35. Platinum Day of Love

He who binds to himself a joy

Does the winged life destroy;

But he who kisses the joy as it flies

Lives in eternity's sun rise

-        William Blake

A joy will linger forever if we let it come and let it go…

Surreal as it might sound, Blake’s verses have a profound and deep truth inherently imbibed. It’s not that one big thing that makes life meaningful, but the continuity of warmth one feels that makes living life a bliss.

Blake’s verse explains the danger of tying your life around a single entity or event, the follies it might reveal when the veil of mist is peeled off from your Elysium.

My life was peaceful, with the right mix of colour and spice. I was happy as a kid, and jolly as a pirate. It didn’t even change after I met my girlfriend… Sikha…It was not love at first sight, not even the second or third… it was over a period of years from college to work place, it brewed and settled to become a red wine of the highest quality. (Sorry for the over sell, one of the ills of being in marketing profession)

And she wasn’t like the so called ‘classy’ girls who demand to be looked after and showered with expensive pittance every other day. Nor was she the needy moody types who would want to hold hands, and ask insecure questions about themselves every living moment. She was the regular tomboy who’d speak to you like she speaks to a well-known cousin, no inhibitions, no exigencies.

A person’s mind always wavers between wanderlust and serenity that comes with stability. You might want to have a chaotic life, chaotic yet manageable life, a life that is under control. If you stay sedate a bit longer, you feel stagnant, and if things start moving too fast, you feel lost and insecure.

Sikha was the solid rock I was tied to, while I was surfing around the waves life was throwing at me.

So it was a jolt out of blue moon when Arun called on me one day

“Dude.. you love Sikha right?” he asked

“Why do you ask?”

“We know that you both do, and Sikha had put it in the open to Anitha” he continued. Anitha was Arun’s girlfriend and fiancée

“Do we have to tell ? We know that we are into each other”

“Totally agreed. You don’t have to tell her.” He continued “But she has to tell that to her parents. And as you are aware that parents who have girls of her age will start looking for suitable matches for their daughters”

“Has she got a proposal ?” I asked visibly worried

“Not yet. Her mom & dad wanted to know if she had anyone in mind so that they speak to the guy’s parents” he replied

“So that’s it. Tell her parents they can speak to mine.” I was relieved

He slapped at the back of my head. “Sikha may not be filmy, but she wants you to propose, for real, not just ‘wanna crash in my bunker’” I was shocked that Sikha had revealed my pick up line to these guys, but knew this was not the moment to act offended

Platinum with its naturally white colour symbolising purity is a perfect gift for ur love. 

Besides, platinum is an eternal metal it does not fade or tarnish with time and will retain its colour for a lifetime. 

From the time that it is mined, till the final product this pure metal is absolutely white and is unchanging. 

Platinum set in jewellery is as close as you can get to absolute purity as every piece is 95 per cent pure, as compared to 18k gold, which is 75 per cent pure

I read for the umpteenth time how true symbol of love a ring of platinum was. And every time I read it, I got more irritated on Sikha for making me do this. What happens to women when it comes to marriage and jewellery? They all act the same when it comes to these two inexplicable social conundrums. Objectively speaking they have no value as such, but the societal conditioning has made sure that they are of utmost importance to anyone’s life.

Even a white jasmine is more pure and original than a piece of jewellery. But it is available in abundance and for free, and hence not suitable proposal material. An article thrown up by google said that one has to spend three months’ salary for a wedding ring, to show to the girl that he’s really committed to her. It’s a symbol of trust.

Of course it makes sense, like the down payment you make for a car, or the performance guarantee you pay before the project. Though it has no monetary value as such, it ensures that you are serious about the endeavor.

But three months’ salary? I could buy that super bike I wanted for years. I could also hear imaginary Sikha shouting “That stupid bike means so much to you than me?”

I could always argue that the bike will not be mine without paying for it, but she’ll always be mine, no matter what. But I knew that in real world, these arguments will not hold water

And I remembered, she’ll always be mine... no matter what.

But what was lingering in my mind is not the money to be spent. It was that it was Sikha who was expecting me to spend. What about her comments on how lame people are for using monetary signs to show love. And her speeches on importance of prudence and sensibility in matters of money.

‘It’s not the objects you surround yourself with, but the people with whom you spend time, that matters in life’ I remembered her saying

May be she isn’t the girl I thought she was.

Thinking of this I crashed into ‘Halo’ Santo’s apartment. Santo as expected was spending time with his new X-Box, with umpteenth version of WoW.

“Wanna join a multiplayer game’ he asked

“No yaar.. just tired, need to sleep’ I crashed into his bed

After an hour or so, he woke me up with chocolate milk, and sat beside me. ”So what’s the problem?” he asked

As I was about to deny existence of any problem, he interrupted “I know you didn’t ride so long just to crash in my bed”

So I told him what was in my mind, though I was almost sure I couldn’t get anything good from him.

Santo looked at me for a while… then asked me something completely unrelated “Dude have you played Mario”

“What?”

“I know you have played” he continued

 I nodded

“When I first played along with my cousin, he usually won without losing a single life until he met the dragon at 1-4 stage, and once he saw the princess, he lost interest and practically gifted his life in the later stages”

I did not know where he was going

“But I could only huff and puff to 1-4 stage. And when I first knew that I had to play until stage 8-4 to complete the game, I was disappointed, but only for a while. I played on, for days, months, and about four years, before  I could slay the dragon in 8-4 stage and see the real princess. You know what I did the next day?”

I stared at him as if asking how it was related to what I was speaking

“I started the playing the game again from stage 1. That’s when I realized that it’s not the princess that came beyond the dragon, but the game I was more interested in. All the dragons that came along where trying to stop me from playing the game. The GAME was my actual princess” It made some sense, but nothing clear

“What am telling is that being with a girl is not about taking her to movie for the first time, making her your girlfriend, having the first kiss or marrying her. It is the very act of being with her that makes it special. All these doubts you get are just the dragons you face along your journey…. But if you really love the game (girl) you won’t mind them at all, actually they make it more special” he finished

I never knew the Mario I played as a kid had such a moral story behind it. But it did change my mind. I knew that Sikha will not be disappointed just because I didn’t get her an expensive ring.

I did get down at the jewellery shop on the way home. I knew from google that you can get platinum  from 10K. And realized it’s much more elegant than the gawdy golden ones. And the pure platinum with rose gold was really special and it no longer looked an unnecessary appendage.

I looked at the cost. Of course I could get one of those superbikes with the bucks I’d pay for it. But it’s much better to drive around with my precious Sikha in my current drive which she’s extremely comfortable with

Like Blake said in Endymion “A thing of beauty is a joy for ever”. And it applies both to the girl I placed in my dirt bike pillion and the rock I placed on her finger

This blog is an entry for the contest Platinum Day of Love