My Conversation with Love

 I was extremely shocked and disturbed when all of a sudden my facebook newsfeed was flooded with the news items pertaining to the alleged suicide of Pratyusha Banerjee. Admittedly, I have watched her TV serial Balika Vadhu with my mother and grandmother with fake reverence. Though my interest in her TV soap was obligatory, my admiration for her effortless augmentation to fame and glory at a tender age of 17 was genuine. With all fingers insinuating at her boyfriend's crucial role in her suicide, I was pondering over the things that go wrong with today’s love.

Blame it on media for the inappropriate portrayal of role models or on the unbridgeable gaps between parents and children, the understanding of the profound terms like love and happiness are horribly flawed. The connotation of happiness has been faultily rooted in the relatively fragile minds of the adolescents. If you ask them what it takes to make a happy person? Most of them will recommend only three ingredients: money, fame, and love (Read sex!).

Being a happily married girl with all the reasons to be content with my affectionate husband, I was stealthily expressing my grief over the lost meaning of love in today’s generation. While I was pondering over my thoughts, something strange happened! Love appeared before me. Yes, you read it right. I engaged in a meaningful and enriching dialogue with love. I am presenting a few excerpts from my conversations with Love in the form of an open letter from Love.

Dear Reader,

 I am sure till now you must have experienced me in various shades and hues. I take this as an opportunity to express how I experience myself from your hearts. I am sharing below my feelings regarding how I am being perceived in today’s world. 

 Of course I love you Darling!

 “Hey wait! Love.. umm what?” ……. “Oh! You mean sex”

 Contrary to the earlier notion about me which denoted unflinching commitment and devotion, nowadays you often find me wrapped in a pack of condoms. In the 21^st century I am condensed to conditions and convenience. People stick to each other for all reasons other than me! Reasons over! I am over! I am just a mutually agreed upon “Terms & Conditions” which nobody really bothers to read (abide). I am the most accused when it comes to incompatibilities, heartbreaks and choices gone wrong!

Of course I love you till I am successful! 

 In the race between career and I, career wins! Look at all the tragic suicides of the most famous and beautiful women, you will realize that no man ever chose me over his career. When someone decides to end their life, is it logical to curse me? I am not responsible for your “close to perfect, fairy tale-ish” notions of love. Better go and blame the so called popular romantic films for promoting the truncated worth of women in a man’s life. Remember the dialogue from a popular Hindi film 'Life mein teen cheezon ke peeche kabhi mat bhagna.. bus, train aur chokri. Ek jati hai doosri aati hai'?? Don’t grieve that your man treated you like a tissue paper, instead please think that why did you allow him to do so in the name of love?

 Of course I love you till I find someone else

 Your fleeting feelings of lust appear to be pure and pious by bearing my tag. You swear on me to get her body and when your interest in her weakens, you stop treating her with what she deserves. You tell her that my presence is no more there in your relationship! Ask yourself, when was I present in your heart anyway? When your parallel hunt for another body (of course in the guise of my name!) is accomplished, you don’t hesitate to present me as a reason for breaking your girl’s heart. You convince the next girl on my pretext and serves your craving for variety which has sneaked into your bones and blood. For you, I am variety! 

 Of course I am dying, sooner than you think

 Considering the handful of people who still believe in me, I wish I could live longer. All I can see is my impending death by “lovers” who have given various meanings to my existence without realizing what I really am. I don’t signify mindless and misfortunate deaths, I signify living for each other, with each other. I don’t connote a vulgarized culture swearing by me with bottles of alcohol down their throats. I am also not depicted in expensive gifts and luxurious travels and lifestyles, I survive in the heart of that person who has the fervent ability to love the wo/man for a lifetime. I acknowledge that my traditional self is considered to be unreasonable and unfeasible by today’s young lovers. However, I still miss my old self where I existed in the hearts and spirits of the people, where I was regarded genuine and where my existence in someone’s life really meant the world to them! The current trends of my presence only point towards my doomed future where I will be vehemently murdered for allegedly causing “failure in relationships and marriages”.

 Sincerely,

Love

Breaking boundaries: A Humanistic Perspective

The entire idea of creating boundaries is very notorious. It is just to create social exclusion on the basis of race, religion, caste, sex etc. We are all humans and in most communities of the world the earth is considered as our nurturing mother. Being the egotistical children of earth, we believe that it is our right to draw boundaries on her bosom, thus setting areas for our movements and interactions. The parameters of differences set by us are so large in numbers that it seems very difficult to identify with people from across boundaries. Sometimes, I wonder what good do we extract in marking territories? 

Take a moment and think of a world with no boundaries. No maps. No LOCS/borders to be guarded. No greed to colonise other lands. What if we suddenly wake up to a world like this? Where you can go freely to any part on the earth without having to go through the hassles of visa and long security checks. A world where everyone is welcomed with smile on lips and warmth in hearts. A world where there is no 'us v/s them'. A world where we are not Indians, Pakistanis, Chinese etc. but we are all simply 'Earthians'. 

As much as this may seem logically impractical; the least that could be done is to prevent the minds of people from getting polluted with the ideas of social exclusivity. In our world, being born in a particular religion, caste, country, with a skin complexion, sex etc. puts certain people at a superior and privileged status. If at all any ideology needs to be considered, why can't it be of social inclusiveness? Irrespective of any social demographic or physical difference, why can't everyone be viewed with a lens of love and respect? 

Stop propagating nationalism in the name of mindless politics. True nationalism is to understand our rich heritage and spread some knowledge among the fellow countrymen. Perhaps the so called 'nationalists' wouldn't know (or don't want to realize) that India, since centuries, believe in 'Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam' which is described in Maha Upanishad meaning the world is one large family. 

Don't we all experience differences of opinions in our families? But do we tag our family members with different perspectives as anti family? No. Then why do we don't bother to think even twice before labelling fellow countrymen with different opinions as anti-nationals? Heights of unfairness! There are thousands of anti-nationals (and anti humans) not only in our country but in the entire world under the garb of nationalists and peace makers. But do we even use our minds to identify them? I am not saying that anti nationals shouldn't be punished or publicly brought out. My point is that lot of thinking and mindfulness should go into the process before labelling people as anti nationals so that any person with simply a different opinion from ours shouldn't be forcefully put in the category of 'anti nationals'. 

If having this set of beliefs qualify me as an anti national, then let it be. We don't need to prove our love for our country to anyone. I would like to specially mention here that I strongly condemn terrorism or any anti human activity but fighting in the name of assumed patriotism is not what i can ever support. It is a waste of time and resources. Patriotism is something highly intrinsic which needs no words to express. It is well reflected in actions. The world needs so much of action oriented people and responsible media but getting involved in such controversial issues deplete our time, energy and resources. 

I am a proud Indian but before that i am a human because that's what i am born as. It doesn't matter what race, colour, religion, country, sex you are born into as long as you can remain grounded to your basic biology i.e. being born as a human. 

The rule to live should be simple: Don't let your country down and don't pull other countries down. Love and respect all. Appreciate Diversity not only in culture but also in thinking. Spread Love. Because that's what we all need.