If.......................

If I could make you see

How beautiful you are to me

Would you be mine, for all eternity?

If I could make you feel

And realize my love for you is real

Would that seal our deal?

If I could make you sing

Make you shout out in joy and give you wings

Would you fly over to me ?

If I can make you smile

I’d consider it worth my while

If I can make you blush

Just maybe a momentary rush

It’d be enough to make me gush

And be proud of myself and say..

Finally I’ve made my own day!

Not Your LoveFool

I gave you my heart, my soul, my all
And stood by you, unflinching and tall
While you made up your mind, only to change it again
It never once occurred to me, that maybe for you, love was just a game.

To think that all I sought was your love in return
Only to find myself being left to rot and burn.
But I braced myself through every emotional squall
And when the time came, I willingly took the fall................
All the while not caring about how much I hurt inside,
Knowing only too well that I was just another muse to you,
That you’d soon leave my side.

Although everyone around me could clearly see
The truth of what you were doing to me
I turned a blind eye, I kept the faith going strong
Telling myself that this can never go wrong.

And finally when you turned your back on me,
Choosing to walk away (with someone else)...
Did you seriously believe that I would stay...
Keep waiting for you, forever and a day..?

Sure, I gave you all the time and space you needed,
And through it all, I kept my cool..
But that's not to say, I'm your lovefool !
That's not to say I'm your lovefool...
No, I am Not Your Lovefool ……………...!

Can't Keep You Away From Me

I can't seem to get you outta my head..
From the time I open my eyes, till the time I get back to bed,
I keep thinking of you all through the day
For even the most disparate things all connect back to you, someway.

As sleep eludes me, fear engulfs me
And I tell myself this can't be true....
That despite myself, I'm falling for you.

I made a promise (to myself), a solemn one
That I wouldn't court love, till kingdom come
I denied myself the very thought and God knows I've tried so hard,
But what good is one's resolve, when alas, I've played out all my cards?

The truth is that we won't admit it, we both try to hide
That which we mutually feel for one another, deep down inside
And while we shy away from love like it's wrong
Each day that passes us by, makes it grow strong.


Then again, like me, you have your reasons
And you prefer to deny it too,
But beleive you me, if it's meant to be
Even YOU can't keep you away from me.

Abstractions ...

It has increasingly become clear of late, that I’ve somehow assumed all along that abstractions take away from the revelation of what is real and what is but the entire truth. And today I feel that I may have been very wrong in thinking that. Which is what makes me admit that it was possibly just an assumption after all. Yes, abstractions certainly help mask the underlying truth to a fair or even a great extent, but the fact as such, that we seek to mask, remains, as is. For nothing can take away from what is actually real and the absolute truth. And although there seems to be a certain level of security in seeking refuge behind a façade of abstraction, the question that resurfaces time and again is – why does one really need to mask the truth under a pile of cleverly crafted sentences? Is it because we are afraid that acceptance of the truth, as is, may not really be forthcoming? Or is it because, somewhere at the back of our minds we still seek the approval of oh so many ?! How does it really matter at the end of the day, how many people really accept you for who and what you really are ? In your time of need, in that hour of raw, vulnerable desperation, where were all these people hiding, those whose nods of explicit approval seem to suddenly matter in a business that is very clearly none of theirs? The more I think of it now, the more foolish or even wasted all the effort put into making things abstract really seems. And the only comfort and satisfaction that I can take away from all this is that, despite the varied degrees of abstraction, there was sincerity in every worded-emotion and a world of genuine heartfelt feelings and thoughts, still expressed. And the very fact that this piece in itself is so abstract goes to prove that the bull is still hard to confront by it’s horns. Who knows how long it will take before all of this can be revealed in clear and lucid terms, terms that the world at large will understand with just a mere glance?. For clearly, the complexities that constitute the individual that each one of us is, is not something that can be unraveled, addressed, sorted and put aside in a day, a week, a year or may be even in a decade.  And even as we discuss this, albeit in abstract terms, the audience to this may dwindle in number but the individuality that remains steadfast and self-assured in its own right, shall never diminish in intensity or fade away. It shall always exist in the form and of the nature it was truly meant to be.  A candle can be put out by a gust of strong wind, but the darkness that it once dispelled cannot be denied. So it is with us beings, be it you or me. Our words, thoughts or actions, even our very mortal frames can be put out and silenced, but the individuality that defined the impact we had on the world around us can never be denied. And with this, I shall put to rest any conflict that may have risen in my mind as regards the ongoing game of abstractions.

Basking in the here and now!

