“You are so much
more than just what you are in this moment. You are everything you have been,
and everything you ever will be.” -Me.
Warning: Cheesiness and melodrama overload.
I've been on the receiving end of the ‘Don’t talk to strangers’
speech from my parents and teachers far too many times in my childhood, and I
continued to be fed this advice repeatedly by friends alike as a teenager, who
knew that I was perhaps too naïve and trusting for my own good. I’d like to
believe that I've changed. That I'm not the girl who believed in unicorns and
Santa and true love any more.
Today, I call myself a realist, and more times than I
could keep count of, I have friends questioning me with a tone of accusation –
‘Where’s the optimism gone, Resh?’ They squint at me with heavy suspicion,
convinced I am the evil twin that has killed their lovable friend. One who
urged them to believe in ideas that were ridiculously improbable, to have faith
when the chances of anything good coming out of a situation were astronomical.
Some will be bold enough to say it to my face – ‘This is not the Resh I used to
know!’ And some others will try to mask their pity at how far I've fallen with
the solemnly delivered lines, ‘So *pregnant pause* you really don’t think
you’ll ever get married *sigh*?’
Honestly, I still don’t understand what the big deal is.
Some things you believe in work till a certain age, and then you just grow, and
believe different things that will work for you now. Why treat the whole
episode like some part of you has died? Maybe it has just grown into something
better. Just because it isn't filled with ‘Jab we met’s’ Geet-worthy giggles
and philosophy doesn't mean it’s not a good life.
And then a few weeks ago, I surprised myself. Whether it was
pleasant or not, I still cannot say.
