Love from the old Oaks

“I stopped by the red light at the empty round about, and kept watching around the empty roads, when an old scooter came and stopped right next to me…………….”

It was a tiring day back in the office, with all those meetings and post production work, I was just waiting for a break to run away home. When my boss came over and told me “You look tired”…… I was so happy he realized it. Am happy he even managed to ask such a thing. Because nowadays I don’t even hear stories of good bosses anymore. And to add on to that working in a TV channel is not that easy. With tons of programs going on air, production house meetings, accounts, operations work, its simply an organized nightmare and every day I never know how and when time manages to fly that fast. I looked into my watch and it was 10:15pm, that was truly late. I sent my last few mails, commented on a few statuses on Facebook and then logged off saying bye to the very few remaining in the office…. It was quite a long day.

I switched on my bike and just rode my way back home thinking of so many things which happening in my life, about my pay cheque, my best friends birthday, that new mobile I always dreamt of buying, irritating clients, and so many things which just kept floating amidst this drive. I literally wasn’t looking at the road, which by far was another worse level of driving all together. But still at 10:30pm when half of the roads in Chennai are empty and are all yours, how many times do you think of what’s in front of you. You just drive with a rhythm which just takes you home and even before you realize your already home………

I was crossing Anna Nagar, I looked around and just no one, an empty round about, with an empty signal glowing red. This round about always reminds of so many good things which have happened in my life, it relates to peoples, emotions and much more, while I was lost in those thoughts, those numbers at the light kept rolling down. I heard this old rattling sound, and when I look around, I saw this really old Vespa scooter come to a stop right next to me. A grandpa was driving it, he looked like at least 80years old, white hair, thick specs and wore a neat dress with really matching trousers and polished shoes, he was really smart for his age. Then I realized that there was another figure hidden behind the old man, when I slowly looked back, there was this lean old woman behind him. I looked close and what I saw made me realize that “There’s nothing more beautiful than watching two people love each other with all their hearts”, and when you watch such a sight, it just melts your heart and you learn to say that “It’s true, love is what makes the world go round and round”………… Grandma wore a cute red saree and she kept one hand on his shoulder and one hand hugged him tight. She was actually sleeping leaning on his back. And every now and then, she would open her tiny little eyes just to see if everything was okay around them, and I noticed that ever few minutes, he took his hand and kept over her hand and made sure to her that everything was aright………….. They both looked so beautiful together, may be those decades of love has natured them and made them so rich with devotion for each other. Love had bound them so tight and I just loved seeing it happen in front of me.

I have seen life take its toll on people and I have certainly seen today’s love, but there was never an answer on how love ferments over time….. No perfect answers on what true love really means, or how do you get it there…… It sometimes so hard to explain how love is drawn or painted on our lives, I think it those special people who come into our lives that make all those differences worth living. Those very few who have all that potential to change our lives forever….. Those little cute things they do for us, those warm hands they lend for us and most of all the shoulders they share for us. I think it’s just priceless when those few come into our lives and our life changes once and for all…..

I learnt that true love grows and ages through the years, it ferments over time, like those malt whiskeys they put into old oaks so that with time it becomes ones of the most cherished drinks ever….. And you never get to feel it unless you have been left with nothing else than just a single friend standing next to you holding on to you till the end. It so true when they say “Blessed is still, a man who see’s the end of the world and is left with just his best friend” I cannot thank my friends who have held my hands during those tormented times I have faced, those heartaches I crossed just because they refused to let me down. Its truly a blessing to have friends who have been time tested, have been with you through all your tough times and still held on to you……

If love between time tested friends has got so much value, then how lovely is the depth of relationship shared by a couple over the years….. The understanding, morals, devotion which gets embedded into their relationship, it’s so magical to even think how it would be over the years, when you completely surrender to the love of each other. I think I wouldn’t realize much of what selfless love is until I have my own children, may be you start to think that “What started with love, just gets multiplied” and there you are sitting in front of the most precious gifts you have brought to earth…. Damn those kids are so cute; I just can’t get enough of them. I just wish God gives me the way I always have dreamt of it, 2 girls and 1 boy, which should be so amazing or may be one of the happiest incidents of my little sweet life.

When I talk of love being shared, its always one of the best things I would love to share, talk and express, because there is nothing else which makes a man more complete than being loved. After all the sweetest things in life are not seen, sensed, touched or heard but felt deep within our hearts till the ends of our beats.

The lights turned green when the old scooter rattled past me and they slowly disappeared into the dark while I looked on at the old mother holding on tight to him, and slowly closing her eyes off in peace. I didn’t move for a while, totally lost into my own thoughts which ran through those few minutes I stood there. I just wish one day, I could be held tight by a hand from behind which will hold on to me through the best and the worst of times of my life, hand in hand and heart to heart...........

“I smiled at the mirror watching me and slowly drove away while the darkness shadowed my place in that peaceful night”