You stopped and turned to look in my direction and I wasn’t even sure it was me you were looking at,

All of me wanted to believe that it was indeed me, that your eyes longed to behold, your fingers wanted to caress and arms wanted to hold,

But then again I couldn’t be too sure; I didn’t know what to believe in anymore.

For how else could I explain all that was happening to me?

Just when I thought it was all over, and that I’d come up against a closed door.

But then you had your own mysterious ways and you turned things around

For left just to me, I’d have crumbled to the ground

You lifted my spirits, my hopes, my very soul.

And once again there was sunshine in my lackluster world, once again I was whole.

As days go by, I can’t help but dread that this too shall pass someday

And that all good things may well come to an end

But I fight hard to focus and put those thoughts at bay

For it’s not just about a tomorrow that may never come but about savoring all I’ve got today.

An Ode to Mirijana

Memories return but they’re just flashes
All vivid like yesterday but still…
I turn to hold you and stumble into sheer emptiness
Grabbing desperately onto nothingness I plunge against my will
And once again my whole world crashes.

Mirijana come to me, I know you can hear my song
Doesn’t matter how great the distance between us
Heed not the time that’s gone
All we need is to find each other
For together is where we belong!

A lifetime can change a lot for mankind
But let not one go by with the two of us apart
Put aside the fears that may plague your mind
And just follow the call of your heart.

For I sit and wait for you, my Mirijana
Each day from dawn to dusk
Longing and pining for the love I’ve lost.
Wishing that somehow you would seek me out again
And help me reclaim my distant past

But time only ticks away as absolute stillness surrounds me
And loneliness only grows with each passing day
But something inside me tells me
That we’ll find one another, somehow, someday, someway.

Of Visions and Missions or of Love and Longing..... Or of Life Itself

 Along the shores in the pale moonlight, the slender silhouette of a woman walks slowly and seemingly endlessly until the colossal shadow of a ship emerges over the horizon. As the ship moves closer and the shores become visible to those on board, she stops and turns to face the dark waters beyond the sandy beach. And then she throws a silent, expressionless glance my way and I instantly know that she’s beckoning me to dock my ship and come ashore.

I am the master of my mighty vessel, yet not a master of my own mind. I have to fight hard not to look in her direction though I know it's only a matter of time before I succumb to the lure of something inexplicable and surrender with all I've got. My eyes capture every move she makes. It’s the same nocturnal ritual each time. But still, I stand on the deck transfixed, as if it is the very first time such a sight is unfolding before my eyes. In a shimmering white dress, with her long lustrous hair blowing in the direction of the wind, she walks on towards the dark woods beyond, barefoot, not looking back till she reaches the very edge of it. Then she turns around and gives me another brief look and I know it’s time for me to follow suit.

While many people dread me and my band of men as the most notorious pirates these waters have ever witnessed, I consider all of us to be warriors fighting for a cause, fighting for our people in our own way. The men I have on board with me are the best I could have ever sought. For each man here is willing to put down his life if it comes to it, fighting to the very last. The cause for which we plunder, no other man may ever understand and it matters not who does. They say the invasion is still on in those distant shores but we believe only what we see whenever a shipload of soldiers comes our way. By principle we don’t hurt the women and children on board. Thankfully it never comes to that and you’ll know why soon enough. And by principle again, we don’t attack any other ship except for the ones that ferry the men in red and white. Yes, we are in a league of our own! We only fight and conquer those men who are mighty warriors themselves on land but mere rag dolls in our hands. We do not seek any great wealth that may come our way, for all the gold and silver in the world cannot fill the void that has become our lives. All we seek is vengeance.
The moonlight fades as we move deeper into the woods and only in parts can one see a sliver of white where the foliage is not so dense. But I don’t need any light. She is the beacon of silver that lights my path. And I silently follow her till we come to a clearing in the woods, the only place on the island perhaps where one can seek to be in absolute solitude. For surrounding us on all sides are wild beasts and creatures of the night, which for some strange reason keep away from this very clearing. She continues to walk until she finally merges with two wooden logs fastened together in the form of a cross. At this very moment, a familiar numbing pain sears through every cell in my body and I fall down in a heap over a mound of hard earth.

