They say that there’s always some madness hidden behind being in love. They say we fall in love but there’s also something, where one rises in love. There are wings attached and we fly high using those wings of imagination. It’s a journey to a world full of desires to be fulfilled, dreams to accomplish and those fantasies. Those sheepish smiles, bright sparkling eyes, wandering thoughts, dispersed attention, funny ideas, wondering at everything normal as if it were new and finding new things. Talks about romance become more interesting. Romantic movies that seemed a bit dull have an added spark as in all those the characters have been replaced by one and only one.
There’s always someone with whom the day ends and begins with. There’s always someone who is wanted and thought about. There’s this only one who knows everything and listens to every word one says. When in love, people become poetic, thoughts seem pouring in, there’s always something to laugh or to cry about. There’s a longing, there’s a motive in love, just to be with that loves one. Creativity soars high. The brain races fast but so preoccupied with other things the brain and the heart have a tiff. They struggle to manage the same person at the same time.
That’s what leads to absentmindedness. Thoughts seem scattered. Sometimes, hours pass sitting and staring into thin air or just those bare walls seem to bright that one can smile looking at them. There’s always something great about a good weather, a cool breeze, the pitter-patter rain drops that can seem irritating at times, the smell of that strong cologne, the sound of those bikes whizzing past, the very sight of messiness looks adorable. There’s always a reason to argue, to get angry and then wait for the time to sort it out so that there’s always more love. There’s a time when waking up in the morning one feels like just hearing one voice and sleeping at night becomes so easy on those terrible days when nightmares can replace beautiful dreams because of just one person. When even little things matter and every word is coded in the brain.
You look at your cell phone and smile, go back to those messages and read and re-read. Sometimes, one’s own pictures on the desktop replace someone else’s. Looking at that person and admiring him gives such a relief. That bright smile and those naughty eyes demand for more attention. There’sthat one who just want all the love and appreciation. There’s someone who makes someone’s life meaningful and there’s this someone who makes one feel wanted and loved.
There’s always someone somewhere who feels something like this sometime in life. Everyone wants to be loved. It sounds a little complicated just as in reality it is. It’s COMPLICATED.
Gone are those days when couples met each other in college, fell for each other at first sight or met at a cousins's wedding or happened to meet each other at work place. This is the era of networking. With the advent of online chat rooms, socializing websites like- Facebook and Twitter apart from the already existing Gtalk and Yahoo messenger, we tend to find like minded people somewhere in one corner of the world. In some cases, networking leads to friendship, this friendship leads to good friendship and then one fine day when they find that they actually have more than just 'friendly' feelings for each other, ' Love happens'.
This might seem like a modern day fairy tale story but this fairy tale is certainly not as pink as it appears to be. Couples date each other online, talk to each other and meet up one fine day and set the wheel rolling.
Is this going to give a happy ending to it???? The answer is: NO.
The actual testing stage begins after that. This gives rise to a concept called LDR ( Long Distance Relationship). This abbreviation sounded strange to me when I heard it as the first thing that came to my mind was LTR( Long Terminal Repeats in a gene sequence). Probably, it's just the ' Bio- influence' on me that made me think this way.
LDR, something that certainly has to be dealt with patience and a lot of trust and confidence. Couples can be separated by country borders, state borders or just happen to be at a distance of 300 Kms but, whatever it is, distance does matter. This LDR seldom works and seldom doesn't depending upon how people handle it. There might be times when a couple feels terrible about the distance they have which they cannot bridge due to practical reasons. Education, work, career, family and certain other priorities in life that happen to act as speed breakers' in a smoothly running life. One can't ignore them though, as they will act as pillars of strength later.
It's not only restricted to couples who date these days or are thinking in terms of Long term long distance relationships( LT - LDR) but also for those married couples who have to stay apart for a short period because of their career. They happen to meet just, once in a while or are contented with intermittent short visits. It's even more frustrating then because there is nothing that can be compromised upon. With a battery of problems that are associated with LDR, one needs to find a solution to them.
Networking and technology certainly helps. When there were just snail- mails, mobile phones, chat rooms, Gmail, yahoo messenger and g-talk, there came something called Skype and online video chats that solved millions of problems right from phone bills, till the emotional level. The very fact that our loved one is just a screen away from us makes us feel secure and contented. The happiness to hear the same voice and not rack one's brain to think of the other person's expressions has made things easier. Earlier as said that the person is just a phone call away, the same person is just a screen away now. Distance doesn't matter when there are travel connections too.
