Remembrance !!

It's so strange that our life is so dynamic...as we age our priorities change and we transform ourselves into completely different human beings we were a few years ago...today suddenly I am missing my school friends...remembering the time we all spent together creating so many cherished memories..even though it has been more than a decade we are out of school, but we have been in touch throughout...yes everybody is busy in their life but we always made it a point to visit home once a year when we could have a get together kinda thing...we did that for 3-4 years...and we all thought that we should be able to do this for the rest of our lives....we all were wrong...life changed, priorities changed, we all got busier...some of us are out of the country,some have stepped onto the next stage in life...became parents to cute babies or are on their way to becoming parents...some are battling bitter break ups...some too tied up with life...we all do visit our hometown...but not at the same time,we visit when we can make time.Even though all of us wish to meet each other, share our stories and adventures, success and failures, good and bad experiences but we can't. Yeah facebook, twitter, whatsapp have helped us not to forget each other. But we have drifted...even though we wish, we cannot attend a dear friend's wedding...even though we wish we cannot be by the side of a sick friend, even though we wish we cannot see the joy of our friend becoming a parent....the thought of it pains us, saddens us, makes us feel helpless as we know we cannot do anything about it. Such is the fact of life!

When I was growing up, I always used to ask my mom where are her friends? why is she not in touch with her friends and when she used to tell me that as we age things get complicated and we lose touch with friends, i did not believe her. I used to tell her that I shall never be like her..I shall always be in touch with my friends...today standing in this crossroad of life, I understand how it feels.People with whom we have grown up, people who perhaps know us better than even our family members, people with whom we have shared dreams and hopes, people whom we dearly loved are now no longer part of our lives.....Today as I write this, I remember all the beautiful moments I spent with my dear friends...the laughter, the joy, the togetherness, the crazy times will always be with me even though we may not meet in years and decades...and I apologize that I haven't been in touch, haven't picked up the phone to say hello, haven't mailed or messaged to say that I miss you all....  may be someday in near future we all can meet again and create more memories to last a lifetime !!

Solitude....beatitude !!

Today, while being alone at home the whole day, I was thinking about the difference in meanings of two words:" lonely" & "solitude".Even though more than often we think both are same, but these two words have seemingly vast implications in life.
Solitude helps us to know ourselves better which we can never do when we are surrounded by people.Not only ourselves, it helps us to analyze our life, our friends, it helps us to focus on what is important and what lies ahead. Yes, it's true sometimes it brings us face to face with some harsh realities which we might have condoned when we are with others always.Solitude is important to retrospect, to revise our life, to set our priorities straight, to understand people better, to differentiate between fake and real, to know our inner strengths, fears, apprehensions or may I say to know ourselves better.Solitude brings clarity in thoughts, circumstances and perspectives. It is the quintessential "me" time.

 But being lonely is completely different. The feeling of being lonely is fearsome.It makes us weak and vulnerable even to little indifference. When we are lonely, we are not clear in our thoughts.We can be in middle of a party and still be lonely.Being lonely is being isolated, not making  connect to people. Yes at some point in life we all feel lonely. We feel as if no one in the world understands us, as if everybody is busy in their own world and nobody cares to bother about us. But if we continue to nurture this feeling, it makes our life miserable.We need to come out of the feeling and get practical.It's true there is no such thing as "free lunch" in the world. People will not care about you when you are alone, but they will care about you when they are alone....such is the way of life and if we can accept this we will never be lonely again.And when we stop being lonely, the time we spend alone transforms into "solitude" !!