It’s all still fresh on my mind like yesterday. One moment we were a happy couple enjoying a quiet evening meal in our cottage. The very next moment, that sense of tranquility was shattered by heavy pounding on our door, almost bringing it down. One look outside the window confirmed that all was not well around. It seemed like our entire village had been set ablaze and flames were soaring high, not too far from where our modest cottage stood waiting its turn. That we were doomed was perhaps certain from the very first instant when we realized that our village and the surrounding farming lands were under attack by soldiers of some foreign land. But we were not ones to give up and surrender so easily. Some of us fortunately found our escape route through the high seas and pulled away from our otherwise idyllic village and set sail to a destination and fate that was as yet unknown.
As I drifted in and out of pain that seemed so physical and so real, I fought hard to overcome the grief that engulfed me. My sweet ----- , she couldn’t really be gone, could she ? This simply wasn’t real. This had to be some kind of nightmare. For how else could I still be alive without my loving wife and soul mate beside me? How could such an angel who filled my days with laughter, my dull moments with cheer, my disappointments with fresh hope and my life with absolute bliss, be gone now forever? If only I could wake up from this, only to discover the nightmare’s finally over!
We sailed on for days, with depleting food supplies. There was a point in time when we had to let go of our very own as the weak and the sick perished with the passage of time. But we still didn’t have any land in sight. But, for those of us who survived it all, a more terrible fate was in store. It must have been a fortnight after we set sail from our village and it finally looked as if we might be approaching land. And needless to say, our joys knew no bounds when we actually did. But those joys were to be short lived. For the very next morning, we were discovered by those very men in red and white who’d attacked and destroyed our homes and taken over all the assets we ever possessed. If they had just stopped at that, we might have been able to forgive them a lot sooner. But as fate would have it, they preyed on our womenfolk and killed our young. By the end of it all, there were just a handful of us men, wounded badly and awaiting death to come and reunite us with those we’d just lost. But as fate would have it again, we survived. To tell the tale and to avenge the death of our loved ones.
I weep and wail like a human possessed. I tear at the ground with my bare hands like a mad man. Grief knows no logic. It’s not meant to. It only needs to be vented out, if not to completely disappear at one go, at least so as to make it subside until the next time. In a distance I can hear the roar of the ocean. And I know my comrades await my return. They need me, their commander, to lead them and fight with them, until the very last ship of soldiers in red and white have met a similar end, as did our kith and kin. As I said, I am a warrior by my own right. I have duties to fulfill, fierce battles at sea to be fought. So I pick myself up and make my way back slowly but surely, towards the shore…

It’s rather ironical that we start out loving another, not by choice but by fate or whatever else that makes it happen. And sometimes the very object of our affections may be snatched away from us by a cruel twist of fate. But when this happens, we can choose to let go and move on or else to continue to love and long, pointless as it may seem to all others around. Thus, a love that started out as one that was not by choice would then become the only choice we would care to make.

                                                                                              

She Said It All, When She Said Nothing At All

It is not everyday that someone walks into your life, changes the very way you view your own life and leaves a lasting impression when they eventually walk away. But when that does happen, you know that you have been truly blessed and that your life has been enriched and will never be the same again. Let this piece below be a tribute to one such person, for making all the difference in my life, albeit unwittingly.

Staring out into the darkness that loomed over the vast meadows before me, I waited eagerly for the break of dawn to bring with it a glimpse of what constituted my sole purpose for living. An orphan, born and raised on a farm as a farm-hand, I had not much in the way of a really meaningful existence. Each day was just another uneventful routine and signified nothing more than back-breaking work all day on the farm, in order to earn my keep. And all of this changed the day I first spotted her. The day that added new meaning to my otherwise dull and dreary life.

It started out as just another ordinary day, with me going about my usual chores around the farm. It was not until evening when my uncle, a distant relative to be precise, on whose farm I stayed and worked, came rushing up to me and told me that Jack, who usually took the sheep out grazing had hurt himself rather badly and thus while he was still indisposed, I had to take over the responsibility. Herding and tending to animals had somehow come naturally to me. Perhaps it was another thing that I had inherited from my parents, who had been farm-hands all their lives, until an epidemic outbreak of influenza took them both away from me. It was nothing short of a miracle that I survived, considering I was a weak and helpless toddler at the time. I suppose that was the first indication that something rather significant was ahead of me and that I had to survive to experience it all.

I set aside the buckets of water that I was carrying back to the farm from the brook and hurried to the pen to guide the sheep to the meadows, before it got too dark to take them out. We had just one sheep-dog on the farm to help with the twenty-odd sheep that we had. But thankfully, he was one sharp and efficient fellow, more than compensating for the lack of more. No sooner had we reached the usual grazing spot on the meadows, at the edge of the woods, all the sheep started dispersing in different directions, each finding its own individual patch of grass to chew on. I sat myself on a rock, not too far away from the scattered flock, from where I had a complete view of each and every sheep. Marshall, the sheep-dog, settled down at my feet, while keeping an alert eye open for the first signs of trouble, should there be any.