It's just a matter of TIME. It plays an important role and teaches everything. We say, it flies but I feel it takes it's own sweet time. One can't hurry.
This distant tryst certainly makes the heart grow fonder and develops a sense of maturity that actually makes a relationship last for long. If it survives the distance then it can survive all those trials and tribulations of this testing game.
There's something to learn from each couple who face this.
"Oh… Sheetal what’s there so amusing that you are staring at the computer screen so much...?”Alia said throwing a pencil at Sheetal in order to grab her attention.
Few seconds later, Sheetal stretches her arms and heaves a sigh of relief, looks at Alia and smiles.
"Now what do I interpret by your smile?” Alia said with frustration.
There was no change in Sheetal’s expression.
There was a pause.
“Oh…… he’s just too hot!!!” Sheetal said with a mischievous grin on her face.
“What??? Whom are you talking about idiot?” Alia said with an irritation and a sense of curiosity in her voice.
Sheetal turns her laptop towards Alia and shows her a picture on orkut.
“Oh… Vinay! There you go,” Alia said with a sigh of relief.
(Sheetal and Vinay became friends on orkut. They had common interests one of them being sketching. Conversations continued on a daily basis. As time passed they went from being strangers to good friends. There was a slow and steady progress. Eventually, they began talking on the phone. It was friendship by chance and was later converted into choice. They had not met each other but had just exchanged snaps. Finally, after a long wait they got a chance to meet. After meeting Vinay, Sheetal couldn’t help but continue this friendship and she took it to a higher pedestal. She started liking him. She was happy for the fact that the person whom she used to chat with and have such conversations was the same as he had portrayed himself. His honesty made her develop a slight liking from him. Days passed by and it was almost a year that they had been talking to each other. They had become really good friends but the relationship wasn’t moving forward. They were still talking to each other but at times Sheetal got confused after listening to Vinay. His actions showed at times that she meant a lot to him but never had he expressed that in words.)
“I shouldn’t be surprised,” Alia said.
“Just tell me one thing Sheetal, how long will you do this? Sooner or later you have to tell him that you like him so much. You must be clear as to what you want. ”
“I have told him indirectly but I don’t think it’s the right time for me to express my love. Don’t you think he should have understood by now?” Sheetal said.
"Right time!! Huh……God knows when the right time will come. May be till then he would have gone far ahead dating another girl and one fine day he’ll call up and tell you, ‘Look Sheetal there is this girl I am in love with and I am about to propose her today.’ What would you do then?"
As soon as Sheetal heard this, her expression changed. She went pale and asked Alia in a squeaky voice, “Can this actually happen? Is it possible that he would date another girl?”
"Why not! He can do that."
"Don’t you think the chances are less? I mean, he is a guy who doesn’t talk much with girls as he said and it’s been a year that we are friends. He tells me most of the things and I feel, may be things will work out,” Sheetal added with a sense of confidence in her voice.
“There’s no point defending your own views baby. Ask your own self and you verywell know that such things can happen.”
“Okay, answer these questions yourself…"
Do you stay around him 24 x 7 that you’ll know what he does and what he doesn’t?
Have you reached that stage that you can trust him so much or does he trust you so much?
How much time have both of you given to each other that you can even come to this conclusion?
How much can you conclude on the basis of just a few random meetings, chats and calls?
"After all he is a guy and guys don’t express so much. When it comes to a person like him who is concerned about the present and doesn’t think so much about anything around what can you do? "
"As you say, he’s very practical. Am I right?"
Sheetal kept listening to Alia with her eyes wide open. These questions were really eye openers for her. She had never thought so much. Whatever Alia said was true.
“I think you are right. I have to consider these questions. I think we haven’t crossed that stage of friendship We need to know each other more .We have a long way to go but Alia, I really like him and I think I have started loving him."
“I hope you understand what I am trying to say.”
"What if I die one day and my love goes unexpressed?Will you convey my message to him?"Sheetal asked with a child like innocence.
There was utter silence.
Alia glared at Sheetal and said, " Is such a satetment expected from a 21 year old girl like you?"
"After listening to you I can't help believeing in the fact that - Love is Blind."
Sheetal couldn’t utter a word. She knew that she shouldn’t have thought something like that. She just smiled sheepishly at her foolishness.
