the difference between lust & love, and often mistake one for another. Facebook, Twitter, Google+, Whatsapp, etc are now connecting people like never before. Nobody from the past, is lost forever anymore. I recently stumbled upon my classmate from kindergarten on Facebook, how incredible is that!

Anyways, there used to be a time when relationships had to be carefully nurtured, in order for it to grow & thrive. The ones in love would long for just a glimpse of their loved ones. They’d wait endlessly to meet their loved ones, say, outside their college, at the bus station, by the roadside to get glimpse of their loved one who would peek out of her window stealthily. Their next meet would seem like years before it finally happened.  A love letter that ran into several pages or a photograph of a loved one, was treasured forever & stolen kisses were indeed the sweetest.

Today, a video chat is all it takes to establish a connection. Pings and instant messages that rarely communicate feelings, have today replaced letters of love. These pings & SMSs are all gone & are deleted before the next sunrise in order to make for some memory on the phone. Nothing lasts forever these days, not even love, for it comes with a very short validity time. With this being the case, where is the question of passion filled love letters or stolen kisses, when one night stands have become the order of the day?  Almost every college kid that I’ve come across today would have changed at least 3 partners before even completing just 2 years of college. You are looked at like an alien or some lunatic if you have stuck on to the same partner for more than 2 years. They term you a ‘Loser’,  a fancy word that a lot of youngsters like using these days. For them, even partners should be changed in accordance to the latest fashion & trends. If it is currently ‘in’ to have a ‘coy’ boyfriend or a girlfriend, then that’s what they have, but, when the trends change and if it is considered ‘cool’ to have a ‘wild’ partner, then that’s what they set out to hunt and get themselves for. They are now changing their partners as often as they would probably change their profile pictures on social networking sites. Guys and girls today want everything that is fashionable and that includes a trophy partner cum arm candy too. No wonder then, that Guys don’t passionately chase girls anymore ( I mean, in the good sense & in a romantic way), they are not even trying hard to woo the girls, ‘cos there are so many of them on a platter to choose from, waiting desperately to make them their boyfriends. Sensing this new trend, even these sites offer a wide number of relationship statuses to choose from like- it’s complicated, in an open relationship, separated, confused, in a love triangle, quadrangle, etc.

While some get into relationships just because its a ‘cool’ thing to do, some do it ‘cos they are desperate to prove a point to their friends and peers, some others do it just because they’ve got nothing better to do, it’s like – ‘i’m so bored! so why not get myself a boyfriend or a girlfriend’ types. And even before they realise, they are both headed to splits villa, in the shortest possible route that would take them there!

Weird parties that we had never heard of before, have now come into existence like ‘the break up party’, ‘the single again bash’, and ‘celebrate divorce’ parties etc., to celebrate a split from your partner or spouse!!! Good God, where are we heading, abandoning our ethics & morals? I’m not exaggerating when I say that these days, I haven’t seen a single, young relationship that has lived to celebrate its 2ndyear anniversary. People tell me that they split with their boyfriend or girlfriends, as casually as how they’d tell if they missed their bus, a bus that is available every 10 minutes.  This is something that I can never understand. Passion is nonexistent in relationships these days.

Shakespeare would have become a butt of these youngsters’ jokes & ridicules had he written his classic -‘Romeo & Juliet’ now & had he been around today. Thank God, he left the planet long before the rise of the digital hysteria. As if short term relationships are not enough, our youngsters these days want to try their hand at multi-tasking. And how do they do that? By two timing or sometimes three & even four timing their partners! Smart, aren’t they? At this rate I’m seriously beginning to suspect if the genes of our future generations would get altered forever. Altered to be unable to recognize or understand love, fidelity, loyalty & their meanings;  lines like ‘love you forever’ which they’d perhaps come across in some very old books. ‘Love’ and ‘forever’ according to them, just don’t go well together.

’til death do us part’

There used to be vows like- ‘till death do us part’. Today the same needs to edited to read or say ‘till a Tweet or an updated Facebook status do us part’! It is but a sad reality today. I wouldn’t be surprised if in future, people would look in awe, amazement and total surprise with their jaws dropped down to the ground, at the exhibit photographs of couples who lived together forever (till their deaths), like how we today look at the fossilized remains of a tyrannosaurus, mammoth or some other long perished species.

Meanwhile, I see- love, passion & romance; on their last legs, bidding us a sad adieu standing at the edge of our earth’s surface. But I am not reciprocating to them. No, not yet, for I don’t want to let them go. But at the same time I hope our youngsters don’t knock them all off the edge!

Long live the three! And please be around for as long the earth is…