We have our own versions and interpretations of "Love" and I came across an interesting one from an unexpected quarter recently....


"Love is not an object with an ISI stamp that we buy thinking it will be strong and long lasting.....

Love is a fragrant breeze that touches and passes by, its fragrance unrecognised.

And sometimes having felt it we still choose to remain strangers......"

Yashoda, 18 years, lives in a slum in one of the cities of India, in "If I were rain", celebrating the spirit of India's disadvantaged urban child.

(this is a translation from Hindi, which I liked reading and found it to be profound!)

...for no man lives in the external truth among salts and acids, but in the warm, phantasmagoric chamber of his brain, with the painted windows and the storied wall.

RL Stevenson

Reminiscences

Walls remind me, among other things, of the Great Wall of China, the Berlin wall and the the supposed “impregnable” forts built around cities to protect them, with their walls stretching on for acres and moats separating them from the rest of the territory. (And No! after our lacklustre world cup outing, The Wall is no longer in this list of walls!!)

So how does one break a thick impenetrable wall built around a person who is not swayed by emotion, reason and logic? The wall lets nothing in and nothing out! It just acts as a protective chunky armour used to protect oneself from the hurt and insinuations thrown at you by the world at large.

And how do we demolish the old walls in our minds, strongly rooted in our fears, insecurities and past experiences, blind to reason and hope of a better world ?

A friend tells me “Just let it be! Trust, love and patience will do the demolition job!”

And then the journey from the dry dreary desert to the lush green forest with its flowing waters and the diversity therein is worth all the adventure, promise and hope it offers!

“How high must we build these walls - Around the fields of Paradise ?”
Ricardo Pinto in 'The Chosen'.