It must have been sometime after the first couple of minutes of my getting accustomed to sitting idle, a stark contrast to the other chores back on the farm, that I saw a dark form, at a distance, moving out from behind a clump of trees in the woods. As the form moved closer, and out of the dimly lit woods, it became apparent that it was a young lady, about the same age as me. There was something about the way she carried herself. Something ethereal about her every move, as she seemed to glide effortlessly across the meadow with a bundle of twigs tucked under her arm. I realized that I was gazing at her, oblivious to the bleating sheep around. My head felt light, as a strange feeling I had never experienced before, engulfed me and I simply stood there transfixed, till her beautiful, delicate frame gradually disappeared in the direction of the village.

The next morning I was back at the meadows, grazing sheep again. I fought hard not to fall asleep after having spent a rather restless night tossing around on my hay-bed in the barn that doubled as my lodgings. I was just beginning to nod off despite myself, when Marshall began to bark rather loudly. I sat bolt upright almost immediately, only to find that Marshall was already bolting after what looked like a wild dog, that was making a hasty retreat into the woods. Within a minute or two, I saw Marshall trotting back, looking satisfied with himself, having warded off a potential threat to the flock. Not far behind him emerged another figure, that of a woman. It was the same one that had me mesmerised the previous evening. Again the sight of her had me spellbound and rooted to the spot. At that point, the only sound I could hear was that of my pounding heart; the only sight that filled my eyes was that of her magnificent and graceful form.

The same trend continued for days on end. Each day at the break of dawn and then again at dusk she’d make her way to the woods to gather firewood. I knew not anything at all about her, but I yearned to get to know all there was to her. With each passing day, my fascination for the lass who came to gather firewood grew. Between the time when I took the sheep out to graze at dawn and then again in the evening just before sunset, it became quite hard for me to concentrate on much else and do justice to any other task at hand. I had never been so slack about my work on the farm, but this was something that was totally beyond my control, way beyond my comprehension even. Something had simply taken over the reins of my life and controlled my every thought and resulting action. I’d often find myself lost in my own sweet reveries of the mysterious beauty who had unwittingly added profound significance to my very existence. But most importantly, it was a warm and welcome feeling and for the first time in so many years I was experiencing the deepest sense of contentment and joy and I found myself thanking my stars for keeping me alive long enough to experience and savour such a magical period of my life. Thus, what had started out as just another duty assigned to me by my uncle and master, had now become the only one I ever wanted to do all life long, if it meant that I would get treated to a glimpse of her each day while I was at it. I was now secretly hoping that Jack would not return too soon to reclaim his job of grazing sheep. I now longed to be the shepherd boy I never thought I would one day be.

And today, after almost seven months since I first saw her coming out of the woods, I had my mind all made up to finally speak to her. In my mind, I had rehearsed over a thousand times, the exact words I would say to her. And so I waited, seated on the same rock in the meadows, well before the crack of dawn, alone and feeling all unsure and jittery.

She did not disappoint my keen anticipation of her arrival, for with the first rays of sunlight, she appeared over the horizon, making her way dutifully towards the woods. I rose from my perch, and wobbled for a bit as my legs felt like jelly. All of a sudden my throat had turned dry and my vision was all hazy. It was like I had become numb all over. All the same, I managed to trudge on, as fast as my wobbly legs could take me, in her direction.

I am not sure if she’d ever taken notice of me in all these months, although occasionally I had spotted her looking in my general direction. I wished with all I had, which was not very much to start with, that I would accomplish what I’d set out to do and that it would not all be in vain. A part of me was fighting the urge to turn around and retreat in sheer nervousness. For I had never, until then, interacted as such with any woman, other than with a select few on the farm only when work demanded that I converse with them and the very thought of approaching and talking to one as ravishing and exquisite as her, was simply mind-blowing.

I walked on and soon found myself barely a few feet away from her. I was not certain if she’d heard me approaching, but at that very moment, she stopped in her tracks and turned around. Our eyes met and at that very second, all else around was reduced to just a blur.

