My best friends' engagement....

Today two of my dearest friends got engaged, and that to each other :) , making the occasion even more special. Those who had seen them first bump into each other 6 years ago knew that something special was going to happen, something lovely was going to come from this meeting, and it feels so great to be vindicated all these years later.

I guess that love is like a fine vintage; the sweetness of the grape, when slowly aged and matured, gives off the beautiful taste of the wine, just as the stroke of lightning one experiences at first sight, with the passage of time, becomes the deep and everlasting affections that one feels for that special someone. Some vintages take a long time to reach their finest point, some mature very quickly, and some never come to fruition at all; but the name of the game is to keep on trying to make that perfect brew, for one's own sake and for the sake of living life as it should be lived.

Seeing two dear friends come together in a bond of hearts, not out of compulsion, but out of a simple desire to love and cherish, fills one with emotions that cannot be described in all the words in the English or any language for that matter. To see the joy on their faces leaves one simply overjoyed for having had the opportunity to bask in the sunshine of their happiness.

Love coming to fruition gives a special glow to the faces of both partners; it's as if the sun shines through their eyes, through their very person. For one moment, you forget your problems, and just lie silently in their warmth, in the cheer that their smiles spread, and somehow everything seems all right, like the Biblical Garden of Eden. One could go on rambling, but such occasions are best understood when personally experienced.

Here's wishing them both a very happy life together! May it be filled with bliss, contentment, and felicity in every walk of life! May all the blessings that the world may have to offer be theirs by right and as is owed to them!

Raju and Nami, this one's for you! 

Morality and us.....

The Delhi High Court's judgement on the case of the 'obscene' kiss (makes it sound like a Hercule Poirot or Sherlock Holmes novel....) is a bold way of taking the mickey of all these xenophobic and patently narrow-minded monkeys living in God knows which century and which country.

That a married couple should be arrested and subjected to such mental trauma over a period of nearly six months for a simple kiss or even for overtly displaying their mutual affections puzzles me. Don't the police have better things to do than watch out for couples kissing or holding each others' hands in parks and public places? Whatever happened to the good old days when the police had actual criminals to apprehend and punish? Surely not everyone of the delinquents is in jail? Or have all of them reformed, trembling in their pants at the 'machismo' of the Indian police who will arrest a couple over a mere kiss? I can't even think what they will do to someone who perpetrates a murder!

Morality is a highly subjective and personal issue, especially more so in a country like India where cultural influences and beliefs differ in every locality. What may seem unacceptable to one section of the populace may be perfectly normal to another; so how do our lawmakers decide what is best for the entire society? A good option would be to leave the morals to the people themselves; if they are mature enough to decide who's good enough to represent them in legislative bodies, surely they ought to have the sense to decide what is moral and what is immoral in their lives.

But no, we have these self-appointed guardians of morality, of a Indian culture that frowns upon kissing, holding hands and drinking in pubs. Bravo! So may we presume that the titans of Bollywood would now be expected to scale down on all the modernism that they are wont to show, because even if it's the reality in our society, it simply isn't 'right'? No more singing and dancing, eh? What next, the purdah? Dressing and grooming regulations for males? Shouldn't the pant be deplored as a foreign garment, meant to enslave poor Indian males into a sense of bondage, as opposed to the grand dhoti which is the very essence of liberty and freedom?

In conclusion, I am reminded of George Bernard Shaw, who very succintly put it, "When you prevent me from doing anything I want to do, that is persecution; but when I prevent you from doing anything you want to do, that law, order and morals." The Sri Ram Sena and all their brethren should bear this in mind.