Kite flying is one of the oldest sports-cum-recreation in the sub-continent (to be read as conglomeration of Afganisthan, Pakistan, India, Bangladesh) and far Eastern countries like China and Japan, among many others…. Remember “Kite Runners”?
On one such occasion, our common man was watching kites fly .. a light drizzle earlier in the day had cleared the sky and a rainbow lighted up the horizon… there were colours everywhere.. different coloured kites dotting the skyline, clear blue sky with a huge rainbow adorning the horizon, freshly washed green grass, children with coloured baloons – there was an air of festivity all around.. “This doesn’t last,” he mused, “Rainbows are so short-lived in life”.. has our man has lost something very precious, like the rainbow, perhaps?
He was particularly attracted to one black-and-red kite flying proudly, all alone… Wasn’t black and red her favourite colours?? No wonder! “And I like the blue one, my favourite colour..” he concluded, looking at another one flying at some distance..
Having found the similarities, he concentrated on the activities of the two kites, flying separately, independent and with complete freedom, each in its own orbit… “they are like strangers, not knowing each other,” he thought. People continue to revolve in their small, familiar worlds as strangers to each other, till some force brings them together and a relationship begins.
“What does a relationship mean to you? Why do you need a relationship?” his mind drifts to the question he was asked one day.. our man was honestly taken aback.. being in a relationship with someone worth living for is, in itself, a wonderful feeling, why does anyone need a reason to have a relationship? Do parents need reason to have relationship with their children, or siblings, or two lovers, with dreams in their eyes of bonding together for life? Relationships just happen like a flash.. it cant be mathematically deduced after weighing pros and cons, or whether its nedded or not … A relationship is not an end, but also a means to an end.. which comes first, means or end? Chicken or egg?
The person who had asked this had no apparent reasons to have a relationship – had wonderful and supportive family members, a successful career, socially very much in the limelight (hobnobbing with the whos-who of the city), cutie child, friends, et al.. so, where was the “need”? Arguably, none… of course, extranuating situations like loneliness, bad marriage, broken heart, deprivation in life, etc etc can lead a person seeking a relationship with the hope of getting what is lacking in the present state of things, like filling up a vaccuum.. but then the person asking the question had a perfectly logical mind, and believed that “relationship means freedom, it means space in life, not to breath down each other’s neck … not to demand, but to give“….. Ya, something like the HR & BM starred “Kites”???? Our man was getting confused – wasn’t the same person looking for a relationship??
The two kites were now very close to each other… he watched with rapt attention as they came closer and closer, almost touching each other… the blue one was dancing around the black, almost peacock-like rain dance… “making a proposition to the lady”, he smiled to himself.. yes, he had proposed to his lady-love also..
The lady in black, by now, had now completely surrendered herself to her blue suitor, both completely entangled now, swaying gently in the breeze … oh how he yearned for her gentle touch, the light whiff of Liz Taylor floating upto him from behind her ears, her warm hug, sound of her quickened breathing, her half-closed eyes, and finally, drowning in her soft moistness … can the emptiness be ever filled?
Relationships meant giving away, maybe for life even… someone wanted time and attention, someone else needed time to think as to why relationship was at all necessary, yet someone wished to start a new hue of life – all quite fair expectations ..
A sudden uproar brought him back to the ground… the blue kite had cut the black’s thread, and they were no more entangled… The black kite was drifting away with the breeze… further and further away, towards the horizon, towards its very own rainbow perhaps …
The blue kite was there in the sky….. once again, all alone.. like it was when the common man saw it first… “it doesn’t have a rainbow to chase any more - rainbows are so short-lived,” the common man thought … he walked away, humming out-of-tune a favourite of his:
“.. Let it grow, let it grow,
Let it blossom, let it grow..” (Eric Clapton)
Move over, old man…. make space for the new..
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