 I found myself at a desperate loss for words, as my mind drew a blank. I fumbled for words and ended up mumbling incoherently. As I struggled to recall the sentences I had rehearsed so many times over, I realized that my hopeless attempt at finding words, coupled with the very obvious, tell-all expression that I bore on my face, had made it all apparent to her. It was as if she had read me right then, like a book, without me having to help her with words. Almost instantly, there was a drastic change in her expression; I couldn’t quite comprehend what exactly that expression meant. She looked all shaken up in a way but at the same time it could just as well have been plain anguish that I saw on her face. I simply did not know what to make of it. But it did seem like her mind was trying to process a thousand conflicting thoughts, all at the same time. It was as if she wanted to say something and was looking for the right words to express whatever was in her mind, but at the same time she seemed to have opted to say it all through expressions. Sometimes, especially at times like this, a lot of emotions and sentiments can be exchanged between two people without having to say a thing. It’s hard to explain but it’s like you somehow feel and understand exactly what the other person is feeling and thinking. And that was precisely what happened between us, right then.  As I stood there motionless for the nth time in her presence, she seemed to hesitate, but only for a moment, before she took a step forward in my direction and took me right into her arms. I must say that it was the warmest, longest and the nicest embrace ever! Some experiences in life just seem to surpass all others and this was one such phenomenal experience of a lifetime for me. I wanted those precious few minutes that we held onto each other to last forever; I wanted us to be frozen in time at that very place and disposition.

But alas, hoping and wishing is all one can do and what ultimately happens is entirely up to that Greater Force that’s overseeing and orchestrating it all. For as abruptly as she had taken me into her arms, she let me go. She then took a gentle step back, looked imploringly into my eyes, again with the same incomprehensible expression on her face and then without uttering a single word, turned around and walked away into the dark woods beyond, leaving me in absolute silence and stillness, feeling dazed and lost in a world of my own, right where I stood.

Seasons of Change

On a cold winter’s evening, I sat beside the window, the blinds drawn out, gazing out at the falling snow, as it piled up high on my front drive. It was only the beginning of winter and I already felt numb all over. The blazing logs in the furnace did not do much to drive that sense of numbness away. Probably because this had a lot more to do with my state of mind at the moment, which matched the gloomy, bleak atmosphere around.  

Exactly a week before, I’d received a note from my friend, telling me that the festivities had taken off and concluded on an unsullied note (for which I was glad and relieved) and that he was back home to oversee the renovation of his store. The ‘festivities’ in question here was that of a wedding, one that I had consciously avoided. In hindsight, maybe I should have attended. Maybe, in a way, it would have helped put a closure to things. But fearing further complications in an already complicated matter, I shied away from it. And on a more personal and selfish level, the reality of it all was too harsh for me to confront. I could not bring myself to accept that it was finally happening; that my beloved … was now marrying another man, not so much by choice as by the pressures of circumstances, that were probably once in my hands to take control of and change. But now, the seasons had already changed.

It was only this spring that I first met her. Introduced by common friends while I was out to do my apprenticeship in the city, our acquaintanceship soon turned to friendship and before we knew it, we were deeply in love with each other.

By mid-summer, we were already seeing each other, at first in a more covert fashion and then more openly as we gained familiarity with the circle of mutual friends we’d made over the months. She was in the city attending finishing school while boarding at her uncle’s place and meeting her meant that we had to steer away from all those places that were frequented by members of her uncle’s family and without rousing any of their suspicions by the hours we kept. Despite the restrictions we had, we still managed to spend all our time in the company of each other, while we were otherwise not busy with our respective purpose for being in the city, to start with. All summer long we enjoyed countless hours just wandering around hand-in-hand in the park or on boat-trips to places nearby. Occasionally, we even got to meet late evening or at night when her uncle’s family was away for a day or two. Such rendezvous were extra special as we could rent a boat all to ourselves and then paddle out into the middle of the lake and spend the rest of the evening together, whispering endlessly to each other in the stillness all around, while gazing at the starlit sky or even ride out to the valley and spend time there, with my banjo and her enchanting voice in tow. And thus, by the time summer had come to an end, to say that we had become inseparable would have been an understatement.

With the onset of autumn came in a slew of fresh challenges. With her sojourn in the city coming to an end and my apprenticeship still on, it meant that she would return to her own home in the countryside while I would continue to stay on in the city, for a while. This is turn meant inevitable separation, a thought that neither of us could bear and a discussion that we’d mutually evaded thus far, for the mere thought of it was painful for the two of us. And when it did come upon us, neither of us was prepared. The first few days of her going away were the hardest. Our friends had to constantly hold me back each time I almost packed my bags and decided to call it quits in the city, leaving my apprenticeship unfinished. I finally had my mind all made up to approach her father and seek her hand in marriage when I received the heartbreaking news. A mutual friend, who happened to be visiting a relative close to her place, brought me a letter she had hastily penned before he returned to the city. My beloved’s father had now decided that it was time for his youngest daughter to marry and with the thought had even sought out a groom for her. Without giving much thought to what she had to say, her family had even set a date for the wedding at the end of autumn. To say that the news just shocked me would be underplaying it. I hadn’t expected things to take such a drastic turn, at such short notice. As my mind raced, desperately seeking a way out of the turn of events, a single line at the bottom of the note she had written me, caught my eye. It simply said ‘It’s still not too late, come get me and we will together seek out a new life someplace else’. That very sentence initiated a huge conflict in my mind. While on one hand I felt should leave right away and go get her, another part of me kept telling me that eloping was not the right thing to do. Eventually I decided to go speak to her family anyway and seek their consent to us getting married. To my mind, that was the only right thing to do! With the falling autumn leaves leaving a colourful trail behind me on my path, I set out to claim what I believed was rightfully mine; to claim a missing part of me that would make me complete again.

