Smiley cries..

So I'm in Bengaluru for the summer. Feels like I'm reborn, coming back home! A project at IISc is what that's taking my time and it's been a couple of weeks now. Just outside my lab in the Chemical Engineering department, there's this tree with purple colored flowers. I don't know what they call it. Let me name it 'Smiley' for the time being. So Smiley would welcome me everyday as I walk in the corridor and take the stairs to the first floor to reach my lab. Smiley, vibrantly colored with so many flowers and leaves would look so pleasing that it could easily make anyone smile! Since I'm new to the campus of IISc, I would roam around during lunch time and take random snaps of the beautiful campus. Be it the century old buildings built with a British style, the stone tower standing proudly looking over the campus, the lush-green lawns that are a treat to the eyes, a variety of species of trees- it's a photographer's dream!

So, I would walk until I get tired in the hot sun and capture the beauty of the awe-inspiring campus on my 2"X3" camera frame. As I return back to my lab, it always looked like Smiley demanded a snap too! She would try pleasing my eyes with her poise, purple signs of smile, infinite branches that are colored green & purple, and what not! But I would never take out my camera phone. I would postpone it to another day. All this laziness was because Smiley was right outside my lab. All this negligence was because I knew I can capture Smiley's posture anytime I want to. Such a fool I turned out to be. Little idea did I have that this foolishness of mine would hurt me real bad!

Summer showers in Bengaluru are not just refreshing in the scorching heat but they can rejuvenate the energy levels of any worrisome heart :D But the gutsy winds that accompany the romantic rains can be brutal! So the last weekend, they probably blew with such great thrust that Smiley could not resist :( She would have probably tried her best with all her might to stand firm. All this resistance to live for another day, to please more eyes walking the corridor and taking the stairs! But fate wouldn't budge. Smiley was slashed across the neck :'(

When I took the corridor on Monday, Smiley was in two parts! I felt helpless. I felt guilty. Smiley was no more. I probably wept within! And there I was, having a sudden urge to capture her on my camera one first & last time at least. But my heart said that it would be twice wrong of me. I decided not to click her. Because her image shall remain within. The photographic film in the heart shall keep the image of Smiley bright and forever. 

Certain relationships in our lives are like Smiley too. Like Smiley, they try to keep us happy, try to get close to us, to get to know us better- all because they are good at heart and all they want is a smile on our face. But how often have we reciprocated? It's a bad mad world that often deceives us with all the materialistic things one loves to possess and boast of. This blinds us to such an extent that we often can't see that we should value those relationships. We postpone a phone conversation to another day, we say we are too busy for online chatting, we cancel a movie ticket because we prefer watching it online and alone! How often have we gone wrong?

It could be a guy who wants to know you, a colleague, a distant cousin who is seeking your help, a schoolmate of yours who shifted town in between- is it too costly to smile? Why refrain ourselves from embracing love? But I went wrong. I could not take the snap when Smiley smiled and before Smiley cried :'(