It’s best to be alone
30 Jun 2012 3:01 AM GMT
How seamless seemed love and then came trouble.
I wonder what was in Hafez’s mind when he wrote this verse but sure it does strike a cord in ways life is entwined.
Living in a city full of strangers, somewhere you would always need a friend who is above other friends and who would actually feel responsible to you, said my friends [subject to exceptions]. To cut it short, I believe it meant you should get a boyfriend.
That takes me to an incident where I almost shed my celibacy to ride to ‘the real world’, as my dear friends would say. Constantly over the phone with my best friend and it was obvious he was special. Rumour had it that I am actually falling into the deep waters of love. My friends had already predicted my last days of ‘singlehood’. Funny thing, even I was convinced that I had unknowingly fallen into the pit of love.
Surprisingly, it felt nice, the feeling of falling in love. I was wondering did the moon look any bigger? Hell no! Or the breeze blowing into my face? Big no! It was just the hot loo in Delhi giving me dry skin.
But whatever it was, the idea of falling in love was beautiful, as a poet might say about any natural thing. It’s as simple as the leaves falling in autumn. But in actuality a poet never reminds you that after the great fall, awaits doomsday.
What next is the reality which hits you real hard. What you actually call love is a boiling pot of sarcasm, insecurity, nagging and the age-old problem of understanding.
Actually this complicates things. For a man, logic is more important and to a girl love is all hunky-dory. Till it makes sense, a guy is all in and for a girl he becomes the centre of her world.
So where does one draw the line? It is big stroke to friendship, shoved into the realm of loneliness. Friends seemed distant. It’s your fight, as someone would put it. Whining, moodiness are some of the symptoms one could associate when Cupid’s arrow strikes.
All of a sudden something struck me. Luckily it was not Cupid, it was intelligence that dawned. Was not the sake of getting lonely the sole reason to fall in love? Oh yes, it was, and it felt like ‘Eureka’. The grass is always greener on the other side. How did I miss that. Does one really need to make this transition?
Love dissociates people from friends and paradoxically makes one very lonely. When love got out of my system, I actually realised that being single, is a lot more responsible. Juggling a job and living your life itself is one hell of a task. Sanely thinking, I realised love is all good in fairy tales but sometimes it leaves me thinking, how would the prince and princess be happy forever. Doesn’t the fairy tale actually start where the story ends? May be there could be a sequence of hereafter the happy ending.
Refreshing as it sounds, I took a deep breath once again, and decided its best to be single in the city.
I wonder what was in Hafez’s mind when he wrote this verse but sure it does strike a cord in ways life is entwined.
Living in a city full of strangers, somewhere you would always need a friend who is above other friends and who would actually feel responsible to you, said my friends [subject to exceptions]. To cut it short, I believe it meant you should get a boyfriend.
That takes me to an incident where I almost shed my celibacy to ride to ‘the real world’, as my dear friends would say. Constantly over the phone with my best friend and it was obvious he was special. Rumour had it that I am actually falling into the deep waters of love. My friends had already predicted my last days of ‘singlehood’. Funny thing, even I was convinced that I had unknowingly fallen into the pit of love.
Surprisingly, it felt nice, the feeling of falling in love. I was wondering did the moon look any bigger? Hell no! Or the breeze blowing into my face? Big no! It was just the hot loo in Delhi giving me dry skin.
But whatever it was, the idea of falling in love was beautiful, as a poet might say about any natural thing. It’s as simple as the leaves falling in autumn. But in actuality a poet never reminds you that after the great fall, awaits doomsday.
What next is the reality which hits you real hard. What you actually call love is a boiling pot of sarcasm, insecurity, nagging and the age-old problem of understanding.
Actually this complicates things. For a man, logic is more important and to a girl love is all hunky-dory. Till it makes sense, a guy is all in and for a girl he becomes the centre of her world.
So where does one draw the line? It is big stroke to friendship, shoved into the realm of loneliness. Friends seemed distant. It’s your fight, as someone would put it. Whining, moodiness are some of the symptoms one could associate when Cupid’s arrow strikes.
All of a sudden something struck me. Luckily it was not Cupid, it was intelligence that dawned. Was not the sake of getting lonely the sole reason to fall in love? Oh yes, it was, and it felt like ‘Eureka’. The grass is always greener on the other side. How did I miss that. Does one really need to make this transition?
Love dissociates people from friends and paradoxically makes one very lonely. When love got out of my system, I actually realised that being single, is a lot more responsible. Juggling a job and living your life itself is one hell of a task. Sanely thinking, I realised love is all good in fairy tales but sometimes it leaves me thinking, how would the prince and princess be happy forever. Doesn’t the fairy tale actually start where the story ends? May be there could be a sequence of hereafter the happy ending.
Refreshing as it sounds, I took a deep breath once again, and decided its best to be single in the city.
Next Story