Arriving at her country home, I must say I wasn’t very welcome. To start with, I was introduced to the family as a friend of her’s from the city. Within the next couple of days I had gotten to know each member of her family and they all seemed to view my relationship with her, with considerable suspicion. And rightly so, for mere friends we certainly were not. Soon I had gathered enough wits about me to have ‘the conversation’ with her parents. No sooner had I broached the subject with them, was I strongly opposed with an almost immediate and vehement rejection. They wouldn’t hear any of what I had to say thereafter. If I was an unwelcome guest before, I had suddenly been further demoted to the status of a sworn enemy. As I found myself thrown out almost literally from their home, I suddenly realized that while I still loved her very much and would never be the same without her, I no longer had it in me to put up a fight and make my claim. With dejection written all over me, I retraced my footsteps.

And today as I sit on what has become my constant perch beside the window and look out at the falling snow yet again, I feel a vast emptiness inside of me. I had, despite myself, let the moment pass. I had, of my own accord, let my only chance at a meaningful life, just slip away. Perhaps I should’ve have heeded her words and eloped with her. And had I done that, right now I would not have found myself in this miserable, ‘shattered and numbed beyond recovery’ state.

The change of seasons had, with them, brought about a lifetime of change in me and in my life. I was no longer the same person I used to be a year ago. The seasons of change had finally caught up with me for good.

A Miracle called Friendship

I have often wondered about the miracle that is Friendship. I’d like to call it a miracle for that’s exactly how it seems when it touches your life in the most unexpected and mysterious of ways. And each time I’ve tried to fathom how or what makes it turn out to be the way it does in the end, I’ve drawn a blank. For many a times we may aspire to get to know someone better because we feel instinctively connected to that someone on a certain level that most others wouldn’t even get close to, the very first time we meet them. But it may happen that we later realize that somehow those first few moments when we felt that connect, may have been misguiding after all, as we discover that we are actually two very different people. At other times, what may start out as just a casual acquaintance that you don’t pay much attention to initially, or even the first few times, may well turn out to be the strongest bond you’ve ever shared with another human being who is not your next of kin or blood relative. Such is the quality of friendship. It may come to you from totally unforeseen quarters but once it has touched your life, your life is never quite the same again! Just like miracles that turn your life around completely when they happen.
As I think deeper on the subject, my mind comes up with an image of a nest with fledglings in it. It may all seem unconnected at first but I feel that one can draw many parallels to that image in relation to the whole concept of friendship, if we really look at it from angles to which I intend to introduce you to now. Just like fledglings in a nest we embark on the first few formative years of our lives, by placing our trust completely in the other fledglings around in the nest. The bonhomie naturally exists. This is at a point in time when the outside world is absolutely shut out and way beyond our understanding and perception. Blind faith in one another and acceptance are the dominant factors that prevail at this stage. In most cases, the nest is analogous to the portals of our schools where everyone starts out together as equals, sheltered from the harsh world outside. At this juncture in life, our minds are still young, fresh, untainted and open to the idea of unconditional acceptance. We don’t evaluate, judge or appraise another simply because these are still alien concepts to us at this point. It is still not plagued by the ills of the vast world outside. There is no room for initial mistrust to start with, nor is there a whole lot of speculation or a tread-with-caution attitude. Everything is mostly just black and white here. Shades of grey are barely visible. In the sense, you either get along or you don’t. And it’s not because your getting along with another and making friends with him/ her is influenced by any other ulterior motive. It is not coloured by what may turn out to be beneficial and what may not. Simple and straightforward, it’s friendship in its purest form, if it exists between two people. And together you learn to share, to care and be genuinely interested in the other. Thereby, it’s no wonder that some of the best friends we have are those that we made early on, in school.
As time goes by and the fledglings start discovering their wings, and explore the extent to which those wings can take them, the influence of the outside world creeps in. Just like when you and I probably stepped out into college and realized that things still seem the same, people are still somewhat open to the idea of new friendships but not exactly with the same openness or enthusiasm. The ground is now set for a more self-centered picking. With maturity has now come a certain amount of speculation followed by selection. You figure out who you are now and then decide which group you belong with. Your school group of friends may have had nerds and party animals alike, for instance, and it didn’t matter. You all got along just fine. Here that kind of heterogeneous mingling may not find place as you may decide you don’t belong with the nerd herd or that you simply cant afford to hang out with the gang that’s most notorious around campus. Self awareness brings about the need to fit in and make a mark. Blending in with any crowd just may not work.
Finally when a full grown bird flies out to face the real challenges of the world, as do the human counterparts that are readying to start with their work lives, a lot more hard reality hits. You literally get welcomed into a new world, a world where people are neither open nor really keen to even know you personally, leave alone making friends with you! Even if you do approach someone with the idea of building a friendship, like you did back during your student days, you soon get a feel of how the real world works. Realizing that someone you considered a friend and bared your thoughts to openly at your workplace, is actually misusing that information elsewhere to strengthen their stand in the organization, now cuts you like a knife. But soon you too get accustomed to the ways of the world for what it is. It's now a matter of blend in with the crowd or else prepare to stick out like a sore thumb kind of situation. Taking a great amount time to get to gradually get to know people before you build any bonds or make any commitments may not be the only addition to the way you begin to deal with your personal relationships. One may also begin to include a whole lot of other tactics that include more than a fair share of caution, if not a general mistrust of all one meets for the first time at the work spot, if only to protect oneself from being hurt and letdown. Then that could be followed by evaluation as to whether it’s going to work in your favour or whether it'll prove to be detrimental as far as your interests go. In other words, friendship has lost the meaning you once thought it had. It has become just another causal word in your everyday life. If there is any new bond to be forged you learn to look for it outside the workplace. The adult bird at this point has figured out exactly which tree to build his nest in and who may or may not come near his nest, who he needs to be wary of and scare away.

