Love Aaj Kal?

(This is not a movie review.)

Saif and Deepika starrer Love Aaj Kal is running successfully in cinemas world over and has earned a warm welcome from the viewers. It was much awaited movie and I feared that it would also meet the fate of an over-hyped movie, but fortunately it didn’t. After watching the movie, two weird thought crossed my mind – Is it so bad to be lonely? Can long distance relationships never work?

Loneliness is one thing that I love and fear at the same time. I love to be lonely by choice by not by force. And there’s a reason for that. I want to be lonely to recollect my thoughts, to listen to the songs that nobody else likes besides me and I like to read books with a cup of coffee in my hand and silence all around with Jagjit Singh ghazals running in the background. And I love to feel that there are friends beyond this solitude who will always be there for me and will come with me to have a cup of coffee at Café Coffee Day or go for a walk to a nearby mall, whenever I feel like. But at the same time, I fear being left alone to wander. I fear to realize that I don’t have those friends anymore with me in the deserts of Dubai who will come leave me alone when they think I need to be alone, and then come back to me when they know that I need them. In such times I really feel that it’s too bad to be lonely.

The best part of the friendship is when it turns out to be something more than mere friendship. When someone with whom you shared your lunches, with whom you had a dinner on her birthday and with whom you just went around without a reason, starts feeling sad about you going thousands of miles away from you. A fear of loneliness entraps your mind with its full vigor in such times and it’s difficult to tell that girl that she will only be another episode in your life. And when you do so, you assure yourself that one day of all, she will understand that she will be another episode.

But was any of this true? I haven’t still got the answer for me. I’m still wondering whether I love being lonely, or better said, Alone? And I still wonder whether that girl will ever realize that she’s no more the important part of my life as she was over the cups of coffee that we shared and the candle light dinners that we loved. And worst still, I haven’t yet figured out whether I want it to happen or not.

But one thing that the movie has told me is it’s always good to realize that you love someone, no matter where you live and what friends you have. It gives you a strength to fight the odds and beat the world. And it takes away your loneliness when you feel lonely. Just one memory of the first kiss brings a smile on your face when you want it the most.

And from this movie, I’ve figured out one thing for sure – ikko e kahani bas badle zamana…

AS