I am reminded of this French film I once saw, in which the protagonist asks his bed-ridden mother if she feels lonely because of staying alone at home all the time. She questions him back whether he feels less lonely because he is able to sit in the garden, whether he feels less lonely in a crowded departmental store. I guess what she tried to say is that it doesn’t matter who or how many people are around us, loneliness is essentially a self-defined and self-created phenomena.
Now the reason why I was wondering all this was that I spent this entire weekend in bed, half asleep most of the time, trying to fight the bug which I wasn’t sure whether I had or not. Don’t worry, I wasn’t exactly lonely. With my roomy bringing me food and my friends room-delivering hugs (you rock girls!) whenever I needed them, I was one pampered girl. If you are wondering why every time you logged onto FB or gtalk these two days I was there, it’s not because I was stalking someone. It’s just that I didn’t want to get out of bed.
Looking back on a certain time when I really truly had fallen sick and had to spend more than 2 months in bed, I can’t really recall any days when I had been lonely. I definitely wasn’t my usual cheerful (read: hyperactive) self but loneliness wasn’t really a word in my lexicon even back then. And mind you, people had far fewer distractions in those days. No TV (I remember congratulating myself the day I could actually get up and sit in the living room sofa to watch a movie) and definitely no internet.
Well the good thing about being perpetually online these couple of days was that I got to catch up with some old friends I had not spoken to in quite a while. One friend had shifted to Jaipur, another had taken admission in a rival college (grr!) in Gurgaon. One had shifted base to Muscat and had no intentions of coming back any time soon. Better still, two of my friends had decided to tie the knot (yay!) and that had me wishing really badly for an early placement season.
Of the many people I’ve had the privilege of knowing and talking to in this campus, at least a few have complained of loneliness, of feeling alone in this tiny campus that’s bursting at the seams to accommodate 300 odd people. I guess at the end of the day its not about the people you talk to, rather its about the people who are willing to hear you out. And sometimes it need not be a person at all. For some of us, a cup of chai from Bablu is all we need to perk us up after a long day. For others, it used to be a sweet little friend whose pug marks are still there in front of NH. Some people are connected to friends all around the globe with their ability to handle 8 chat windows simultaneously. Some others can regale you with the most esoteric film-noir that even John Huston would have no idea about.
The point I am trying to make is, that we all create our own support systems. And as long as I have my hugs on delivery and my DMB playing loud and sweet, I think I’ll do just fine.
Now the reason why I was wondering all this was that I spent this entire weekend in bed, half asleep most of the time, trying to fight the bug which I wasn’t sure whether I had or not. Don’t worry, I wasn’t exactly lonely. With my roomy bringing me food and my friends room-delivering hugs (you rock girls!) whenever I needed them, I was one pampered girl. If you are wondering why every time you logged onto FB or gtalk these two days I was there, it’s not because I was stalking someone. It’s just that I didn’t want to get out of bed.
Looking back on a certain time when I really truly had fallen sick and had to spend more than 2 months in bed, I can’t really recall any days when I had been lonely. I definitely wasn’t my usual cheerful (read: hyperactive) self but loneliness wasn’t really a word in my lexicon even back then. And mind you, people had far fewer distractions in those days. No TV (I remember congratulating myself the day I could actually get up and sit in the living room sofa to watch a movie) and definitely no internet.
Well the good thing about being perpetually online these couple of days was that I got to catch up with some old friends I had not spoken to in quite a while. One friend had shifted to Jaipur, another had taken admission in a rival college (grr!) in Gurgaon. One had shifted base to Muscat and had no intentions of coming back any time soon. Better still, two of my friends had decided to tie the knot (yay!) and that had me wishing really badly for an early placement season.
Of the many people I’ve had the privilege of knowing and talking to in this campus, at least a few have complained of loneliness, of feeling alone in this tiny campus that’s bursting at the seams to accommodate 300 odd people. I guess at the end of the day its not about the people you talk to, rather its about the people who are willing to hear you out. And sometimes it need not be a person at all. For some of us, a cup of chai from Bablu is all we need to perk us up after a long day. For others, it used to be a sweet little friend whose pug marks are still there in front of NH. Some people are connected to friends all around the globe with their ability to handle 8 chat windows simultaneously. Some others can regale you with the most esoteric film-noir that even John Huston would have no idea about.
The point I am trying to make is, that we all create our own support systems. And as long as I have my hugs on delivery and my DMB playing loud and sweet, I think I’ll do just fine.
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