How far will you go for love?

635 letters, 3 phone calls, 15 years of marriage but they have not met…how far will you go for love?

This is the caption for the story titled “The Japanese wife” written by Dr. Kunal Basu. When I saw the movie with the same title and storyline, I must say the story took me into another world. It is a story of Snehamoy, a schoolteacher in the village of Sunderbans, West Bengal and Miyage, a young girl in Japan. They meet through letters, knew each other through letters even when they were not very good in English. He was a student when they started their journey together and she was a young girl taking care of her mother and her family small shop. They used to write letters regularly. Years passed. They became close and started loving each other. Both decided to get married. But, neither he had enough money to go to Japan nor she had to come to India. But their bond was not so weak that distance will make its way through it. They decided to marry through letter. They got married. She used to send him gifts, she used to make socks, sweaters for him and send it to him. With her gifts, his room was full with her presence. He used to send her Saree, bangles, flowers, kumkum to put on as Indian wives put on forehead. With his sent gifts, her home thousand miles away from India was full of his presence. They were living a happy married life for years after years being miles away. 15 years like this passed away. 15 years! Without seeing each other they loved so much that nothing could change it. She was not feeling well for quite long time. Then she informed she was having cancer. He took 6 months leave from school and ran around whole city to consult doctors, and all sorts of treatments. He used to send her the herbs for treatment. On the 15 year of their anniversary, she sent him a box full of kites. Their gifts were so precious for them. The gifts used to bring the touch, the smell of the other one. They could feel each other through these gifts. He ran so much that he fall sick and suffered from severe fever. It was rainy season so the post office could not deliver letter for long time. He was going mad without her letter. He was not getting well too. Months passed without any letter. His aunt suggested him to get married but he never considered that. He died and till the last day he kept uttering her name and died holding the last letter from her to his chest. She came to India after some months to his house where she felt him everywhere. Even when he was not there she could feel his smell, his love, his presence in every corner of that house. They became together for the first time even when they did not see each other yet. They went this far for their love.

Does it sound strange? What kind of people are these? 15 years of love without seeing each other, just through letters! Can any word describe their love? They loved each other so much that even being miles away their love never faded away even a bit. They loved each other more every passing day. Nothing could distract them from loving each other. Their trust, their love was that strong. Life changes at every moment thus we should know the price of everything that we have before we lose it in the course of life. They understood that and so they kept on their promise and loved each other till the last breath. They made history just by loving each other so much. Every relation has a fine and a gross layer. If the fine layer is strong and intact we do not have to care for the gross one as it is taken care of. The fine layer is trust and love and nothing else. The gross is other all stuff. We sometime give preference to gross layer so much that the finer part fades away. The life goes on but it will not be the same anymore if the finer part gets lost. We keep searching for our existence and run away but never find peace as the peace we left long back. They preferred to love each other and nothing else. So even when they could not meet, they were the happiest. Their trust for each other and love kept them going. They were not lost as they had each other forever. 

Thus, the question that really matters a lot is - how far will you go for love?

the journey

There were two friends, who were very close. One day they decided to go to the top of the hill far from their village. They decided to take their own separate ways and to meet on the top. One of them just crossed their village when he saw a beautiful lake he never saw before. He saw hundreds of birds were there with so many colors and varieties. He was stunned seeing this. He sat near the lake side for hours enjoying this. The mist covering the lake, the birds, the smell of the fresh water, the grass everything was so complete together that he enjoyed a lot spending hours there. Then he resumed his journey. After walking for some time, he saw a vast field with greenery all around. There was a big tree at the centre. He walked through the alleys and took rest under the tree. He relished the fruit of that tree. Then he hit the road again. He was very happy seeing all these that he never saw. When he started, he never expected he would see all these amazing things around him. He did not realize when he reached the top of the hill. His heart was filled with the fragrance of the memories of all those moments he spent while reaching here to his destination. His friend who started the journey along with him reached here long back and was waiting for him. When he started his journey, he came across the lake but he had to reach his destination soon so he ignored that. All he wanted was to reach the top of the hill. When he saw the other friend he asked “come dear, see from here we can see the whole village and beyond. Do you know we have a beautiful lake down there, and also a vast farmland and a big tree also? See from here.” The other friend smiled and said, “Yes my friend I know as I came through them. I am out of words to describe how beautiful they are. How sweet the water of the lake was! How dreamy the mist over the lake looked like! How soothing the tree shed was!

