The Dilemma

“Oh Father, Help me out!!”

“I am always here by your side child. Tell me, what is troubling you?”

“Dear Father, its love. I am in a dilemma”

“Love never leaves a room for any sort of dilemma my child. How come you are faced with one?”

“I don’t know father. She was the one with whom I could feel that connect, that purest form of relationship and the true desire to be one. But are they all that are important. That question keeps troubling me, and I don’t know what to do with this other proposal my parents are forcing me to accept. This girl is from our caste and belongs to a rich and influential family. Isn’t money the supreme thing? My parents say that love would eventually happen. So would connect, relationship and that desire. Will it father?”

“If these thoughts have crept in your mind and you plan to even consider this choice, then I won’t be wrong in saying that you never loved her at all. And it also speaks a lot about your self belief and ability to fight the odds. The girl would be better off without you, my child! You are not worthy of her love. It's a shame that you should even consider the choice.”

“You think so father? It's not that i have not loved her. I had. As dearly and deeply any man would have ever loved a woman. She was always the one for me, till my parents popped up this question. I had once truly loved this girl, a feeling which got stronger with time. I loved her for five long years. But now I do feel something is missing. Does love and care diminsh with time father? My parents say that money and status are more important, love would eventually happen. There is a family status I need to safeguard. And isn't it true that in today's world, money can buy everything? There is no place for love. My love is a thing of the past. Time will heal it.”

“It can’t, my child. Time strengthens your love, never diminishes it. And love blindfolds you from even considering other options, even if your love is a decade old. That’s what madly and truly being in love is all about.”

“Why can’t you? Is this not what kids do to their toys when they grow up and find it no more worthy of their attention? Is this not what a honeybee does when it sucks all the nectar from the flower? Is this not what the sea does to the sand castles made on the shore by children? Abandon, take advantage and destroy. And move on, devoid of any remorse?”

“No, my child! You are mistaken. Kids get bored of their toys and throw them away for a new one, but years down the line it’s the sight of these long abandoned toys that reminds them of their best times. Of the times that will never come back. They would be ready to trade off all their wealth for that moment. The toy is lost, not the connection and emotions it generates inside the individual. You can’t buy that connection with money, neither can you destroy it.A honeybee sucks all the nectar from the flower. True. But it does so not to spit it off, rather to painstakingly convert it into honey and stores it in its beehive. The flower willingly gives away its nectar enabling the honeybee to convert it into honey, a very stable food. It naturally resists molds, fungi and other bacteria, allowing it to last for years without refrigeration. It’s not about the process of the conversion into honey here, it never was. Synthetic honey can be bought by money, but never a pure one. Because the basic ingredient that goes into the making of a natural honey is the relationship. Of the relationship the honeybee shares with the flower. You can’t buy relationships with money.It’s the fate of the sand castles built on the shore to mix with the sea. To unite with its family. To get back to where it belongs. It’s the desire of every single granule of sand that is a part of the sand castle. This collective desire forces the sea to embrace it. To take it along with it. It’s the way of the sea to teach the sand to learn to miss being with it. And every time the sea feels that the sand has learnt what the sea means to it, it washes the castle and takes it along with it, and the next wave deposits the new batch of sand for this lesson. Money can buy you fixers and holders for your sand castle, but nothing to hold away this desire.When money can’t buy you connection, emotions, pure relationships and a sure shot way to reverse true desires; how can you leave true love for money child? Can you? Or should I rather ask, will you?