Passion and the Passionate…

  

Off late I keep on remembering about this friend of mine, a childhood friend, who still remains one because of a special characteristics he has. Most of us has at least one characteristics, that makes us an individual – a different person from the others. Some have physical ones – some have intellectual characteristics. This guy had something, which he could associate with anything. It is his passion. Passion to immerse himself in anything he got involved into.

 

Ya, ya ya! So what? Lots of us are passionate; we can easily find a passionate sports-lover, a passionate partner or even a passionate foody. Hmmm – but how about someone who is just passionate, about anything he chooses for. When he learned to take the first step on two feet, he became passionate about walking; and so he wandered off his house on the deathly silence of a summer afternoon, away from his father’s state government quarter, leaving a unsuspecting mother sleeping, crossed the village farms and reached the highway, on his two and a half year old feet. And never ever liked to be denied the option of not using his feet. Isn’t that passion?

 

Then when he was hardly able to manage the amar chitra kathas and chandamamas, he suddenly gets his hand on a translated novel on Tarzan, and finishes all of the 200 pages at one go. And then kept on reading all he could lay his hands on; novels, comics, short stories and even original volumes of Ramayana and Mahabharat. Isn’t that again a passion, this time about reading? What about his mastering the art of hiding, with a carefully developed hideout in the middle of the unkempt groves, with entrances only known to his friends. Or cutting all the joints of his index and middle finger of the right hand, trying to learn flying a kite in the shortest possible time, till he had one flying high on a clear blue Benaras sky, unchallenged.

 

He took his passion to new heights on his games. To play Carrom, his board had notches, and lines showing angles of deflection all over it, because he wanted to master the art of striking from impossible angles. He spend nights after nights to learn the best moves in chess to device a blitzing opening game that can check mate a unsuspecting person in first 7 moves. Or spending long evenings with his partner to master the calls of contract bridge, to converse freely and knowing the exact cards in each other’s hand. Or running, on hazy winter mornings and drizzly July dawns; running the 4-kilometer stretch, sometime with his best friend, and sometime only his breathe as partner. People thought him to be crazy, but his passion was for himself, not to show off, hence he always kept his tries under wraps, it was something only to be shared with himself or those very very close to his heart.

 

It was his passion to learn, that saw him learn all the tricks of the trade he wanted. No one to guide, except his passion to know, and he spent those hours alone, to fiddle and learn the software’s. He didn’t have any certificate to prove his knowledge, but people knew what he is capable of by the works he did. Bosses came down to congratulate, but he knew he has only done it for his passion.

 

He carried his passion to his love. He loved someone so dearly that forgot the world around. He was ready to loose all he had. He knew the lurking problems. But his passion for the loved one believed that he could treat them all. He went in headfirst, dived and tried with all his might, for fifteen long years. And after he thought that it’s the end of life, and again found a candle burning for him, he raised his passion once more. The way he loves is only because of his passion. As always, some might think, that he masters his moves to showoff his capability, even when loving. Some seems to think that his ability to love stems from the words and tricks that he has mastered. Some will keep thinking that his craziness for love is a carefully cultivated skill that he uses on others. But he knew it’s just his passion. Passionate about life, passionate about love, and passionate about those he loves. His passion for life means he cannot kill himself. His passion for his loved ones means he will keep doing all in his control to see them happy. His passion about love means he will keep being that incurable romantic optimist.

 

Just wondering, when will his passion die?