  In conclusion what I’d like to say is that despite how time and the places life takes us to change the way we bond with people, friendship could still walk into your life. And as I said earlier, it happens in the most mysterious of ways and maybe with someone totally unexpected or even when you least expect it to. And when it does, embrace it with an open mind for it could be synonymous with a miracle happening in your life.

The Key to Happiness - It's All In Our Minds

The old man sat at the edge of his bed, his legs not quite reaching the floor below. He was once a fairly tall man, able-bodied and agile. But now he was just a shriveled, gaunt frame, his back bent twice over in his old age because of which he appeared much shorter now and his legs were dangling off the sides of the bed, even though he was seated at its very edge.
Lt Col. P (let’s just call him that for the sake of simplicity) had served for twenty long years in the army and had retired at the end of it, a decorated man, happy and content with his achievements while in service. He had fought many a battle and done his country and his family, namely his wife and three children, proud. He’d led quite an exemplary life and had been the kind of man everyone looked up to. He was without any doubt meticulous in his ways and always made sure everything in his professional and personal life was well-planned and well-taken care of. He made sure his children, two boys and a girl, went to the best of schools, ensured that apart from their education they were also encouraged to learn and pursue other interests, be it in the field of sport or music or whatever else they set their hearts on. His wife, Mrs. P on the other hand was a quiet and pleasant woman. Though she was not someone of many words, she was still very capable and ran the house efficiently and readily took charge as the head of the house whenever her husband was posted in far off places for long spells of time. She was a pillar of support and strength for her three children and never let them feel the lack of anything in their lives. Whenever the children expressed their fears over their father’s safety, while he fought fierce battles in distant lands, she would constantly reassure them and make them feel secure and confident of his safe return.
Now their three children had all grown up. The eldest, was an attorney and he led a busy life having married a lady of his own profession and when the two were not otherwise busy with the numerous legal cases they took on, their packed social lives took over. Entertaining people within their social circle at the drop of a hat, had to them, become as important as any other thing in their life. To the couple, having lavish, all-night long parties for their “distinguished” set of guests was as normal as waking up, getting dressed and setting off to work. And they wouldn’t have it any other way. Compromise of any sort thereby was unthinkable for the two of them.
The second son had gone on to finish his education at one of the premiere institutions in the country, passing out with flying colours. His life seemed to be shaping up well and everything seemed to be in place, until one day, his fiancé and college sweetheart had met with a horrible motor accident which took her life. After that incident, he had become a completely changed man altogether. He slowly cut off all ties with people he had once considered his friends and family. The last his parents had heard about him was that he had taken to drugs and was wasting away whatever was left of his life, frequently making trips between one prison and another.
The youngest, their only daughter had become a nurse and started work at a local hospital close to her parents home. Soon after she had married one of the doctors at that very hospital. And in no time her husband had decided to relocate to a different country in search of better career prospects.
And thus the last of their children had been distanced in one way or another from this aging couple. Not that they complained or made a fuss about any of it. Far from it, they had only been too happy to see all their children grow up and make a mark of their own and carve a niche for themselves in the wide world around. Their only regret had been what life had dealt out to their second son. They somehow could not come to terms completely with what had become of him. But as years rolled by, that too became a part of their distant but significant past.
Old Lt.Col. P, slowly began to get a little too forgetful about things. Once an organized man, he would now forget even little things like where he’d left his spectacles or the remote for the television. There were times when he’d go wandering off and then forget his way home till some neighbour recognized him and brought him back home. His wife on the other hand, was slowly losing her vision. What started out as blurred images, were now fast becoming barely visible entities. She would often stumble on things at home and end up having bruises and cuts that seemed to take ages to heal. All in all, this once efficient, self-made and self-sufficient couple, was soon finding it very hard to manage on their own. Finally their older son, had the two of them put away in a institution for the aged. Thus they came to be permanent residents of this new “home away from home”.
