Embrace Me

I never thought I would have a love story. Amongst other commitments, I would always play safe. It would be a meeting of minds, leading to courtship and hopefully marriage and that’s about it.

But life had other plans. However, never ever in my life I had imagined the love story that would have been chosen for me. It had to be Kamal Hassan starrer Sadma. You know the end scene at the railway station where Kamal is trying to make Sridevi remember the time they had spent together while Sridevi does not have a clue who he is? Even now when you watch the scene, it breaks you. As an audience, who over two hours have watched and enjoyed the couple develop feelings for each other, and they for the couple, it pains to see one of them not reciprocate or acknowledge the feeling back in the end. You feel for Kamal Hassan’s character who is trying to make sense of the past that they both shared if it had to end in such a way.

Having experienced it, it mostly leaves you speechless in disbelief. You just cannot gather your senses as to how someone can storm out of your life within minutes with total disregard to the number of months spent together? In that moment, all you seek is a hug as in, ‘Ae zindagi gale laga le, humne bhi tere har ik gham ko gale se lagaya hai, hai na!’

But it was not always like this. It was the first time I had not played safe. It was a relationship with contradictions. One was a princess, other a pauper; one simple, other flamboyant ‘living life king-size’; one impulsive, the other empathetic; one spiritual, the other materialistic; like (K)night and Day (the movie had repeated references); one ‘gaadiwali’, the other ‘footpath chaap’; like fire and water (which coincidently happened to be our zodiac signs) and yet we were together. There were breakups but we made up. It was like we were filling up the void in each other’s lives as if we were meant to be together like a plug and socket.

Though it is said that opposites attract, I had never experienced it before. But with this story, I gave it my all. It would have been my own love story. Two very different individuals making it as a couple with all their contradictions very much like how Mumbai can survive and thrive with its paradoxes.

In the end, I did get a love story. I was hoping for a rich poor one like Maine Pyar Kiya or one of Imtiaz Ali’s works where the conflict is basically between the two individuals. But kabhi ‘Socha Na Tha’ that I will get Sadma. It is difficult to overcome it. But came across a quote, “How they treat you is how they feel about you. Period.” I could resonate with that in both cases, Sridevi’s and mine.

So, like the tagline of Diwale Dulhania Le Jayenge, its time to Come… Fall in Love again. Only this time, safely. “Kyunki ek Sadma kaafi hai.”

For most of you, like me, that would have been the end of the story. But that’s not what happened. I had put my Sadma up on social platforms to get closure and move on. Few friends, colleagues and acquaintances happened to read it.

A friend of mine invited me for a coffee at Starbucks a week later. We were meeting after a while. I ordered my usual Java Chip Frappuccino, and she ordered her drink and placed the order in my name.

When the drinks were ready, they called out my name. I went to collect them. The server verified my name, came out of her enclosure, hugged me, patted my back, and whispered, “Zindagi Jia.” She handed the drinks to my friend.

Before I could gather what had happened, a customer came, hugged me, stroked my back, and whispered, “Zindagi Mansha.” Then another came, caressed, and mentioned, “Zindagi Deepa.” Then, “Zindagi Shobha”, “Zindagi Kia”, “Zindagi Jharna”, “Zindagi Seeta”, “Zindagi Nadia” and it continued till eighteen to twenty of them came up and embraced me. Through the incident, I could see my friend smiling and eyeing others as they followed suit.

In the end, she came, wiped my tears off the face. She held me. My eyes had become red. I chokingly asked, “You forwarded the status story/ post, didn’t you?” She cuddled me and replied, “Yes. Zindagi Asha.”

I did not know what to say. I gathered myself and said, “Thank you. Thank you.” Moving my hand across the nose, “I do not know what this is. I thought I had a love story, Sadma. But this is new. Is this an original?”