Today, at the age of 22, I am in love, apologies, I am madly in love.
She is in Delhi and I am in Goa.
1850 kms exactly is what separates us.
It all started with a shared autorickshaw ride,
we were headed to the same destination and there were only one of these three wheeled machines to take us home, we were comfortably seated, I was on one end, she was on the other, her hair was blowing against the wind, Dylan was singing in my head.
It felt like we were the only two left; from a single species,
I had to follow your footsteps,
To be close to my origins, to be closer to my DNA structure, to be closest to where I came from,
you became the hope, you became the answer!
We are together for years now, quite a feat in today’s time,
I am not talking about broken relationships, I am talking about the fact that we both are still breathing, when nukes are threatened to be thrown anywhere, people really should start having water balloon fights again, if it is all about getting the kicks by the end, why shed blood, if colours can sort you out!
Amidst this chaos, I still, keep on building the tree house we once planned to construct in the land of affection we both fell head on in.
But being a man of mathematics, I figured, the whole process will require a whole lifetime of labour, I say labour because it’s the biggest task two individuals can take the initiative to complete, if even a brick isn’t placed right or a bolt is missing, the whole body will be turned to ash even before it was born!
I am imagining life with you at 70 now, when we both are old enough to forget our past lovers,
where we placed our underpants,
did we even poop today or not?
I am looking at your face now, the wrinkles remind me of the layers of skin I have kissed when all life around us has changed, for good,
because babe you still are the sunshine which warms my morning tea, the rain which cleanses my insides, the shield which always hovers around me; crushing beasts and bad dreams.
You seem to have a knee problem, result of our long trekking trips, 50 to be exact,
I massage yours every night before sleep, it has now become our music session, where we are discussing every note our ear drums have vibrated for, the chords and the riffs, we still have the same reflection in our eyes when we first talked about Nirvana and the Foo Fighters.
I have gotten an eye problem, I can’t see things properly now, I do have AI powered lenses because 21st century,
but now listening to you,
reading my favourite book as we begin our mornings, I have come to a thought of donating my eyes even before I die, I have got my lenses covered I tell the world.
I really don’t know who will lose his breath first, who will call it off first, who will bid his good byes first,
I do know this, it’s insignificant, it will always be insignificant,
we have been away for years,
distances and physical proximity in the real world could do nothing to us,
neither did not talking for months when I was away in Antartica and you were hiking Machu Pichu,
With this I learnt,
If there is a blessing which stays with you forever, remember, it is called love,
Love, a four letter word everyone goes gaga over, but see, we have reached the elemental truth,
you and I have been blessed,
our first kiss was the ringing bell for the next revolution to come,
everything else, falls!

