The Rose and the Stem

All the characters referred to in the below blog are fictitious and bear no resemblance with anyone living or dead whatsoever. Any co-incidence is purely co-incidental and unintentional.

Mary was in a fix. She loved Aditya very much and he too loved her and both of them had decided to tie the knot. But she had not told her father about it. Being motherless since childhood, her father meant her world to her. He had been both a mother and a father to her. Mary wanted both Aditya and her father Joseph, but the possibility looked remote as Joseph had a wish to get a good Christian husband for his daughter and it would be hard to convince him for Aditya, but Aditya was irresistible for Mary. She could no longer take the guilt of having let down her father for falling for a man outside Christianity, as Joseph had always boasted about Mary’s principles in the community. She decides to confess and heads towards the church. Her mind is set on fire, a tsunami raging in her breaths; she is racing through the Saint Anthony’s Church and finally reaches the confession box. She looked around the walls of the confession chamber, they seem to be cursing her you have befallen yourself in your father’s esteem; they seemed to be telling her. The walls seemed enclosing her and she was getting drowned in her own self-remorse and guilt and from inside her conscience was biting her. She felt like running away from the confession box, when a voice soothed her down. Father John’s voice was like honey to an ailing patient.

Father: “Tell me my child, what pesters you?”
Mary: “Father I want to confess something, I have done something terrible. I can’t believe I could have done something like this.”
Father: “Relax my child, HE is very generous. Spell out your heart. HE is there, HE shall guide you.”
Mary: “Father, I lost my mother in childhood, I do not remember her face now. I was just 2 years old when she died in an accident. Since then my father has taken care of me and he has been a darling father any daughter could have. I have never felt the loss of my mom as he has been both a father and a mother.”

She stopped for a while. She had to gather strength to spell her heart out. The priest consoled her.
Father: “Do not worry my child, have faith on HIM. Tell me whatever you want to. I am sure HE will guide us.”
The words poured lifeblood into her suffocating soul. She regained strength.

Mary: “He always taught me values, principles, truthfulness and strong adherence to Christianity. He had also cherished a small wish to get me a good Christian Husband. But I love Aditya, Father. I love him very much and he too loves me very much and also respects my father’s wish a lot. Now I am confused how to convince my father about Aditya as I know he might agree if I act stubborn but he will be torn inside. But my love for Aditya is pure father. I am feeling so bad that I failed myself as a daughter.”

Her tears, breaking the dam of self-control, reflected the shadow of her pain and her agony. Father John tried to pacify her.

Father: “My child you are just in love. You have not done anything wrong. HE does not teach you just to love people from your religion nor does HE teaches you not to love people outside Christianity. HE is the messiah who is here to spread the message of love. You have not committed any SIN my dear child. Come out of the self-remorse and guilt. Love is a very great and pure feeling, my child, and it knows no boundaries in terms of caste, creed, religion and such man made human dividers. So please do not think you have not acted as per HIS wish.”

Mary was feeling a little better but still she was thinking as to why life had become so difficult for her.

Mary: “I know Father, I fully agree with you. But why is Life so difficult. I had taken it lightly; I was blindly following the fragrance of the rose and forgot that it has thorns as well.”

Father: “My child life is very much like a rose. It is beautiful, spreads fragrance and adds grandeur by its presence and is a symbol for the establishments of new relationships but it has thorns as well.”

Mary was listening dumbfounded. Father John continued.

Father: “The beauty, the fragrance et al of the rose is the happiness in our life and the thorns symbolize the unwanted grief in our life. So if you see the flower of rose, its beauty, fragrance and its thorns are always present. Similarly, happiness and grief are always present in life. We are so much astounded by the goodies of the rose that we tend to ignore the thorns until it pricks us when we take it in our hands carelessly. Same with life, we take life so easily that we tend to ignore the problems in life. Had we viewed the rose flower in its totality, taking into accounts its beauty as well its thorns, and had handled it carefully holding its stem properly, we could have enjoyed its beauty and at the same time escaped the pain of its thorns’ prick. Similarly if we take life seriously, and not ignore its problems and take into account the fact that problems and happiness are part and parcel of life and they just need to be handled properly. So now coming back to your problem all I can say is remove your guilt from yourself as you have just loved and that is no SIN my dear. Your father also loves you very much, tell your heart to him sincerely and he shall understand. Give him his time as he will be parting with his life’s savings.”

Mary: “Thank you very much Father, I shall remember your words. You have lightened my burden. Thank you so much Father.”

Father John gave a sweet smile and left from there.

