Hold Closely...

Dictionary Definition:

hug/verb

hold closely in one's arms, keep close to

hug/noun

a hugging movement

It's been a long time since I hugged someone. Since I really hugged someone. Since I really held them so close I could hear their heart beating, so tight I could almost not breathe, so completely as though we wouldn't ever let go, so lovingly, as though someone was filling warmth like a liquid into my entire frame, flesh and soul.

Hugging is a very powerful act, but people don't realise it. A 'little' thing, yet conveys a lot. Nothing else will give you the feeling of love, protection, security, kinship, comfort simultaneously in a potent mixture so magical it has no equal.

The last time someone hugged me was when a friend comforted me, fresh after someone else had quarrelled majorly with me, almost treacherously. I couldn't let go of her, and for the first time in my life I shed tears in public. The tears couldn't stop, but it didn't feel wrong, while I was in my friend's arms, receiving solace.

A hug is especially powerful when someone else gives it to you. And you can't expect to receive a hug unless that someone truly understands that you need comfort but can't express it, can't ask for it. A hug you ask for can never equal one you receive without asking. Because the latter means your friend knows you, cares for you and watches over you.

And nothing is so ecstatic and heart-warming as the knowledge, when you are feeling low and vulnerable, that you are so well loved by someone, who isn't of your blood or flesh, but treats you like you were.

Today is International Hug Day (apparently). 23 hours and 59 minutes have gone by since the day began, and I haven't yet received a hug from anyone. Probably because no one knows that it's Hug Day. And even more probably because a hug is something spontaneous. You don't need a special day for this.

But I miss a hug. It's been very long...

And that, every time, is what makes it so precious.

And Where's the Desire for Freedom?

I live in a cage. A condition to which I willingly resigned myself in exchange for an opportunity to shape my future by furthering my academic prowess (if that’s wht they have the temerity to title the crap they dish out here). I mean, this is quite literally a cage, because I’m under lock and key for nine hours every night. The fact that I keep the key notwithstanding.

The most ironic part of this arrangement is how we complained and screamed initially about it, and now one year down the line, we are so used to it, we can’t live without the cage. There was an outrage last night when I locked the gate half an hour later than the correct time.

It happens like that on a much wider scale to a broader extent in a huge variety of aspects of life too. We complain in outrage about our restrictions. About the subjugation we are forced to endure, to be allowed to exist. About the unfairness of it all. And then we get so comfortable in our cage, we don’t feel like leaving it. We feel insecure outside the cage. Without the lock. We don’t want to venture out, seek the path we so fervently once desired, spread our wings and learn to fly. And then we can’t bear to be allowed free. Even when we ourselves hold the key.

Beautiful

You're beautiful to me.

Even in your absence, your essence is enchanting.

I could capture your smile and engrave it in stone, and there would it remain carven for as long as weather chose.

I could enshrine the twinkle of your eyes in a single leaf on a single stalk of a single branch of a single plant, and it would grow thence, as long as the tree of love is watered.

I could weave your voice into the bars of the wind, and hear the sound of comfort caress me every time the earth breathes.

I could ensnare your laughter in the flame of fire, to shine bright and warm my soul, in the cold of the moonlit night.

Most precious of all is the pristine clarity of your mind, the flawless logic of your reason, and the magical madness of your creativity. Beautiful is the rationality of thought, and rational is its beauty.

And enthralling is your spirit, even in your absence.

And beautiful you are to me.

(Dedicated to ASR)