A few tales

"That he was outnumbered did not matter, because the whole world had outnumbered him long ago, and what do numbers matter?"- Between the World and Me, a book by Ta-Nehisi Coates

I read this quote while on a train. The train was practically empty. Standing at the gate, I felt the world whiz by, the air cooling off my sweat, and let my mind ruminate on these words. I haven't a clue about the author. I saw the title on the book, and it screamed at me to pick it up, and cradle it away.

I set out, every single day, just like everyone, to make something out of myself. Or at least to lose myself so completely in something so that I have to use the word "I" the least number of times possible. As time ticks by, you do realize that you are actually alone. Yes, you ave friends, you have parents, and you have a sea of strangers, each one of them, fighting a battle of their own, incomprehensible to you. You love, you want to be loved, you fight, you make up, you break-up, and all of that keeps happening in the back-drop.

But at the end of the day, one's pursuit of anything comes riddled with roadblocks. Why I say what everybody knows, I know not. But how about this? The world that we are born into, not the world we think of in our heads, is a lot bigger than what it looks. And we need not necessarily fight it, I suppose. But if we are to, it sounds fair enough to say that a few blows to the face will have to be dealt with. Wow! Where has all the world's sexuality gone?

I'll tell you a story, a bunch of them actually. Parts of it are ready in my head, but hopefully, I'll pull the rest out of my arse as I go along.

Here's a typical story we are used to. It's tried, tested, cliched, and seems to work every single time!

Guy meets girl, girl meets guy, some friction happens, they start liking each other after a little push from either they guy, or the girl. They make love, fight with parents, or maybe they don't, have their way, get married, make more love, have kids, fight, love fight, love, have more kids, fight, love, (sorry too old for more kids), and die. 

This has been happening for a long time, a lot before you or I cam into existence. And honestly, our survival is based on the continuity of the above mentioned string of events. And that's the deal really. A lot has happened, and a lot has kept happening before we even came into the picture.

Here's a not-so-unusual, but not necessarily typical story.

Guy meets girl, girl meets guy, some friction happens, they start liking each other after a little push from either they guy, or the girl. They make love. No one told us that both of them were a little slow. And the guy, being the guy, finished inside the girl. And a little bit of hell broke loose. Okay, don't laugh. Please. That's because the girl irrevocably fell in love, and also into trouble. That's when she did feel a little all by herself, as we all are. But time healed wounds, well, sort of. And so her tale goes, in and out of things. Maybe she knows what she's looking for. Maybe she doesn't. Who knows. 

Story #2

The girl's mother liked the guy more than the girl. Not as in sexually, like in the movie "The Graduate". So the guy never had to say to the mother

"Mrs. ************, you're trying to seduce me."

Besides, the parents, unusually had no objections all-in-all. Which is a good thing. The fellow knew all along, from the moment he'd seen the girl, about the events that would unfold, and eventually lead to the moment of ceremony. The girl didn't strike him as particularly beautiful at first glance. She was sort-of cute. But her appearance happened to rub off on his mind, purely because she happened to be around a bit more than required. Even that took a good 2 years. The chap kept hearing rumors about the girl's raunchy escapades every other day, except none of them were just rumors. But our chap never cared, not out if good-heartedness, but because he too had troubles keeping his dick in his pants. "Maybe all's fair in love and war.", the chap consoled himself. You see, that's our line of defense against our "moral codes". We simply shift the line as per our convenience. And you get such insights only when you look at things from outside yourself. 

The chap adored the girl, something he never admitted, and in all likelihood, never would. But something kept nagging him. The voice inside his head, from the first day he set eyes on his would-be woman, had told him one thing, relentlessly. 

"Dude, she's going to be the cause of your destruction. Stay the fuck away!"- The Mind

 The mind is smart. It knows a lot more than you think you do. When you realize this, that's when you know there are two people inside you. 

But our hero, naive as he is, couldn't stop himself  from singing Locha-E-Ulfat. He hadn't heard the lyrics of the song properly. Yeah, he was an ass. And she HAD an arse! All that boiled down to the imminent hitch. Now thankfully, the fellow was having existential issues for some time. All this going around him was fine. But the thoughts of his being a typical story haunted him to a point of becoming painful. Besides, he knew this arrangement would be a compromise for more reason than one for the girl and himself. Where he had seen visions of conquering his world, and where he was tying himself down with someone who would surely drown him, ever so unintentionally. And he didn't want to blame anyone for that sort of stupidity on his part. He couldn't have that kind of blood on his hands. So he packed his innocence, kept to himself, and sneaked out of his home in the middle of all the festivities, when no one was noticing. All the while, he knew his trusty Bonnevile stood beckoning him to swing his leg over her, and take her down an unending stretch of tarmac.  

And that's what he did. He kick-started her to life, like old times, her engine's gleeful roar filling his senses. And finally, his way was the highway
.

Story#3

After all the dust had settled, the girl was finally free. She didn't owe anything to anybody. No need to answer the ever-scrutinizing "society" that left her perpetually guilty for wanting pleasure. She was free to return to the one she let into her, or actually, to anyone who she pleased to, specially after the guy rode off the other day. It's a free world. No cages, no prisons, except the ones we build around ourselves.