A new and transformed Mary left the premises of the Saint Anthony’s Church that day. She was beaming with joy as she had learnt so many things today. Indeed problems and happiness are always present and we just need to handle it properly. Hold the stem at the proper place, enjoy the beauty and escape the thorns.

Bitterness - A form of Love?

All the characters referred to in the below blog are fictitious and bear no resemblance with anyone living or dead whatsoever. Any co-incidence is purely co-incidental and unintentional.

Tring Tring!!!!

Jignesh calling. Jahnavi’s heart always skipped a beat seeing Jignesh’s name on the calling screen of her mobile. And Jignesh would never miss any of her calls even if it meant to stop his bike while and attend to the call, or even an SMS. Were they laying more importance on each other than needed? No, absolutely not, both of them needed this importance, though they always maintained a stand contrary to this to each other. Do not give me so much of importance. Gathering herself, she picked up the call.

Jahnavi: “Hello!!!”

The words spelled magic and poured honey into Jignesh’s ears. It was like an oasis in a desert.
Jignesh: “Hi, what’s up?”
Jahnavi: “Nothing, I am in office.”
Jignesh: “Can we meet in the evening?”
Jahnavi: “Ummm, ok.”

Jignesh had been mustering courage for the meeting since the past few days. How on earth is he going to tell this to Jahnavi that they will not be meeting after today, probably not or at least they are not going to talk on phone. They will be buddies, but buddies that’s it, might be chatting, blogging and commenting on each other’s posts. It was not all happy in Jignesh’s family about his getting close to a non-Gujarati girl, so he had to take a decision. Either tell his family that he cannot give up on Jahnavi and lose all credibility or tell Jahnavi to sever ties with him forever so that there are no problems in his family. But Jignesh has been known to find alternative and un-thought of solutions to serious problems. He knew Jahnavi would understand him, and support him. He was waiting for her in the corridor, thinking about how to put his thoughts across, just when he saw the hurried steps of Jahnavi racing towards him.

Jahnavi: “Hi, how are you? How was the day?”
Jignesh: “I am fine. The day was fine. How was yours?”
Jahnavi: “Hmm it was OK types. So tell me, what is it? your breath sounded a bit tensed.”
Jignesh: “Yeah…. actually, just wanted to ask you….”

Words were playing games with Jignesh, or was he trying to play some games. Jahnavi was petrified knowing that still Jignesh needed to think before speaking to her. Though she fought off her irritation, and put it straight across to him, as she knew it had to be only one matter.

Jahnavi: “Everything’s fine at home I guess?”

Jignesh was almost taken aback, Can she read my thoughts, telepathy!!!. The thought was both a boon and a bane for him. Boon as half of the work was done, she knew the matter at least, it will be easy to carry over from here, but the bane part of it was more perilous as it highlighted how close they were emotionally, mentally, spiritually and it will be all the more difficult for them to increase distances. But who said Life is easy. He had to carry on and so was the case with Jahnavi as well. She had a tougher life he thought. He had always thought this.

Jignesh: “No, not everything is fine. Actually that’s why I called you to say, we might not be able to continue the way we have been going. We need to increase distances, if you want me to put it straight.”
Jahnavi: “Hmm I can understand Jignesh. I had been fearing this day will come soon. Good that it came while I was unprepared, otherwise you know the fears of a lurking danger are more fatal. It is OK….”

She almost fought her tears, damn it. Do not pour out now, I will grant you a more private moment, she seemed to be telling to her tears. This time they obeyed.

Even Jignesh was no less aware of the mental condition of Jahnavi. He also thanked her tears, otherwise it would have been more difficult. He took control of the situation, using Jahnavi’s words to console her.

Jignesh: “I will not call this just love as it limits our relationship and this is what we don’t want to do. You only told me that ours is a complete relation which covers all aspects of a relation between not just a male and a female but between two individuals. And is it some kind of a rule or what, that whenever there’s Love between an unrelated male / female it has to have a romantic angle. I do not have any qualms saying that Love exists although there exists no logical explanation to justify its existence. And in the absence of such an explanation, society just picks up the easiest one, ROMANCE, huh?”

Both of them were surprised at the flow of words coming from Jignesh. Jahnavi had at least not expected this. But Jignesh had more to say. He continued. Jahnavi listened, awestruck.