" You have to wait patiently my dear," Alia said keeping a hand on Sheetal's shoulder.
" I don't know what to do Alia," Sheetal said with a sense of despair in her voice.
“Listen to me for once and I think things will fall into place automatically. Let destiny play the game.”
“Let’s see…………,” Sheetal closed her eyes and took a deep breath.
Just then Sheetal’s mobile beeped. She read the message and smiled………..
It said:
Don’t rush to fall in love because love never runs out.
Even if somebody asks why you are single?
Just tell them, “God’s too busy writing the best love story for me.”
(I think this could be a part of anyone’s life. What could a girl like Sheetal do? Movies do give different answers but I don’t know the answer here so I leave it to the readers to interpret the rest of the story! What if Sheetal was me or you??? )
Finally, their hard work paid off. Their lab project got over a day earlier than it was scheduled to be. They planned to go to the mall, Forum.
All six were shopping addicts.
Archie was in Westside with Ashu. Ashu helped her select some nice fitted balloon tops that were in this season and he took some casual shirts for himself.
Sherin was in Landmark trying to find out some books.
Pri and Namu were in a shop, trying a hand at some cool bags that had been launched by some new company. They were very good at bargaining and they got the bags at a pretty good rate though the bargain wasn’t much. It was one of the biggest malls there and they had to keep that in mind.
Sunil seemed out of the picture. No one actually bothered as they were busy. They all had cell phones so it wasn’t a big thing to catch up with each other.
Ashu was standing in the billing section and waiting for his turn. It was done and they came out of the shop with three four plastic bags. They were done.
They were just talking as to what the others must be up to when Sunil came.
“Hey! Where had you been? See what all we got,” an excited Archie said. She started showing him all that she had shopped. Girls generally had this habit. They wanted to show everything at that very moment while Ashu didn’t have much interest then.
“The other three girls are also somewhere busy I think,” said Ashu.
“Where were you all this while?” Ashu asked Sunil. “Nothing, I was in Music world. Just caught hold of some of my favourite numbers,” Sunil said quite excitedly.
“Wow! Show me what you got,” Archie said grabbing the bag of CD’s from him.
“Wait, wait,” Sunil said getting a bit tensed.
“I’ll show you”
Saying this Sunil took out a CD from the bag and kept it in his hand and handed the rest to Archie.
“What’s that, in your hand?” Archie enquired mysteriously.
“Hmmm…Errrrr this is for you Archie,” saying this Sunil handed the CD to Archie.
“Oh!! Archie jumped with joy. This is my favourite. I love it dear,” Archie said jumping with joy.
Ashu was smiling and he was surprised seeing Sunil. Sunil had a different expression on his. It wasn’t usual. Sunil held Archie’s hand and prevented her from jumping more.
He took out a card from his plastic and gave it to her.
Archie was excited and her heart beat increased as she read the card.
It was a small card and just had one line written in it and there was a picture of a man giving a red rose to a girl.
It said: Are you the one for whom I was waiting all this while?
Then there was something that Sunil had written by himself.
I love you a lot sweetheart.
Archie kept looking at the card and at Sunil. She was blushing and the answer was there on her face. Sunil was so anxious but he was excited too. Ashu just patted his back and held him close. Archie didn’t know how to react.
She went close to Sunil and then turned back. She held the card tight and the CD. She saw Pri, Namu and Sherin coming. She ran towards them holding one of her best possessions in hand. She showed the card and CD to them.
Sunil and Ashu stood there wondering what Archie was up to.
“Oh! God! Sunil finally expressed it,” Namu and Pri chimed in.
“Did you say something?” Sherin asked.
Archie didn’t say anything. No body knew what was happening inside her. She was having goose bumps.
They all came near Sunil and Ashu. Sunil was still waiting with the same expression in his eyes. He looked so relaxed. He had said his part. Archie went towards him and hugged him tightly and just didn’t leave him. He held her all the more tightly.
“Yes. I think I am the one. Love you too,” Archie said with a lot of happiness.
“Idiot, for this you took so much time,” Sunil said caressing on her head.
“Hello, lovers. This can be done later. This is a public place. Do you want others to comment on you like we do,” Ashu said mocking at them.
All started laughing and then Pri, Namu, Sherin and Ashu shouted in chorus looking at both of them: So when do you know its love?
