The notion that someone, somewhere was born only because you were born, that someone came to this planet solely to love and cherish you, and was created by the powers above, just to be by your side, is beautiful indeed. While I really don’t care if it is true or not, I would like to believe that there is a special “one” for each and every living thing in this beautiful world.
I also know that there is a shining secret within us, which we never give away to anyone, not even to ourselves. It is a treasure chest holding the loveliest of emotions — precious jewels of laughter, marvelous necklaces of love, glimmering rings of passion, gossamer brocades of togetherness, all emotions representing the best we are ever capable of feeling — all hidden in the confines of our heart. That treasure chest is unfortunately locked. We don’t have the keys. We don’t know how to open it. Many of us don’t even know if it exists.
Then someone comes along. Someone beautiful and handsome, or someone so plain and ordinary, you might never have cast a second glance. But mysteriously that person has a key, and the moment you see that key, the treasure chest in your heart opens and magically everything changes. You overflow with emotions so sweet that you are swept off your feet. The world around you changes too. Problems and worries, which earlier plagued you, vaporise as if they never existed. Hope swells in your heart, happiness flows out like heady wine, your face glows, your step has a spring, your voice babbles like a mountain stream. Life blossoms like a ripened bud, bursting out in a riot of colors and fragrances.
It is highly likely you have an identical key too. When that person sees the key, he or she opens up in the same way as you did, and experiences those rare and beautiful emotions with you. When such miracles happen, then you could say you found the “one”. “One” is the right way to describe it. One key, one magic, one love, one deep river of emotion entwining two souls.
But don’t forget, there is also the old you lurking in the corner. The old you who ruled your heart when you didn’t know the treasure chest existed. The old you who never felt all those lovely feelings. That old you has a baggage of negative emotions stored away, which surfaces quite often. Emotions of inadequacy, anger, jealousy and vanity. The old you is used to searching, but not finding. The old you is used to hurting people, including yourself. The old you doesn’t know how to live in fragrance and love.
After the first flush of magic washes over us, the old you tends to surface again. After the first wave of love ebbs, the hard surface of our personality collides with that secret treasure chest of beauty. Then love becomes possessive, manipulative, full of rules and dos and don’ts… And the magic soon fades. To the lucky ones, the first flush of love is so strong it can uproot all the hard rocks of negative emotion and sweep us away in a tidal wave of grand feelings, which are so strong that it can last a lifetime.
Sadly for many others, love does not last. Its perfection is twisted and disfigured by the ugliness of our own being. When that happens, the treasure chest closes down on us.
Many of you would have gone through this cycle. Some of you would have been scarred, some would have escaped unharmed. Still many would have ventured only a little, opened that treasure chest just a little bit and shut it again rapidly. They were afraid to give their all, and felt only tentative emotions of love, which would have come and gone quickly. A rare few would have continued floating in the heaven of love for years on end, feeling graceful emotions continuously flowing in their veins.
Hold these thoughts in your minds and dwell on them for a week. I haven’t finished. I have also received several mails from you guys, each with their own original ideas. Let us wrestle with love again next week.
The author is a film director