Perils of an Eternal Romantic Optimist

Who is a romantic? A person who despises generic worldly norms; an impractical, unrealistic, a soulful or amorous idealist. Hmm, somewhat like that and some more. Someone who is excited not by mere thought of a companion, but the dew drop on the blade of grass, the thickening of dark clouds, and the squirrel who comes for a visit on the window sill every morning. The smallest thoughts of a romantic revolve around finding life each moment, someone who refuses to die.

So who is an eternal optimist? To start with, – someone who knows he cannot die. Sounds similar? Well as per my definition, a romantic cannot be anything but a die-hard optimist. An eternal optimist knows whatever happens, happens for good, you only need to find what is the ‘good’ part of it. That is why he believes there is none in this world, who is not beautiful; you only need to know how to look at. He knows come what may, there is only one option in this life, to play and win.

So where are the perils? It seems only as good as it can be. Let us all become an Eternal Romantic Optimist! Wow! Hold on. Lets take a closer look. So we know we cannot lose, right? What if we keep on getting a raw deal? What if we keep on losing? Can we still keep on believing, that we are winning, or will eventually win? That’s where the test comes.

If you are displaced from your environment four times in your childhood, losing and making all your friends every time and still feel that you had a wonderful childhood, you are an eternal optimist. If you had the entire science department knocking the doors of the Union Room, because some one has been taken inside the closed room forcibly, and if the same person spends months at a stretch, when no one is aware that he is down with a severe ailment, even when he is or was with someone, yet he survives, then he is an Eternal Optimist. When he has walked under the April sun with 22 kilos of battery on his backpack, and a UPS on his shoulder, yet dreamt big, strived and lived to achieve that as the head of marketing, he is an eternal optimist. When one survives jobless 10 months without any support and without anyone knowing in mid career and bounces back with a dream job in the 11th month, he is an eternal optimist. One who has gone out of house in search of income with two rupees in his pocket, and lives to spend thirty thousand in a day on nothing, he is an eternal optimist. When he tries to be with someone for 15 years and fails, yet dreams to find his love again, he has to be an eternal romantic optimist. When he wants to communicate to one, 15 responds, but the one he wanted to communicate to misunderstands, yet he knows that she will realize soon and come back, he has to be an Eternal Romantic Optimist.

The peril is that he knows that even if he is in the dumps, he cannot die, because he is not supposed to die. If he leaps from a cliff, he will land on a bush, bones will be broken but his life saved, because death is not written for him. He knows if he drinks poison, it will be found to be adulterated and damage his stomach, but he won’t die, because his death is not defined as this. So he knows he has to live, and he lives. Just like this belief he also knows that if he loves someone with all his heart, whatever may come, whatever might be the situation, she will know and believe. Situation might be bleak or even seemingly impossible, but the Eternal Romantic Optimist only knows that since he loves, he will keep on loving the same way for ever. The Eternal Optimist Romantic knows to live with his dreams and hopes, so if required he could wait for years, decades or for lives. His dreams wont fade. The same way that he knows that he cannot die, he knows that the one who knows him in and out cannot but know that his love is only for her.

As an eternal romantic, he not only knows only to love, but his ways are also not conformist. So every time he finds drooping shoulder and sagging hope, he moves forward to give his shoulder, till it regains composer. But the distance to that special abode is at least 10 fingers below that shoulder; his heart is where he keeps his decorated dreams for his love to rest. He might be standing in a crowd, but his heart beats for one. He might be giving support to many, but he himself leans on one. Many might be on his shoulder, but in his heart there is only one.

The perils are huge, to keep on the flame of belief burning bright, to keep the sail of patience inflated, keep painting the canvases of dream and above all keep loving no matter what you get, what people think and how bleak the future looks to ordinary eyes. If you dare – then you are “The Eternal Romantic Optimist”