Love… Horrible Isn’t It?!!

“Have you ever been in love? Horrible isn’t it? It makes you so vulnerable. It opens your chest and it opens up your heart and it means that someone can get inside you and mess you up. You build up all these defenses, you build up a whole suit of armor, so that nothing can hurt you, then one stupid person, no different from any other stupid person, wanders into your stupid life…You give them a piece of you. They didn’t ask for it. They did something dumb one day, like smile at you, and then your life isn’t your own anymore. Love takes hostages. It gets inside you. It eats you out and leaves you crying in the darkness, so simple a phrase like ‘maybe we should be just friends’ turns into a glass splinter working its way into your heart. It hurts. Not just in the imagination. Not just in the mind. It’s a soul-hurt, a real gets-inside-you-and-rips-you-apart pain. I hate love”.

- Neil Gaiman

(Extract from Neil Gaiman’s “The Kindly Ones”, where a character, Rose Walker, is talking to Desire, about Love)

A Walk To Remember

As I sat here today, on an idle Sunday, I can’t help reminisce on the memories of the last weekend. Warm sun, cool breeze, the path, the scenery and the company…  the hike from Nalinchowk to Nagarkot.

Imagine the experience of jumping for the ground and somehow landing on water… I seem to be a walking accident these days… but it only added to the fun. Or when I was almost dragged atop a cliff by Kumar and Shankar… beautiful moments.

The company… Gaurav, Kumar and Shankar… my friends since college days. College days – occasional turmoil in both personal and academic life amidst the carefree times of bunking the class and basking in the sun… and the ‘window shopping’, of course . However the most amazing part is, all these years and nothing has changed – except for the bunking part (which has been reduced to 5-10 minutes at the office canteen).

Kumar getting frequently upset at minor things, and Gaurav doing his best to push him over the edge (well not literally),… me doing my best to irritate Gaurav with my ‘philosophies’… and Shankar, well, he was being Shankar – reading everyone and everything around him. Bottom line – you guys rock!

And the wonderful Sushmita with her thousand watt smile, who was sweet enough to laugh at all my stupid jokes… remember the “Na Lin Chowk” joke – Gaurav was staring at me like I was a raving idiot. Perhaps I was… but hey, if I can’t be myself with you guys where can I be! (ok, I think I just admitted that I’m an idiot… anyway… moving on…) It was her first hiking and she surprised us all when she finally conjure up enough courage to scale the Nagarkot tower. She was frozen scared when she first got to the top.

Well, gorgeous, thanks for the wonderful company which made the 5 hrs journey feel like 5 minutes… too bad you had to return home with a headache   …hope my stupid jokes weren’t responsible

All in all, a day I’ll remember for a long time to come. It was beautiful coz it was spontaneous… kinda like this picture where a good shot was almost ruined by an unwelcome guest!