As Lt. Col. P sat on his bed that morning, dangling his legs gleefully, there seemed to be a strange excitement about him. He seemed to have a perpetual grin on his face as he gazed into the empty garden beyond the open window of his room. Mrs. P was in a room somewhere nearby, knitting away, mostly making absurd patterns out of wool. But that was among the last of her passions she had left in her. Day in and day out she’d knit away to glory. She too had that far way look in her eyes, though now she was practically blind to everything and everyone around her.
Lt. Col P, in his mind, was having quite a celebration of his own. He was dressed in his best coat and favourite pair of trousers and shirt. He was in his garden in the backyard of his old home and there seemed to be some sort of party going on. He was not quite alone, like he was in actuality. He was surrounded by his wife and children. No, his children were not all grown up like they were now, in fact they were just teenagers, and all of them in turn bustling in and out of the house, each carrying out a dish from the kitchen as their mother handed it out to them. They were arranging it all on the wrought-iron table in the backyard, which was painted white and looking spotless and grand amidst the rest of the decorations around. Soon his wife came out of the house carrying a huge three-tiered strawberry cream cake. That was a personal favourite of Lt. Col P and his wife. They had each year, right from the day they had been married, cut such a cake on their wedding anniversary. On this day too, Lt.Col. P was celebrating his wedding anniversary, though it was more like reliving those fond memories after all these years, in his mind. It was all like it had been before, all rosy and vivid, and filled with sweet recollections and sentiments he held dear. He was now one with all his numerous colourful, bright and joyous visualizations. He was oblivious to the world outside as was his wife, lost in a pleasant world of her own. They were both far removed from the harsh reality around and had managed in their own ways to put aside thoughts of what had become their lives now. And thus here was a very happy old couple, lost in their own little worlds, reliving moments of an unforgettable yesterday deep down in their minds, all over again.

As a parting note, I’d like to say this. Life takes different twists and turns, as we grow older and as each day passes us by. It is true that we expect things to be the way they are at this moment, forever. We wish that the people we’ve done so much for wouldn’t change, wouldn’t desert us or even move far away. And there is nothing wrong in wishing or feeling that way. We are but human beings and those are but human sentiments. As individuals we can make up our minds to stand-by and support the very people who’ve done so much for us; who’ve sacrificed so much for us. But as I said, one can never anticipate what turns life may take. Perhaps in the story above, the eldest son could’ve altered his lifestyle just a little bit so as to accommodate his aged parents and their growing needs and newly established dependencies. But like what happened with the other two, sometimes life just takes you so far away physically (like with the daughter in the story) or even mentally distances us from those we love (like what happened with the second son). These are often things that are beyond our control, its not like we want it to be the way it turns out to be. Things just happen for reasons we may never find or understand. For that’s what life is about, it all just happens.
And though we’d like to hold on to certain moments forever, it is inevitable that those moments have to pass and just become fragments of our memory. But then, our mind is a truly wonderful thing. It’s the most powerful gift that we possess. It helps recreate and feel those memories and moments all over again. No matter what twists or what course your life takes, never lose sight of all that you truly hold dear or let go of memories that you treasure. For one day, maybe in the distant future, maybe even tomorrow, one never knows when, these very memories can recreate a blissful world for us, one that would make us forget for a while and as often as we want it to, all that would have become of our lives at that point. That way, come what may, we would all still be happy, even if it’s all just in our minds - our own private space that no one can take away from nor separate us from.