Jignesh: “The easiest way for this is Bitterness, Jahnavi. If I start getting bitter with you, things can be easier, right? But the saddest part is that even our bitterness for each other is nothing but another manifestation of our love for each other. Life has been such that we are better off handling bitterness, so by being bitter to each other we are just helping the other person cope with the situation. Making life easy for the other person. Paving a way to generate strength for the other person. Is it not our love for each other? To me it is, and staying away is also a form of LOVE. We are burning ourselves as fuels to lighten each others lives. What purer form of LOVE other than this can exist Jahnavi tell me?”

Jahnavi had drifted to a different world. She was in total awe of this person standing in front of her and was rendered speechless by his views. She started respecting him all the more, not only because he used her views to explain himself, but also because Jignesh had acknowledged this relation with the emotion of LOVE. He could use this name, as normally men have a problem with this word. But Jignesh was unique and Jahnavi was proud of him. But she was not able to express her pride for him as it will make him weak and she did not want this to happen. Here again she was applying Jignesh’s principle only, Paving a way to generate strength for the other person.

Jahnavi: “Are you done with your lecture. Actually there’s no need for all this. You could have simply told me, ‘GO AWAY’ I would have happily deserted you. I am getting late. Thanks for everything so far.”

Jahnavi left from there. She wanted to compete with her tears. They should not step out before she steps in her room. Jignesh kept watching her till he could. All he could do is pass a smile, thinking at the tepidity with which Jahnavi had applied his thoughts to practicality. Indeed bitterness is the best and hitherto unexplored form of LOVE. Make the life of your beloved a little bit easier without you, when you know, the current logistics do not allow you to be together.

The Sensation of Touch

All the characters referred to in the below blog are fictitious and bear no resemblance with anyone living or dead whatsoever. Any co-incidence is purely co-incidental and unintentional.

Prologue: A small kid, Jignesh is sitting in his class. He is in the sixth standard and the Life Science is going on. The teacher is taking lessons on the “Sense Organs”

Teacher: “Students we have 5 sense organs.
1. Eyes (The sensation of Vision)
2. Ears (The sensation of Hearing)
3. Nose (The sensation of Smell)
4. Tongue (The sensation of Taste) and last but not the least
5. Skin (The sensation of Touch)”

As the final words echoed around the acoustic peripheries of the room, there was one student amongst the rest who was getting emphatic about the whole thing and could not stop himself, and started chatting with his neighbor.

Jignesh: “Hey Andy, you are quite comfortable with girls tell me, how it feels when a girl touches?”
Andy: “This is not the right time, will talk to you over this later.”
Jignesh: “Hey tell no buddy, anyway this class is boring.”
Andy: “OK, it feels nice; you will enjoy the ‘TOUCH’, its totally different.”

The words reverberated in Jignesh’s mind for long but nothing happened. Years followed and Jignesh took up Science as his subject of interest and got interested in studying about the most interesting organ of human anatomy: THE HUMAN BRAIN. Axons, neurons, cerebral hemispheres: The Frontal Lobe, the Parietal Lobe, the Occipital Lobe, the Temporal Lobe. Of these the Parietal Lobe (perception of stimuli) was of primary importance to him as those words were still making rounds in the Temporal Lobe (memory) of his brain: it feels nice, you will enjoy the ‘TOUCH’, its totally different.

He was still thinking, “What is that is so enjoyable in a woman’s touch?” And started a chain of thoughts. Nostalgia was gripping the center stage in his Temporal Lobe. He started drifting down the memory lane.

He was able to see the serendipity of the Jahnavi’s soothing silhouette from the corridors of the college, standing there as an epitome of Indian beauty. And the burning desire of talking to Jahnavi getting the better of him he maneuvered his steps towards her. Aah who said there are no vibes? Jahnavi could very well feel them in the air that someone has just stopped staring at her and now that silhouette was moving close to her. But did anyone say that vibes transmit as well? Otherwise how in the midst of so much noise, could Kamini get a feel of what was going on. Jignesh goes up to Jahnavi. Aah what an encounter. The charisma of Jahnavi’s beauty melting in the eyes of Jignesh, but alas he’s a miser at words to express himself or his desire to befriend Jahnavi. But secretly, he wishes to shake hands with her saying a cheerful “Hello”, to experience that ‘TOUCH’ which Andy described to him 6-7 years ago, and essence of which has so far eluded him, thanks to his uncanny inability to open up with girls and thanks to his ‘BOOKWORM’ image. But today Jignesh had to muster that much needed dose of courage to speak up. He tried his level best to walk up to her, brushed aside by her shoulders, her arms exposed by the sleeveless cute pink kameez and slightly curtained by the soft silky orangish-yellow chunni spurned around her adding glistening charms to her majestic beauty like bioluminescent plankton giving attractive chimes in a fresh water pond. The effect of the brush was phenomenal. Andy was right. it feels nice; you will enjoy the ‘TOUCH’.

