Wednesday, May 14, 2008

Love, In an Hour


Walk...walk walk and walk.....it is at sixteen that I discovered the pleasure of walks, the joy of rambling through nowheres and everywheres, in morning drizzles and evening breezes. And those talks, endless and so meaningful, talks about everything and anything, that dripped with hazy and squishy teenage philosophy. As we went along the road once, friends together, he asked me what was the most intense of all emotions, and I answered that it was love. But then time flew towards me with beastly wings and hijacked my life of sparkling tenderness, and time in this disguise that was strange to me, was so unbearable that the overarching emotion of my life for quite some time then altered into frustration. Rage, rage against the swarthy abyss into which I had stumbled,and rage against those people who relentlessly thrust me into it. I was suddenly hurled into dark, killing loneliness, and was only seldom allowed escapades into life.

Like it happened one evening, when I was part of a group that set out to visit an old age home, where I met so many people and so much agony that I stood paralyzed at how crudely hostile life could sometimes become. And then, as we tried to make their day a little better by simply talking, smiling and plucking guavas from their courtyard, I ended up talking to a grandfather who sat in one corner, with eyes that petrified me with its lack of emotion; there was no joy, no hope, not even pain. It was sheer surrender. But he talked to me, and only talked about his wife, who lived in the women's section, which was a home apart from their's. They lived in a single compound, in homes close by and yet so far from each other. The rules of the place did not allow the grandfathers and grandmothers to meet, and the limitations of the organization struck off the possibility of a grandmother and grandfather living together, even if they had been together for decades, even if it was together that they had once laughed and cried, and together that they had brought up the son who left them there.

But then there was God, and God willed that they meet. Every morning the grandfather would smile, talk, and probably there would be in his eyes twinkle, for he got to meet his love every morning for one hour, in the church. I closed my eyes and could see them, wrinkled and tired, snuggling together in the serenity of a church, not bothered about the God that stood before them, the less blessed grandfathers and grandmothers who sat beside them, or the world beyond that conveniently pretended not to see on their faces the seething desire to be there the way they are, for as long as the world remained. For once, I was happy there is God.

13 comments:

Sekhar said...

Beautiful :)

Anonymous said...

Touching one .... great writing.. keep it up

നന്ദ said...

really nice :) keep posting..

തോന്നലുകള്‍...? said...

Good one... Keep writing... Keep these sparks ablaze...:)

ARUN said...

i read it through and, don't know why, felt like changing the climax: the little light there suddenly seems to drench the darkness that preceded, which sadly is not the case if one cares to read a second time. the account is so dark, it drenches the light mercilessly.
i might write (which is pure arrogance, by the way) the inevitable thought at the end: that there is no god, that there had better not be any kind of god, because i don't want someone to blame for all this wretchedness.

Kichu & Chinnu said...

the little light was all that i cared for arunetta...you know my obsession with happy endings:)

അപരിചിത said...

i liked it...!
i dunno whether i cried while reading ,it was so touchy!
the subject is very sensitive!

keep writing!

:)

Kichu & Chinnu said...

Thanks Sekhar...
Thankyou anony, though i know who you are:)
Nice to know that you liked it nanda...
thonnalukale...Thanks:)
dreamy eyes, sorry to make you cry:)
hope you'll all visit this little space again

Anonymous said...

i thot of writing comment after reading all the posts but cant stop myself from writing a comment now itself..
excellent...touched my heart..

Anonymous said...

oh...wen i tried to go to newer posts i dint see "newer post"...
so this s ur last post..y no posts after may??long time...
no matter wat happens.. dont stop ur writing...keep on posting..

മനോജ് കെ.ഭാസ്കര്‍ said...

But then there was God, and God willed that they meet

Sandeep Balan said...

heart warming post daa...nice to discover your blog...cheers!

അനില്‍@ബ്ലോഗ് // anil said...

Nice post.

Think that the words come from chinnu.

:)