They all laughed again.( It was the punch dialogue of the movie Jaane tu..)
The answer is: No one knows until you realize it.
They went back to the pg house and the next day they left Bangalore and they went to college. They had to go home for a vacation. They had to pack everything in a day and they had to leave to their respective homes.
It was not the same for Archie and Sunil though. They would miss each other a lot.
Archie reached home.
She was talking to her mom one day when she got a call in her cell. It was an STD number and her cell was on roaming. She thought for a while and answered.
“Hello,” Archie said. “Hello is this Archana?” the voice on the other side said. “Yes, speaking. Who’s this?” Archie asked. “Archana, this is Ms Reena.
“Oh, yes. How are you ma’am? How’s everything?
“Everything is fine with God’s grace. I called up to give you a good news.”
“The board has agreed to your proposal. We already consulted the other organization. We’ll get Deepti married soon. She has also agreed to this. A boy agreed to marry her. He’s working in a medicine shop as a sales boy and also a part of the NGO.”
“That’s great ma’am.”
“Thanks a lot ma’am”
“You are most welcome dear. I’ll keep you posted. Bye.”
“Bye ma’am.”
“Yippee!!!” Archie shouted.
Her mom got scared seeing her shout like this on phone. The moments were ecstatic for her. She had to explain to her mom and she was also typing a message in her cell phone. She sent it to all 4 but for Sunil it was different.
She typed: Sweetheart, Deepti is gonna get married soon. I just got a call from Ms Reena. I wish you were here. I am so happy dear. Miss you. I’ll call you soon. Take care. Love you a lot. Muuuaaahhhh.
I always have a doubt?? Everytime questions come up in my mind in the wrong time. During exams, when i think in various angles....What not????? This time I think it is... love. Why? I don't know, but a topic of good concern. Poor Love, which stays in everyone's heart, a medium between two friends, two lovers, two sisters, parents and their children... but the bond varies. It has got different definitions but the present day generation fails to accept it. As we say "LOVE" the first thing that comes in our minds is the love that exists between a boyfriend and girlfriend. All don't think in such a way. Nobody has ever realized that this love is pure but not biased. When we can love someone of our own gender considering as a best friend then why not a person of the opposite sex, be considered as someone to be loved. Why is there a change of thoughts in this case??? People mistake it to be the kind of love' that is between 2 people of the opposite sex!!!
I feel: It's very much wrong!!! I feel in such case one must come up in thoughts as well as try to come up in thoughts as as well as try to understand the word 'love' itself. Chinese Philosophers follow this saying that there are three sentences which are really important and must be expressed in life. -"Thank You."(Don't feel low to say that) -"I love You."(Don't hesitate to say that to people whom you love) -"I am sorry."(Don't feel embarrassed to tell this out) In the same way if we say if we say” Love you......"to someone whom we love (of the opposite sex) whom might be our good friend, there’s a hype... people gossip, people comment. Well this is usual, general attitude but why not be different???? Isn't it?Why can't 'Love' be saved? It is one of the best emotions we can feel. God has created human beings for a mission:” To spread love." it can be in any form. It can be love towards a child, towards a life partner, a colleague or a friend but it has got different definitions with all. That's what people don't understand. To say," If we express our love to all whom we love, we will not be fair, when it comes to expressing it to our life partner", would be partly correct but why can't love be understood at different levels. Why is this biasing? Why can't we spare it, it's so... so.. pure.
So today you really feel you love someone go and say” I love you" without considering the gender biasing and also considering the person to whom you are saying would be better provided the other person understands the concept.
This is not a movie review that I am going to give but I am going to tell about a movie that I ‘love’. Basically, I am not a person who will love to watch all the movies but if there is good company I can watch anything and yes, provided I have time to pass. There are many movies which I have liked a lot and they have good lessons to be taken from them but this was a movie which I love. It is the only movie till date that I have watched more than 10 times. Yesterday the count went to 11 as I watched it again with mom. This movie has got a lot in it. It has got simplicity. That was the best thing in it. It reached through the people. I learnt so much from the movie. This movie has also got some other instances which make it all the more close to my heart. The music is awesome. I didn’t hear it before watching the movie. It was only when my friends told me did I hear the song, still I didn’t find it so interesting at one go but when I saw the movie, I liked it. Soon the songs were at my tongue tips and then my favorite was “Tum se hi…” A beautiful song sung by Mohit Chauhan . It has got life in it. Tears of happiness trickle down my eyes when I listen to this song. It’s not only me but I have observed many when they hear this song. They go to a different world. The characters are practical. You can of course find such people around.
