Melancholy Strain

The other day I was looking up the exact meaning of 'Melancholy' in the dictionary (There are these words whose meanings you always gathered and never looked up in the dictionary. Melancholy is one such.) Okay. One of the meanings is 'musingly or dreamily thoughtful; suggestive of sad thoughtfulness'. This about describes my mood these days.

Winter and Spring in Bangalore are tough times for a Single Person. The mornings are crisp and the evenings mellow, enough to charge one with restlessness. The full moon teases. To quote a famous poem 'On a cold winter evening; seeing the Peepul's leaves; each tremble in the breeze; my heart thinks impudent thoughts (of you).'

I hope the summer, this year, is scorching hot.

Couples on bikes, couples in parks, couples on phones, couples on sms (ads), quarreling couples, not-quarelling couples...Couples fill one's heart with envy. Much like the childless Kousalya's heart was filled with envy when she beheld the fresh blooms of the Jasmine creeper. (By the way, there is a subtle difference between envy and jealousy, you might want to look that up)

Snatches from one's favourite Hindi songs float between the ears: romantic songs, happy songs, sad songs - a wierd assortment. From 'Jawaaniyaan yeh mast mast' to 'Meet na mila re manaka' to 'Aae dil-e-naadaan' to 'Kabhi kisi ko mukammal jahan nahi milata' to 'Jab dard nahi tha seene mein'. When these songs have come and gone what do you get? Melancholy, that's what.

I just realized something. If at all one can describe Ghalib's Ghazal's with one word, that word would be Melancholy. Wait. That might be true of all poets and all poems. Pretty powerful word, what?

Disclaimer: The above is meant only to entertain. Please do not read too much meaning into it.