Monday, 26 April 2010
Sunday, 18 April 2010
Love aaj Kal
The rose was eight years old. Desiccated, shriveled,
devoid of a scent; a mere shadow of itself. Like memories-faded with time. The
rose had appeared when he was searching his old diary.
Flow of Memories-As if formed like steam from a pot of boiling
water. Produced at once, unconsciously lifting up, and then spreading into the
thin air, into the invisible...
The possessor of the rose had held the most important place
in his life. That was eight years ago.
“I love you.” He had told her. He was blushing and frightened.
His palm was sweating. His heart was palpitating.
Long moments of silence.
“What da?” She looked into his eyes and asked, as if she
knew the outcome of this lunch together.As if she expected every man to propose
her after few lunches together.
“ I love you Mini. You are the most beautiful woman I have
seen in my life.”
She giggled. Her cheeks rosy now out of blushing.
“Sure? How about Aishwarya Rai?” She asked.
“ Ohhh, Common. I haven’t seen her.And she will just pale
before you. I swear.”
He was visibly embarrassed now.
“I wish I could enlarge your photograph and post it in my
room. Will you give me a photo of yours?”
“I will not give you.” She replied bluntly, though teasingly
to reduce the bluntness.
“ Mini. Do you love me?”
Long moments of silence. He was staring at her. She was
looking down at the ground.
He left the question unanswered, as if he never expected an
answer from her.
The Next six months of life passed, though separated for
weeks together and then to see each other on weekends. Daily telephone calls,
hours of conversations on mundane of all topics.-Birthdays, childhood, loneliness,
future.
He waited for her calls all day, though she called only in
the evenings. Everything else was irrelevant in life, except for her smile. Life
became a struggle for possession, though all possessions became immaterial. Songs,
Music, words, food, phrases had its association with her. The car her family
owned became the best car, her favorite food became the tastiest, her cloths
became the trendiest, colour of her skin
became the prettiest, her hairstyle the most stylish. He searched the
dictionary for the words she used- “how conversant she was”.
“Do I deserve her?” Once he asked himself. The serpent
called “self doubt” emerged out of him, for the first time.
He understood new connotations of the word ‘love’-Frustration,
resentment. He loved her like himself,
in fact more than himself, because he was not sure if he loved himself so much.
He demonstrated his love as a measurable, quantified essence. He devalued the expectations of reciprocation.
Yet he was frustrated. He was too human to understand that true-love was above
an expectation of reciprocation. True-love?
Was there also an un-true love ?
“You didn’t reply, Mini.” He asked her during a phone
conversation.
“What da?”
“I love you so much, I have told you that. I mean it Mini. I
love you so much.”He replied, with a tinge of frustration.
“ How much?” She asked giggling.
“Cut that”, He was furious now.
“I don’t know Manoj.” She replied.
“ I need more time.” She replied after a brief silence.
“ How much more Mini. I have waited for so long.What makes
you doubt me so much?” He asked.
“ No Manoj. I don’t doubt you.”
“Then? Whats the problem with you?”
“ I don’t deserve you.Manoj.”She replied.
“ WHAT? What makes you say that?”
“You are good. You would get someone really good.”
“ You are the best. I want you. There is noone good enough
for me. Its you, Mini. I love you. You are the best,Mini” He spoke with
calmness, with a saintly composure..
Long silence.
“ Can I trust you Manoj?” She asked.
“ Yes, Mini. Please. All I want in this world is you.
Nothing more.Trust me!” He replied.
She opened her heart to him.
“ I can never imagine getting married to anyone else Manoj.
I love him.”
“ But he used you. He used you and dumped you for someone
else Mini.Still?” He asked.
She smiled. He could hear her chuckle.
He wondered why? Do women smile overly when they are hurt-“ Tum Itna kyon Muskurarahe ho, Kya gam hein
jisko chupa rahe ho?” “How true?”
“ We made it twelve times a day
once.” She told him once, after a few weeks, during a lighthearted conversation.
He pretended indifference. His
heart was on fire.
“ He used me Manoj.All he wanted
was my body. And all those words and promises had no value.”
“ I love you Mini. All men are
not the same. I respect women. I hate men who look at women as an object of
desire. I seriously hate such men.” He replied.
He knew he meant every word he
had spoken. In fact, he had spoken only half of what he had meant; only if words
had the power to expose hearts. Bloody
words!
She smiled.
“
I don’t know Manoj. You will get a good girl. Much better than me. And
then you would think of all this as a joke. A big joke.”She giggled.
