Monday, September 3, 2012

The Beginning of an End


It’s an unusually long night. In the distance, from the open window, I watch as planes land into the city. There’s a weird sense of loneliness in the air tonight. The folks at the metrological department have predicted it’s going to rain tomorrow, but I don’t think that’s the case. It’s just stuffy; and suffocating and uncomfortable. Pretty much like the weather inside my heart right now; stuffy and suffocating. The clouds inside my heart want to burst and wash away the discomfort. In the form of tears, they want to flow from my eyes and rid them of the urge to give in by finally letting them do so.  Pretty much like the clouds in the humid night sky which want to burst and wash all the stuffiness away with them. But it doesn’t look like that’s going to happen.

My heart feels heavy. Like someone left a huge rock in there. It’s amazing how vacuum which is supposed to be weightless is not the same when it exists inside the heart. In there, it leaves behind this feeling of being trapped under tons of rubble like an earthquake victim would experience. To think about it, the events that unfolded in the last few months are nothing short of an earthquake. Its funny how we humans, who have built concrete jungles and structures which have withstood the winds of time, are capable of giving another human being the power to literally pull away the earth from beneath our feet.

It’s a humbling experience. We are not the masters of our destiny that our accomplishments falsely lead us to believe. We are just humans; mere humans, who are pre-programmed to trust, have faith, believe, love, worry, betray, abuse, take for granted and hurt each other. And we don’t learn or change or mend ways. Even after experiences of being burnt, we are happy to be foolishly optimistic and walk towards the next source of light in the hope that it will bring the desired brightness to our lives. We don’t realise that what beckons is a ball of fire which might bring a lot of brightness to life, but will also leave us with burnt fingers, a scorched soul and a very heavy heart. We just don’t learn, but keep moving on with renewed faith in life and its ability to lead us to happy endings. The only hitch is that those happy endings don’t exist in the real world.

In the real world, life is lived somewhere between heaven and hell. What gives us the most happiness also gives us the deepest of sorrows. The very thing that makes life look so beautiful is also what makes it miserable. Everything is two sides of the same coin. Everything in this world is a dichotomy. 

Blessed are those who find the resolve to detach and attach at will. They are the real rulers of the world. They are the true masters of their own destiny. They are independent in the true sense of the word. Their sadness and happiness is not reliant on another human’s emotion driven behaviour. Such people keep other people at an arm’s length. They seem to have found the secret answer to the question that all the others seem to be struggling to find. 

How close is close enough? That one question which is the key to all the miseries we lesser mortals suffer every time we get close to someone. How close should one get to the light in order to get the brightness from it without getting burnt? What is the distance from the sun which gives Earth the ideal temperature for sustaining life on it and not suffering the fate of a very hot Mercury or an extraordinarily cold Pluto?

This one question can transform the lives of many other miserable people out there who like me at this moment are wondering when they let another person peek so deep into them that he or she ended up controlling their smiles and their tears. I’ve already embarked on my journey to unravel this mystery. When do you plan to begin?

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