The other friend was thinking why he is not happy even when he reached the top before his friend. He saw the entire village from here including the lake, tree, farm from the top but still he was not happy. He asked this to a sage passing by. He said “my boy, You both reached the top. Sooner or later we all reach our destination. Thus reaching your destination is not special. What is special is the journey leading to our destination. You started your journey but actually, you did not have any journey at all. All the way, you were only running to reach the top. You ignored the beauty of the journey. That is why when you reached the top you felt blank even after reaching first where as your friend could not make it before you, as that was not why he started. He enjoyed the journey. He created his own sweet memories all the way that gives him the happiness when he reaches the destination. This happiness one can’t create only by reaching the top. These memories of his will give him happiness for the rest of his life. He had a real journey my son.”  

In life taking birth and then dying is not a new exceptional event. It is common for all of us. With birth, we start our journey that ends when we die. Sooner or later, we all reach our destination. What matters is how we shape our journey in this course of life. Is it like a rat race where we ignore all the beauties of life and just run to reach the top or we relish all the moments to create an unforgettable memory of the journey of life? We choose the course of life. The way we choose shapes up the journey for us. We are not a racing machine here, but a traveler. Wish we all have a unforgettable journey in this course of life. There is a difference between seeing the lake from top than going down there to drink the water by yourself.     

What is missing?

The more I see us, the young aged ones I wonder what we don't possess now! We are self sufficient, strong economically, professionally. We are having more freedom of speech than earlier. We take our own decisions. We have become more advanced, more aware, and more compatible. After graduation itself so many of us go for jobs or research or higher education. We are running like that in a marathon. The whole world has become so small that nothing seems to be impossible to know or to achieve. We are having so much power that can shake the world, change the way it runs. Having said this I wondered then why so many suicides, so many heart attacks, so much of frustration, so much of agony, pain, so much irritation, so much of anger brewing inside that erupts in a drastic way sometimes. What is lacking even when we posses almost everything? What is lacking that even after having everything many feels they are lost and confused? What is lacking that people like us gets distracted not professionally, not economically but ethically, morally? Does it matter at all to think seriously about it? I think it matters.

Someone said many years back “The purer the mind, the easier is to control it. The grosser the mind, the more difficult to control”. What I see personally is the only thing we lack is ethics, morality.

When we become powerful, it brings few positive and negative aspects. Power brings more responsibility with it. Every power gives us a choice to become more responsible and utilize the power or to become irresponsible and waste it in vain. It is up to us what we want to become. When one has all possibilities open then the one has to decide to use it to become better person or to twist the opportunity to become a complicated one. A person’s success is not measured by GDP or personal wealth; at least this, person realize at the end. What makes a person successful is how healthy he/she has lived the life. Now when we have lot power and energy we do waste it many times as it is in abandon but what we don’t realize is energy is not always gathered or produced to spend. A stored energy can be utilized for greater reason. We do not eat just to satisfy the tongue and senses. The useful part is stored and utilized slowly for a better reason. As mentioned earlier the grosser the mind the more difficult is to control it. We are all aware of what is happening worldwide but forget to realize what is happening inside us. We cling to grosser demands and loose the finer happiness in long run. Then when we lose our root and spent all energies, we are lost and become frustrated. We have it all. Just that we have to utilize it in a finer and purer fashion. Having a black stallion is a great thing but without training and proper care, even a stallion cannot cross the finish line. Our heart is like a stallion which needs to be polished, taken care of. Then we will win any race we run. More than winning we will cross any barriers, crush any obstacle and still be in control with a clear mind and purer soul. We have power that came along with some responsibilities. The option is upon us, to choose the grosser demand or the finer eternal happiness.