Yet another thing I found out about this movie a week ago that the director Imtiaz Ali is a native of Jamshedpur, another hidden talent from the Steel City. He was honoured here last month for his wonderful debut movie.
I think all must have watched this movie at least once. If not then please do watch it. You’ll like it.
Of late, I don’t have much time to watch television. If at all I do, it is just for some songs in MTV “KickAss” mornings or some songs in the recent Hit list. This song… “Kabhi Kabhi... Aditi hans de...” from the movie Jaane tu... ya Jaane na... is something that I loved at first sight. The video is cute, the song is also good. The music is by the great A.R. Rehman himself and I have good expectations form the others too. I just can’t keep my eyes off the video. On the whole this movie is something which I will look forward too after long. May be it doesn’t run in the Box office much it will be something I will like.
It somewhere seems to close to my heart. I see my friends there. The punch line that says-“So when do you know its love?” is also considerable. Does anyone know when actually?? It is “Love?
It’s not an ipod I am talking about but these are those magical coffee beans inside the Coffee pods that make the difference. I am going to talk about my love for coffee and I know there are lot of coffee lovers who’ll be interested in reading this. Coming from a South Indian (Tamil) family, I ought to be in the habit of drinking coffee at least once in a day (as the conception goes); it certainly is true but hasn’t gone to the level of addiction in my case. It’s bitter, it’s intoxicating and it rejuvenates our soul. For some it’s refreshing, for some it helps to make them stay awake the whole night or to relax after the long tiring hours. For me .......it’s my love. A sip of good coffee changes my mood. I started liking coffee from the age of 10 . Mom used to just add a drop of the coffee liquor and then give it to me saying it’s coffee… slowly as I grew up I got to know that my mom was fooling me all these years and I got the actual taste of coffee. Nescafe and then Nescafe Sunrise also were really good but I was already used to having the proper filter coffee in the morning. As soon as I get up, there’ll be a cup of steaming hot coffee ready for me but I was never habituated to have “STRONG” coffee. That’s what helped me a lot in future in not becoming a coffee addict. I knew how much I could have and how it would be without having coffee. So I was without coffee for almost 3 months. I had seen coffee addicts who had spoilt their health by having coffee. Day by day the controversies over coffee increased. Some said it was good for health and some research articles said they didn’t. Not bothering about all this I continued my liking for coffee. I had been hearing about Café Coffee Day since long but had not got a chance to try out the coffee they serve there until I came to college. We had filter coffee made at home with the freshly ground coffee beans from Coffee Day.
Today when I sit back to think about all this I feel I have come a long way as I am one of the greatest fan of Café Coffee Day. I have tried most of the flavors out there and can really suggest people about the kind of coffee they must take there. Three years back when I was at home I wanted to try out coffee in CCD but didn’t get the right company but coming to college I got a chance to try out what I wanted. First of all the place attracted me. They made it a point to make it comfortable for people to sit and chat, talk for hours, have a nice sip of coffee and just enjoy the moment there. One this to consider is the right hand side of the menu card but I think, CCD coffee can be affordable once in a while at least for people to whom the left side matters otherwise for a change and it’ll be worth it. Second thing to consider is the coffee they serve….. Nothing to beat it (except Mom’s coffee). My favourites there are Café Mocha and Café Latte but I got with the former one often . I get elated when I see the red and white symbol. It also indicates one of my fav colour combo’s. so all the more my love for coffee increased.
This made me do some research on CCD. Set up in 1996 and run by ABCTCL( Amalgamated Bean Coffee Trading Company Ltd). The first CCD was set up in Brigade Road , Bangalore. Recently, when I was on my way to Mysore with my family , we stopped at CCD in the highway to have coffee. As I was standing at the counter waiting for my coffee , I read a message that was put up there on the wall. It read, “ You have something missing in your coffee.” There was a smiley that was with this message!!!! I think my previous blog entry, A Smile….goes along with my coffee too.
So…if u r a coffee lover and haven’t had a chance to sip a CCD coffee.. I suggest you…. GIVE ITA TRY. (Of course there’s none to beat the taste of a homemade coffee or the coffee we get in any ofour favourite coffee vendor’s shop ).
