The way

"Way".I got fascinated abt this word quite suddenly when it struck me how frequently we use it, even if not in words,definitely in thoughts
Whats the way to happiness?
whats the way out of this mess?
whats the way to look at career?
whats the way to love somebody?

or more seriously,

Whats the way to the toilet(in a new building say)
Whats the way to woo that hot girl(or guy,depending on what u are..no pun intended..) over there?
Whats the way to wipe that mud off our shoes without anybody noticing?
Whats the way to resist the urge to pick our noses, which inevitably surfaces only when we are in a group?
whats the way to fart without making a sound?(..and please dont deem this example to be gross..afteral...its biology :) )

WAY

Its everywhere. We need it everywhere.

And i specifically want to turn this post into a boring one. That was the disclaimer incase u didnt recognise it. Its ur chance to stop reading.

I am gonna start off with a very peculiar thing. My opinion about cats.gotcha! i know u didnt expect anything like that did u? ha ha..beware of sankar..And no..please dont tell me that u thought of the mba cat incase u had indeed thought abt the mba cat...EWWWWWW...yuccckkk....am a biologist/..or atleast an life sciences enthusiast and dont make me guilty of even a possibility of making someone think that i would write abt mba...good riddance!! ok..now that i had cleared that part up..lets continue...

Cats..scientific name : Felis catus (just so u dont get a feeling that u hv wasted ur time at the end...here is ur guaranteed takeaway... the scientific name of cats.. and the scientific name, in scientific terms is called Binomial nomenclature.. note that the first word is the Genus name and it starts with a capital letter and the second word is the Species, starting with a small case)

I always thought of cats as this cunning animal. Partly due to the fact that it annoys me to see something that struts around with so much authority. And mainly due to the fact that it chooses its master. or ive felt so. A cat never comes near when i call it.wen i want to take it and cuddle it in my arms it just gives me a stare, full of condescension, ridiculing this stupid insticnt to show affection. But it does come to me.Sometimes. When he/she feels like it. He/she comes and rubs on my legs. or sumtimes just lie down in my proximity. Almost telling me, "hey dumbo...here i am...if u want to show affection, then u can do it now...u can pat my head or rub my belly...".

And so i do. Technically speaking i should probably think , "oh..now u want me is it? now u need me to give u food is it? and that day u just walked like a king?like u dont need me? hah...now il sulk..why the heck should i do things for u? why should i pat u, wen the other day, i not only not wanted you to do anything for me but only wanted to just pat u" .....

But no...I dont think that do i?
Why? May be because its just an animal.

Now i am gonna say the thing thats gonna make this post boring as I promised.

EXTRAPOLATE what I just said.

Extrapolate it into real life- human-relationships....

We would think exactly the way i said.We would sulk.

Realise that, first of all, we dont qualify to think like that all the times and defintely not with all the people.When have we not wanted anything in return but only to show affection,( or coz that phrase "show affection" is a litte heavy..may be il say..hmm.."rub the belly"..ok..no...that seems vulgar out of context...how abt "pat"...thats cool enuf)
so,
When have we not wanted anything in return but only to pat somebody... ( i know..am cunning..i just managed to say that twice and rub it in...incase u get offended, i am rubbing it in for myself too)

the answer is quite simple. NEVER.

And oh yeah...just coz i dont sound too lenient on ourselves... The answer "never" was to the question whether thers any instance of us not wanting anything but only to pat somebody...this question assumes that we actually indeed pat somebody the first time all on our own...and i suppose thats a wrong assumption...(and no...am not generalising...and am not blaming or alleging either....i say this coz, the beauty of this thing am talking abt is such that, we ALL think that we show great affection on others or our dear ones, and that its we , who have not been reciprocated to...)

My next point started from within that parenthesis. Expectation. And thats our inborn norm. and all of us know abt it. that we cant escape it either. So lets not brood abt it and just go ahead and accept it.that we expect.that we need to be loved back. that we need to be made feel belonged to. that we want our "patting" to be reciprocated. ok.thats that. lets catch the cat again.

So in the Cat and the Human, this problem doesnt exist. or lets say, the human just loves, just shows affection, just pats,without requiring it back, without feeling insecure.

So what am I saying? that that human(with the cat) is an idealist? the perfect lover?(and puhhhleaaasseee "lover" is anybody who loves..not necessarily someone who loves someone of the opposite sex and near his/her age ) that he/she is impossible?

WRONG.

we have them. All of us have them.

and we call them MOM and DAD.

And i havent yet said the most toughest part yet.
In the case of the cat and the human, the human doesnt really need anything back. the human doesnt expect the cat's love that much. so that human is being the perfect lover easily.

But mom and dad,they are being the perfect lovers, the most hardest, most toughest, most whateverst way.
They expecct. They want to be loved back for the love they shower. They want to be patted too. They want to be simply loved too. YET. They hide it. They kill it.
i read somewhere that the most toughest thing is not being a fountain of affection, spurting whever we feel like it, but being a well of affection, giving whenever its asked for.

and why do they do it?

so that we can guiltlessly be the cat.

I know, u would be tempted to deny that. but isnt it true? we let everything rule our lives. we go from place to place. We live far away from our parents.Career demands it i suppose.Some other city.Some other state. Some other country. And we come back, whenever we could.(we need to make a living too. I am not blaming. I am not saying anything of that sort. i am merely poiting out the irony)
And we come back to the place called home whenever we could. And whenever we do that, we are acting the cat. No.Not with the intentions of the cat. And i sure dont know the intentions of the cat for either..Am just comparing the behavior,which looked at objectively, is the same..)(PS: cat lovers,mba aspirants and alike, please dont kill me...i do like cats..infact,if u notice,i am saying that we are like cats..)

But you know the brilliant part of this all. We do realise something. Deep down. "The Way". and thats probably we dont feel guilty abt it.

Ok. May be ive been a pessimist of sorts by not mentioning anybody other than parents. but then thers a reason why the love of the parent is the golden standard. And as i see it now, may be the reason is this.
May be, if we are blessed, we'l have parents in the forms of friends and siblings and family too.

Oh..I didnt mention "The Way".

One way and sometimes the only way to love somebody is allowing ourselves to be loved by them.