The Evolving Lyrics of Life

I often say music is the sound of the soul and basically equivalent to oxygen for me. I know it sounds like a cliché but hear me out. All my life, starting from as early as I can remember, music has been my constant companion: in my joys and sorrows, smiles and tears, greetings and losses, it has been an integral part of almost all of my core memories. It inspires me, holds my hand when I am alone and even makes me make sense of my complicated emotions when I am unable to. Something similar happened a couple days ago and I want to talk about it.
 
Chaahe jo tumhe poore dil se, milta hai wo mushkil se.
Aisa jo koi kahin hai, bas wo hi sabse haseen hai.
Uss haath ko tum thaam lo, wo meharban kal ho na ho

I am sure a majority of you have heard these lines many times and we all have our own interpretations of them, I did too. My understanding of these lines emphasized how we should embrace the love that walks into our lives and hold on to it as it is a rare thing to find but also, we may not have it for a long time and life might take that person away from us. Growing up, I always interpreted this loss as literal, considering the context of the movie and all that. But it is not just death we are talking about here my friends.
 
In every phase of our lives, we meet new people, some we like and some we don’t, some we enjoy being around and some we hope not to have to be around, and in this crowd there is a special set of people that we make us feel something within ourselves that we have never felt before; they make us feel ourselves, they make us feel alive. These people we call friends. And if we are lucky, the connections we make at one stage in our life stay with us for years to come. But that doesn’t always happen, does it?

More often than we like, we tend to get close to someone and then life or misunderstandings or circumstances happen and things do not remain the same anymore. It could be that someone was responsible for it and it could also be that the friendship had simply run its course. Trust me when I say this, I KNOW how hard it is to actually live through the emotional turmoil and doubts that come out of something of this sort.

But what happens when we are hurt and alone again and our special person is not talking to us anymore? Usually, we are prone to a reaction called self-isolation which simply translates to preventing oneself from being involved in another friendship or connecting with people in order to prevent the pain we felt after the last loss. Yes, feelings of loss and grief don’t just show up when someone dies, they are a natural response in cases when a friendship is not the same as it used to be or when someone you considered special is not the same person anymore. However, is preventing probable pain at the cost of a chance of actual happiness a fair price to pay? Not really.

Hence, I go back to the above lines. We don’t know what the future holds; it may hold betrayal, it may hold loss, it may hold heartbreak, but, it may also hold happiness, laughter, companionship and so many core memories. Yes, we are all scared of pain and wish to avoid it at all costs but what’s the fun in that. We as humans are meant to be around people, and you never know how much time you may have with that friend you find super funny or super smart. Don’t let your past hold you back from your present for fear of the future.
Jo hai sama, kal ho naa ho.