Bring Back the Touch

Men have never understood women. Women have never doubted their understanding of men. A relationship more often than not feels like a luxury wagon, all bells and whistles, comfort and style, but driven by one horse and one ox. There never seems to be a common direction, a common speed or sometimes even a common purpose.

But within the confines of that wagon is a beautiful cocoon of love, one that may not have direction but has a common destination.  Love might make the world a more beautiful place, but within the confines of that wagon, it helps to paper over the little cracks, smother the rough edges and ensure that the journey continues.

When Mini came back from the US after two years, she was a worried woman. After three years of a whirlwind passionate romance and a year of the great Indian marriage party, the two years of a long distance romance had been difficult. Love was not supposed to be shackled by petty but very real differences of time zones and work timings and alcohol levels. She could not be sure that the beauty that love had held in her memories is still there or if she is coming home to a new reality of day to day life. Her life with Dhruv painted till date with an artist’s brush might now be redecorated by a wall-painter’s airbrush.

At the airport, the two of them had nothing to say, no rushing into the arms, no tears of joy, just a static of unsaid questions punctuated by formal salutations and baggage instructions. It was only when they reached the cab, sitting next to each other, swaying together with every turn that the old familiarity began to return. Sitting touching each other, the days and nights spent together as one, drowned in their own world of love came back in a flood of love. With her head on Dhruv’s shoulder, with his hand around her shoulders, y the time they reached home, they had never been apart. There was no yesterday for their love again, only a today and an endless tomorrow.

If an image is worth a thousand words, a touch is worth a thousand images. A hug is worth ten hours on Youtube. When love in a relationship is found in the words that remain unsaid, the images that remain stored in the mind and the touch that reaches deep into the heart, the relationship reaches a stage of purity, of an elegance that can transcend the ravages of time and habit.

#Bringbackthetouch written for http://www.pblskin.com/