Jignesh: “Hi… I am…. I am so sorry, actually I didn’t mean to….. I was just going through my books…..
Barely could he speak, poor thing. He was not even aware how Jahnavi is going to react to this careful mistake of his.
Jahnavi: “It’s OKJ, no problem.”

Laughing at it, less at the careful mistake by Jignesh and his subsequent stammering apology, and more at the realization that secretly how much she had enjoyed that TOUCH. But alas, if expressiveness was Jignesh’s problem, inhibitions were hers. All she could do is pass away giving a smile to him. He stood there speechless, thinking whether he will ever be again able to talk to her.

“So how good are we?”

Siddharth’s words jolted Jignesh out of the reverie. Siddharth Oberoi, the mastermind on the research, “The Sensation of Touch” and also the financial backbone of the study was more than just a co-worker and financer of the project. He was Siddharth’s closest friend.

Jignesh: “Well pretty good, I think we should be in form in a couple of weeks, and then we can go public about it. I’ll show you a small sample. The Sensation of Touch is simply a chemical reaction. It’s more like a mental phenomenon. Of course there’s biochemistry behind it, the Na/K (Sodium / Potassium) cells have their pH altered and this triggers a chemical imbalance in the Central Nervous System with impulses traveling from the point of touch to the Parietal Lobe. All this happens in a fraction of nanoseconds. The touch sensation is analyzed there and the response for the stimuli is generated”

Siddharth: “Sorry to disturb you, Jignesh, but I feel this is going too technical, we need to stress more on psychological aspect of touch. Touch is one such sense which has so many beautiful meanings attached to it. Ever imagined what happens when you do not fair well in your exams, feel stressed out and your mother puts her hands on your head and all worries are driven away in a flash of a second as if someone’s magically let loose a fatal dose on your tensions. Its assurance from your mother, “Do not worry son, there’s always a next time.” We need to explore more on the relation that exists between those unspoken words that come associated with a touch. Have you ever wondered how elated one can feel when that romantic touch enthralls on him / her from the beloved, especially the effect is more pronounced when you think about the person and that person jolts you out of the reverie with that ‘TOUCH’. So how do you think this extra zing to the touch comes into play keeping in mind the sensitivities of the above mentioned scenarios. Its feelings, expectations, and attachments, Jignesh, that also play a very vital role in deciding the effect of the “The Sensation of Touch.” It is not merely those Na/k cells triggering the reactions in the Parietal Lobe, but it has also got a meta-physical and Para psychological aspect to it as well. Also when there’s an element of surprise associated with it all the more fun. Its like you want something, inhibiting to exhibit the desire, you get it and you rejoice.”

The words knocked hard at the Temporal Lobe (associated with memory) of Jignesh like a thunderbolt. Thoughts traveling down his memory lane, with the tepidity of hammerhead sharks traveling in a megaplume, at the sense of blood a mile away with their enhanced telencephalon olfactory lobes, and he was still standing there trying to gather him after that “brush” with Jahnavi.

Kamini had been watching the whole scenario dispassionately. She could sense the inability of Jignesh in expressing his desire and then the debacle, the careful mistake, the stammering apology and the enigmatic, revealing yet concealing smile of Jahnavi.

“Boys will always be boys”, she said, swirling down her sensuous fingers down Jignesh’s face line. The ‘TOUCH’ almost threw the ground off Jignesh’s feet. Little did he expect that the ‘TOUCH’ which has so far eluded will be showered upon him extravagantly the manner it was being showered.

Siddharth: “I hope you are getting my point Jignesh.”, placing a hand on Jignesh’s shoulders and Jignesh, dragged back to the present agreed that Siddharth was right. Definitely the Na/K cells played the technical role in the sensation of touch, but its effects were surely affected by the psychological state of the individual and other dynamics associated with the touch. More research needs to be done on this. Having said that he was again back to his college days. Jahnavi was simply too hard to ignore. Her flawless beauty compounded by her simplicity and her charismatic charm supplemented by her 1000 watts smile was a treat to an eye. Jignesh thought Jahnavi was just his dream and he could never strike a relationship with her. Moreover his hectic schedule in Science did not allow him to take out time for Jahnavi. But her thoughts always took him back to those lovely college days where he could at least see her. That sensation of her ‘TOUCH’ always remained afresh in his mind this research of his on ‘The Sensation of Touch’ had reminisced him of that essence innumerable times.