“ Stop It, Mini. I love you. I
can never love anyone the way I love you. I will only love you. Only once in my
life.” He replied, distraught now for being made to repeat.
Frustrations mounted with the
passage of time. His heart bled bloodlessly. It ached unsettlingly. World
stopped to amuse him. Nothing else mattered but her. Her attention was everything. He was starved
of her. The woman dumped by another man;
used as his object of desire. A woman who had no place in that man’s heart. And
he was starved of her love. How strange is this world? Someone else’s trash is
another mans aspiration.
“ Keep this rose. This is to
remind you of me. Otherwise you will forget me in no time.” She said chuckling,
her last words to him.
Climbing the train, he turned to
look at her once again, knowing that this would be the last time he would see
her. “A lifetime of not seeing her. Forever of not seeing her. Will never see
her again in my life.” Very Heavy words filled with sadness.
“What are you staring at?” A feminine
voice stirred him back to present.
“ Nothing. A Rose. I was wondering
how it came here?”He turned to look at his wife.
“Must have been given by some
girl. Isn’t it? The way you were staring at it.” She said teasingly.
He smiled at her. She smiled
back. He could never lie to his wife. He was plain incapable of doing it. If
she would have probed into his past he would have revealed everything. But she never
bothered herself.
He looked at his wife; that
beautiful smile of her. Brown eyes, lovely poise. “Could he live a day without
her?”.
A woman who presented herself to
him. A woman who gave him innumerable joy of a life time; in just a few years. A
woman who gave him a beautiful daughter whom he could call his. A new dimension
to life. A new rationale to life. A life
with a direction and speed limit.
“ Keep that flower back inside
the diary or throw it. The pollen could cause allergy to her.” His wife said,
directing towards his sleeping one year old daughter.
He crushed the rose in his palm and
threw into the thrash bin. He walked to his wife and hugged her-she struggling
to come out of his embrace.
“ Go away, the baby would awake.”
She said teasingly.
He looked once again at the
thrash bin.
“And then you would think of all this
as a joke. A big joke.” He grinned as if realizing the essence of a joke.
Tuesday, 13 April 2010
back to normal
Hi, I am out of depression and back to being myself. Thanks to one and all for showing concern and valuable comments....Will come back to read your blogs and write more . Just let me be out of this mess called boss's country visit coming Thursday.Until then Take good care of yourself and ciao.
Please checkout this video untill i return to this space.....
Please checkout this video untill i return to this space.....
Saturday, 10 April 2010
depression
I am back to being depressed…I doubt if I have clinical depression, which is thought to be a mental illness. I am sure I need to get my
head serviced…But having said that, I somehow, in a strange sometimes-you-love-things-you-hate-the-most
way, love being depressed. Being depressed makes me self centered. It makes me
feel that my happiness and out-of-depression is the most important thing in
life. It makes me empathize with people who are deeply depressed and are contemplating
suicide.
When I am depressed I am reminded: “death is the ultimate
truth, an inevitable part of life and is in its own way a moment to rejoice”.
It makes me restless. No amount of sleep makes me rested; I still look tired
and restless. At least my eyes say so.
It makes me theoretical. I see being part of the cosmos.
I feel I have been in existence all throughout and would continue to live through
infinity.May be as a stone, or dust.
When depressed,
things like money or wealth cease to hold their perceived significance. The
feeling sinks that no amount of wealth can bring that feeling of security in my
life. I start to wonder if true happiness is a feeling of security ? Why do I feel
so insecure? Why do I feel as if I have no-one? Will more wealth bring more
security? Will I need body guards, to prevent depressions from grabbing me?
Another interesting feeling when depressed is the feeling
that world has no future. It feels as if world would end very soon, perhaps due
to our own actions. World would have no petrol in next fifty years. We would
have no water to drink, some nuclear power would attack another nuclear
country. World would not hold for more than a hundred years. It all would end
very soon. Yes, Depression makes me think this way, though rationale says
otherwise.
But the worst feature of being depressed is the feeling
that I am worthless. I am insignificant. Each of the nearly 6 billion humans
are important to the world, except me. I feel as if noone loves me or is concerned
about me. Everything is just a big, well scripted drama. Everyone has fractional memories, noone has
time for me.I am just a part of a huge crowd, moving in certain path, though purposeless
and devoid of any motif.
Am I the only one who gets depressed on and off?or am i too open and over-honest in admitting? Does it
happen to you as well? Or am i passing through mid-life crisis?
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