Plea

Would you understand why that missing comma, that missing period will always annoy me?

Would you understand heels have always been my nightmare and how they will still continue to overrule my convictions and make me want to get the hang of them?

Would you understand that I am always going to need help with tearing open that packet irrespective of what it contains – chocolates, ice-creams, ketchup, pens, gunpowder?

Would you understand that the most vulnerable moment of mine is probably when I am holding onto that book as if for dear life, stripped naked of all veils?

Would you understand that I will always be a sucker for words, the written, the spoken, the command they have over my very self, making me forget for a moment the side I am on, making me pause involuntarily if only to admire the beauty they cloak their subject in?

Would you understand if I told you that I feel more secure when I leave my words within single quotes; that double quotes have left me squirming of late?

Would you understand that beneath all that show of being strong and probably over-confident lies a very brittle self-confidence that has survived too many a storm of doubts of its very existence?

Would you understand that past all the fancy words and imageries is just a yearning to be held, petted, looked in the eye defiantly and convey all there is to be said in pristine silence?

Would you understand that it is not love that I seek, not even companionship, for they all bore me at some point or the other, but the presence of your being that keeps fooling me into believing that life will somehow seem complete in the truest sense?

Would you understand the lonely streaks that I am bound to get into, the free falls, the maddening jumps, the solo trips, the skinny dips and that ache to wander furthermore?

Would you understand that I have tried and still this won’t stop, won’t just let me be?

Would you pause, even if just for a moment, to just acknowledge that none of this is easy and it is a full-fledged battle, against the senses, against time, against the conscious, against my entire self every single time?

Would you, please?

This is how much life is.

Grab a chocolate bar or a cup of hot coffee. Snuggle in your bed. Take a deep breath. Forget who you are. Forget what you have done till now. Now read.

Fall in love. Go mad. Fall out of it. Go madder. And fall in love again. Have your heart broken at least a couple of times. Lose hope. And see it renewed in the new person to whose magic your heart tugs you to sway to. Whether it is your neighbor, your school/college mate, a random stranger you’d met on the street, colleague, friend of a friend of a friend of a friend or even a friend you’d not had love interest in until that magical moment, just fall in love. Float in the air till it lasts. Love like you’ve loved none before.

Get laid. Know that losing your virginity is simply overrated and the pain might even seem pointless. And then get to know that there is much more to lovemaking than porn movies give away. Learn the sexiness in hugging and cuddling. Master the art of almost kissing. Get to know that nothing beats sleeping within breathing distance. Stay awake long enough to feel the rise and fall in breath. Hang on till the very puff of air gives you the tingling feeling. Resist touching. Let your senses rush. Now learn the magic that touching another’s skin holds. The pulsating feeling will rise until the actual act. Several times later, you’ll know that that is how far it gets; the rest is just a formality.

Travel. Move your bottom and slowly let yourself learn and soak in new cultures. Lose yourself in the history hidden in the roads and buildings there. Strike a conversation with a random stranger. Sleep on a blanket under the night sky. Huddle in a tent in the middle of nowhere. Alright. Somewhere. Take a boat ride. Hire a string quartet. Strike a carefree romantic encounter. Go on a trekking expedition you are not so sure you’d return alive from. Come back alive from the dead. Boast of completing at least three different daredevil adventure activities. Go skinny dipping. Know what it is to actually shiver and burn. Feel like you belong and shift bases again. Have at least a couple of movie moments in your life to reminisce about when your legs no longer give way.

Read. Rediscover yourself in paperbacks. Write a few if you can. Watch movies. Try making a few. Whether you succeed or fail, you find new ways to imagine. To think. To see. To live. To love. Click pictures. In or out of focus doesn’t matter as you will eventually realize. Even the blurred memories will keep you warm on that lonely, frosty day.

Make a friend or two. One of those types that’d be for the keeps. You could go chasing dimwits and this one’d still snigger and let you rant on about your ‘soul mate’ while patiently waiting for you to get your head knocked down and come scrambling home for a hug and a beer.

Forget the past. Forget the future. Forget ifs and buts and maybes and couldbes. Let go of whatever binds you, ties you down. Let go of fears and apprehensions. Let go of what you were, what you might be. The time is always now. What is real is just you, this feeling right inside your heart. Just shut everything else down and walk right ahead. At least you won’t have to regret losing an experience. There is no lifetime. Just a huge set of experiences.

If chance brings along a daughter or a son, be sure to pass your life as a fantasy to boldly embark on one day. 

This is honestly how much life is.