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Did You Ever Love Me? Book Review: Can Rithvik singh turn heartbreak into a homecoming?

Did You Ever Love Me? by Rithvik Singh is a tender contemporary poetry collection about love, heartbreak, longing, self worth and learning to let go. Its greatest strength is emotional accessibility: Singh writes directly to readers who feel intensely and care deeply. The collection offers comfort without pretending heartbreak is simple, though its simplicity may occasionally feel familiar to seasoned poetry readers. Did you Ever Love Me? Have you ever loved someone so completely that, after they left, you were left wondering whether they had ever understood what they had been given? Not merely whether they loved you, but whether they ever noticed how much you loved them, how much patience you offered, how many small things you remembered, or how often you chose to stay when leaving might have been easier. There is a particular loneliness in that question because it rarely arrives at a dramatic moment. More often, it finds you while you are doing something completely ordinary. Yo...

Learning from Gardening

While composing status messages, just for fun, I simply jot down anything random that comes to my mind at the moment. Here is the latest FB message i posted few seconds ago.

Tushar Mangl learns a lot from his gardening routine. Even when his plants die, he simply feels bad and then goes about to plan for new plants. Mostly because an empty space does not look that good. That is life for you. People will always go away from your life, at one point or another. But you cannot always leave the places vacant. New plants have to be placed. Optimism has to exist for new flowers to bloom, new leaves to grow.


Now, FB only gives me 422 characters to say my point. But my dear blogger, a companion of several years gives me much better platform to elaborate my thoughts.
You see, in a flower bed I maintain near stairs of my house I had planted bougainvillea plants on either sides of the bed. As fate would have it, and given my nature of getting too attached to living beings I found myself attached to both my plants. (I don't have any gardener employed and the family takes care of the whole thing). Destiny has this thing for you, that it snatches away from you things close to your heart. The more favorite of the two bougainvillea plants died last November ( most probably due to cold weather or water probs). And me was saddened and distressed by the fact that my plant had died. Even as father explained to me that the plant had no roots or leaves left and he had to clear it off, I would not believe it. Now winter season has started its downfall. It has started to recede albeit slowly. So last week, tired of looking at the vacant potion of land daily ( I have this strange thing in me, to look out for my favorite plant at least once a day, whenever I can squeeze out some time or if possible, as soon as I wake up) I went to the nursery and purchased a new bougainvillea plant and a rose plant. Since the plant that died, used to bear beautiful yellow flowers, I planted a yellow rose plant this time in its place. Now my dear reader shall feel, as to what is so extraordinary in it? The plant died and a new one took its place.

That is exactly my point. In our lives, people come, we lend them the best spots in our hearts. Toil hard to maintain the relationship, but still they leave. I never wanted the plant to die, and probably it also didn't want to depart. But it did. That is a fact. Even if some harsh winters force you to be distressed near your empty vacant spot, spring shall come again and you can get for yourself yet new companions.

Always remember, like plants in our gardens, humans and relationships are ever changing as well. The thing that is permanent is the fact that patience and hope shall make your life's journey much more easy and pleasant.

Wishing you all a blooming year ahead :-)

Comments

Gauri Mathur said…
I am speechless!
God Bless you!!
Hugs * :-)
very well said. You are growing wiser and I hope you lose some of your impatience with age. Its always a pleasure to listen what you have to say. God Bless.
tamanna said…
hmmm...excellent piece of writing...an example of how life teaches us so much in its every petty moment...also that you grasped dat lesson so nicely and put it here in such beautiful words...leaving the reader with a lesson to keep in mind.....

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