LOVE

Love. Such a strong emotional state that can overpower every pore and the very core of the being. Though it is Diwali today, I can't not discuss the meaning and influence of love on me, especially because I've just watched the biggest tribute to love - Jab Tak Hai Jaan.

Technically labelled Yash Chopra's swansong, it is truly what one would call, 'saving the best for last.' Being a huge fan of his treatment of romance [and who wouldn't be? He isn't called the King of Romance for nothing!], the waterworks began as soon as the first still with the Yash Raj Films logo was shown. Knowing this was going to be the most important film to me because it was the maestro's last, I watched the film in awe of his craftsmanship. But little did I know that I would find glimpses of things and moments I've known and felt. The unique thing about love is the intense commonality of its experience. Even if we are, or claim to be, the "instant make-out, instant break-up generation", our hearts still reverberate with that old world, Yash Raj-type romantic notions. I know mine does.

Right from the idea of love being above faith, the challenges of fate, and the moments the characters lose in their absences from each other, as an audience and as a human being, I connect with all of that. But the thing that struck me the hardest was a dialogue, uttered by Rishi Kapoor. He says "Har ishq ka ek waqt hota hai. Woh humara waqt nahin tha. Par iska matlab yeh nahin ki woh ishq nahin tha..." And he's right. I would rather not go into why I think so and what makes that statement so meaningful and profound to me but I know that everyone has a connect with that statement.

The best possible description I can find for love is that its a maddening process. Its not love if it doesn't drive you crazy. Its not love if it doesn't make you link everything up to that one person. I mean, love is poetic, magical, inspiring, fearful, scary, scarring and the most hurtful state. But at the same time, it is beautiful and grows more and more so with each tear shed in their name and each pang of pain borne for them. The day we fall in love is the day we are truly born. So says the movie, and so I believe and endorse. 

What also holds true for love, for me at least, is that it comes with no quotas. You can fall in love more than just once. You can be the love of more than one person [if you're lucky and if you're Major Samar Anand]. But its that one person who leaves you senseless that is truly the one you love most. Reiterating a dialogue from Dil Chahta Hai, "pyaar soch samajh kar nahin kiya jaata. Bas ho jaata hai."

Some of us are with that person. Some of us are still searching. Some of us are stuck in limbo, between with and without, between faith and doubt, between yes and no and between life and oblivion. For all three of our kinds, I say, hold on. Just keep holding on. Love is for all. And its all for the taking. And love is eternal and doesn't ever fade, it just takes new shapes. And for all of this enlightenment, I have only Yashji to thank, forever and ever. He will remain in our hearts, Jab Tak Hai Jaan.

Fading

The pain ceases to exist

but the scars remain.

They remain as reminders,

as indicators, as markers.

And if as none of these,

As memories of the pain

that ceases to exist,

Though the scars stay.

The scars fade away,

Surely but slowly, with time.

If not from life, from sight.

And if not from sight, from memory.

But they fade,

Slowly and surely, with time.

Time and again,

painful scars come and go.

As life goes on -

painfully, slowly, hurtfully - 

People places and things

come and go,

Leaving painful scars

on the ever-healing soul.

As they all, eventually,

Surely, slowly,

Fade away.