~* A sight of plight! *~

A busy street, bustling with sounds of horns from vehicles - small to big, zooming past the petty shops stacked on the sides. Alongside the road...almost invisible to the fast moving people, a black sintex tank sits on the the pavement. Making it hard to say it's truly black, many layers of posters are stuck on it..newly released movies..heroine's head cut..hero's face torn, hardly one can make out the movie's name. Next to this tank.. a few meters away.. an electric box, locked and painted with a danger sign on it. As if ironically, there's an innocent looking young boy, sitting on the stone slab that bases the box.

He should be around 13-14 years of age, but seems younger than that as he surprises the passer-bys with his child-like gestures and behavior. Dressed in only a pair of 'Khaki' colored trousers, mixed with the dust and dirt, displaying different shades of brown. Torn on the sides, mistaken for pockets, the only piece of clothing that seems to be his cover. His bare chest, patted lavishly with the ' Powder of the Poor', that's to say the mud and the soil. He doesn't give a pleasing sight.. maybe that's why no one notices this loner! Sitting day and night in the same place, hardly visible to the hurrying people on the roads.

He sits on the bench, one leg carelessly hanging and the other placed upright, knees bent on the bench. Looking up into the vast blue sky, chanting a 'prayer' like something in a language only he seems to understand. Not steady for a minute, his eyes glistening with unconscious tears, move so fast like a black coin on a carom board. He then shifts his attention back to the roads, points his finger at someone...anyone...or actually no one and starts talking to 'them'. He has no regret, no embarrassment in gaining incredible momentary attention as he jumps up from his almost statued position, to stand on the middle of the pavement, startling the pedestrians with shock. Unmindful of being a hindrance to these mundane masses' way, he goes round and round and round on his weak legs, now shaking.. predicting a fall anytime. Dizzy now, he sits back on the bench, resuming another position, now almost still, only to fool yet another set of unaware people who walk past him. He sits there in silence, a firm gaze on the speeding vehicles, his eyes imitating a slow pendulum, his lips slightly parted to reveal a set of crooked teeth… lips swollen making it a little hard to remain closed, his hands perched on his bruised knees, occasionally rubbing the non-existent itch on his face.
No one dares to interfere, as he is lost completely in his own world, a solitude so precious, a language only familiar to him, innocently fighting a battle to live, carelessly living in this care forgotten world, a soldier in his own terms, fighting an almost dying battle, this boy is a Survivor...but a prisoner of his sickness!!

That thing called LOVE!

LOVE …
LOVE…????
In this world of pain, hurt, treachery, hatred, vengeance….it does exist! Love exists…passes through every little hurdle…and survives….survives to know that it can change the whole world. Such is the greatness of this simple emotion, which can’t be defined in one concept. It brings together hearts, melting even the strongest of boulders, yet all this is done silently and stealthily.

To love a person takes a great deal of courage, for it is just not another emotion that you can get over with or you can control or you can just calm it down….Love involves attachment, caring, intimacy, passion, bonding and most importantly, it involves that fragile thing –TRUST, which is the base for the commitment in love! Well, am not trying to scare anyone here, but then those who know of friendship, will know of love, and will know of what am talking about. Love is the exchange of your mind with another, your heart with another. It is tricky, risky, and unpredictable than most complicated of transplantations. You can’t explain why you fall in love with someone. As many say, opposites attract, but it can also mean you like that someone because they are similar to you in many ways. Whatever be the case, love happens…it jus does!!

Love doesn’t see time, caste, creed, status, and religion; it doesn’t see anything at all when it first comes. I am not really sure of love at first sight, but then the first sight can be the start of something. It’s the attraction that takes the priority in this case. But when it comes to a strong bonding for a long-term relationship, the priorities are different. You might have been friends with a person for a really long time, but gradually you realize the emotion has changed and you are ‘in love’ with this person. How can it be? How can this happen? Well, let me try telling you what I think. You like this person for some reason, the good vibes, and the similar likes and dislikes, the way you guys can initiate a conversation from thin air, etc. Unconsciously your mind reads them thoroughly; it taps into them, their personality, their character, evaluating the chances of being more than friends. You end up penetrating deep, loving them all the while, and finally reach the core… and there you find the most unexplainable rush,

you are in love, in love with this person, in love with this heart… this soul!

Now you all must be floating in this feeling, for it would have rung a thousand bells in your head by now. So let me just touch on yet another thing…. True love…True love?? What is that? …. I don’t really believe when someone says my love is true. It is so clichéd. Do they really know if it’s true? Can they prove to the world their love is different from others? Will their love conquer all????

Oh…. True love is not really what people call ‘true love’. It can never be defined. Everyone has their own definitions. But the truth is, it’s far more than you can define, far more than anyone can feel, too good to be on earth, it’s simply magic…

You might say all these are YOUR definitions…so what?? I still defined the one thing no one can really define… LOVE….