Homed

The roads stretched ahead

Into thousands of winding miles

And I quietly led myself to venture

Through invisible rooms and aisles.

I knew not where I was being taken to,

For I let the merry breeze be my guide

To the new and the untouched realms,

To the one, in who I must confide.

I longed for the thrill that novelty brought

But alas! How long does novelty last?

“The world is all new”, they say, “until

You have not discovered it fast.”

Or could it be the familiarity that

I craved for, which I found in you?

A safe hide-out for all my thoughts

That shall forever be new.

I wished to get lost yet not lose myself

In your deep and meaningful eyes,

Promising me the delight of adventure

Non-existent under the deep blue skies.

And while I slumbered in your arms

I heard voices from the whispering dome

Waiting for me to decipher them.

Softly they answer, “I am home.”

Love?

It is the topic most widely written on, it is the word most softly whispered about and it is the emotion most desperately desired to be felt. Many people say love is all about sacrifice, about selfless giving but somehow I have never been able to see them eye to eye on the notion. Like all the zillion times before, and again today, I wish somebody could define accurately what it is all about. Why does it capture one’s fascination the way it does and make most of us feel like some starved souls ever hungry for that piece of love? And does pain essentially have to be associated with love. Why did a human being ever come up with its depiction of an arrow brutally piercing a red heart! I never intended to think on those lines but my thoughts themselves seem to carve out a course when this topic creeps up. Yes, it creeps up close stealthily, lodging itself in all those places where one is sure to take notice of it which would then give it the liberty to divulge more about what it is capable of!

What fascinates me even more is how it transcends all barriers! In a country like mine, where marriage is a much rationalised event, where for centuries it has been a ground to breed superior progeny, where the groom and the bride are practically oblivious of each other’s existence until the day they are told that who they are to be spending the rest of their live with, one does not come across existence of a reality from the last century where love did transcend barriers. On the brighter side, thing are changing but on the darker side is it for the good? I don’t intend to spark of a debate and somehow every topic not matter how remotely it is related to love is so debatable.

Now, what I truly intended pen down was that I did come across one such reality that though they do not transcend many big barriers but are no less than a fairytale. Imagine a young man five feet and five inches tall, weighing seventy-six kilograms proposing to a young woman standing five feet nine inches tall and weighing thirty-eight kilograms at the very first meeting! A stark contrast, is it not? Further, the two are extremely ambitious and have ambitions that no matter how much they try will not let them stay together. Call me myopic or what you may, but I shall have never considered this relationship successful if it was narrated to me by someone other than the five feet five inches tall young man, Robert (though old now and a father to two beautiful young ladies). Robert tells me that love is important, but what is even more important is the understanding that he shares with Dorothy. They never left trivial things disrupt their conjugal relationship and that they had taken a vow together to deal with any matter of such consequence within the very period of twenty four hours and never to sleep on it. He further adds with a satisfied smile that their children are the strongest bonds that hold them from drifting apart. A successful relationship is one which matures with the time spent on it, nurturing and tending to it like a well-kept garden. A fruitful twenty-two years later, he lives in Madras with his two princesses while she lives in Bombay and comes home to her family every two weeks. Robert looks at me excitedly when he speaks about her being home this weekend!

I don’t know why I am more satisfied with the thought of love being the consequence of an association rather than the other way round. Like always, this debate will forever go on!