Love...

As many of you know, I love to read. 

One of the genre that I love to read are the romances. 

Days when I am not in the mood to think too much or get too involved I read the light frothy romances that takes my mind away from the tensions of the day. Days when I just want to curl up with a good read but a light one, I turn to the good ol' Victorian Era books of Georgette Heyer and the classics like Pride and Prejudice. 

Sometimes I feel that probably I read a bit too many romances for my own good. But then I do read a lot, so them why shouldn't the repertoire of books include a few romances.

I sit and ponder...Are all girls like this? I guess more girls like or should I say love the the happy endings, the mushy stuff, the wooing, the romantic movies and songs and so on. Guys seem to prefer the harder things in life or they just act as though such silly things are only for girls and that they are much more serious, mature...or whatever....But then it could also be a stereotyping on my part to assume that girls fall in this category and guys in the other...

So where am I going with all this?

No where actually...

Lets face it. No matter what we say we like and no matter what we show outwards, we all want the happy ending whether it is for us or for our friends.

The past few weeks have left me wondering....Life seems to have gone haywire...

On one side I see happy relationships being built and nurtured and friends being happy. For them the world is bright and sunny and things are just great.

On the other hand I see relationships breaking up...Things that were supposed to be fixed and steady all crumbling in front of my eyes. Here, the world isn't so bright and sunny and it's just a matter of saying that "life goes on..."

Over the years, we all meet so many people. We see people falling in love and succeeding or falling in love and getting hurt. Some of them seem to fall in love the second and the third time...Sometimes succeeding in their newer attempts and sometimes failing in even those. We see people who fall in love but don't even get a chance to express it and some of them who fall in love and express it and lose it all....So many things to take in and all of it leaves you wondering....

When I was younger, I never thought that our society was accepting of things like "love" especially when it came to the formal institution of marriage. To me, these were things in my magic world of books and in those movies that everybody knew wasn't strictly true. 

But the passage of time has shown me this isn't totally true. There are people and parts of society which accept the phenomenon of love and there are those that don't. 

Life is so strange....I know of people who have been in a relationship for so many years and have got hitched...those that have been in a relationship and could not get hitched...those in a relationship and waiting to get hitched....

Isn't it strange that though "falling in love" and "going out" with others have become more accepted of late in our society, not all of these relationships last till the time becomes ripe for the formal institution of marriage. 

Has our generation become more callous in such things? It cannot be said that "love marriages" were uncommon in our parents times because they weren't. I myself can count a few of these marriages and am sure you, the reader, can too...

So what is wrong with our generation? Do we tend to fall in love more easily or are we just too trusting by nature? Or is it so that the number of people claiming to fall in love have increased to such an extent that the numbers of those that don't work out are staggering? Are we just aping the western culture? Or do we just not know what we mean when we say that we are in love?

So many things to ponder about...

I do not know how to conclude this...except by saying....

To all my friends who are happy in their relationships and love, I am really very happy for you and wish everything will turn our right...even with all your worries about parents not accepting it...

To all my friends for whom things haven't turned out right, all of us are there for you and with you...and am sure (though it doesn't seem so now..) that things are going be much brighter...and that the right person hasn't seen you yet....so till then just remember that you friends and family are there....

To those who haven't yet taken the plunge...I am no one to advise you...but think things over before you decide anything and only take the plunge if you are really sure...else don't....there are things to gain and lose with any decision you take....

And here's hoping that I have at least prompted a few of my readers to think about this or feel better about their decisions....Adieu... 

Darkness

I could hear a sound. It seemed to come from afar but it seemed to be coming closer and closer. The shrill sound filled me with an urgency. It was imperative that I get up. As the sound became louder and closer, I seemed to jump up from the bed.

My legs gave away beneath me and I toppled. I tried to hold on to the chair closest to me. The sound was coming from a device kept on a table. I leaned on to the chair for support and tried to move closer to the device. My legs gave way a second time and I stumbled and fell. I lay there on the floor waiting for the moments to pass.

The sound became inconsequential considering my failed attempts to reach it. Moments trickled by and the sense of urgency returned. I had to get to the sound and put it off. I decided that it was going to me my last attempt, if I failed now, I would face the consequences. 

I lunged, for the final time, towards the device. I grabbed it. It was a phone, unlike the ones I had seen. I tried to shut off the noise. Once the noise was stopped, I tried to examine it. I had never seen the likes of this device. 

For the first time since the bell rang, I looked around. Unfamiliar surroundings and darkness seemed to stare at me from all sides. Panic seemed to set in. I turned around looking for a way to escape. 

"Where was I? How did I get here?"

Questions swarmed in my head. I spotted a door in a corner and took of. I grabbed the handle, all the while praying that it would open. I turned the handle and heard a click. The door was locked. I shook the door. I had to get out of here

I remembered the phone like device I had left on the table. I returned but.....

The device wasn't there. I had kept it here but it had disappeared. I looked around for the sight of another person. The silence seemed ominous. It seemed as though I was cornered. I dashed back to the door and tried another time. This time the door swung open easily. I peered out into the darkness wondering whether to make a run for it.

I dashed across across and immediately saw a opening on my right. As I reached the opening, hands grabbed me. Panic set in and I couldn't breathe. I struggled and tried to fight my way out. As the struggles grew, so did the panic and the darkness grew around me. It came in from all sides and stifled me. It seemed pointless to struggle and I gave in as a wave of dizziness swept over me. The darkness beckoned me and it seemed easier to give it all up. As another wave of dizziness swept over me, I let myself sink and let the darkness claim me...