Call me old fashioned, but I have always liked love stories to have a tantalizingly slow build up. From irrational distaste to ardent admiration, in inimitable Pride and Prejudice style. Or maybe, have the hero and heroine running for their life with no time for love; but end up making a vow for life? That is what makes my heartbeat race.

With Romeo Juliet, apart from the fundamental problem of them dying, the fact that they fall in love, confess and even kiss (in precisely Act I scene IV) spoils the anticipation for me.

Remember Rishi Kapoor as the chivalrous romantic in Love Aaj Kal? I guess that was me. Believing in that forever sort of love.

Or how about Shahrukh Khan in Kuch Kuch Hota Hai (hint – hum ek baar jeete hai, ek baar marte hai, shaadi bhi ek baar hoti hai aur pyar bhi… we live once, die once, marry once and even love)? Or Madhuri (in those exquisite chiffon see-through clingy kurtas and beautiful silver earrings) in Dil Toh Pagal Hai. She has this endearing undying faith that someone somewhere is made for her. And she would rather wait, singing in moonlit nights and dancing in lonely meadows, than actually find a real person, before the universe gives the signs that are an absolute must in your quest for a soulmate.

If you were paying attention, you would object right about now. And rightly so. “I guess that was me“… Ha! The past tense of the verb. Why?

Before that reveal, let’s follow a girl in a bright cotton sun dress. A straw hat on her head, with a ribbon of shimmering gold threads. White sandals on her fair feet. She skipped through a meadow of sunflowers. Frowning every few steps or so, but not daring to wait for long.

She couldn’t, you see? Because God had been very specific. “You only get to travel through the meadow once. You can pick any flower you choose, but you can’t go back to one. Only forward your steps must take you.”

So, here was the beautiful girl wondering if she dared pick the next good looking sunflower or wait for a bigger one. But, how would she know if there was a bigger one coming? How troublesome indeed to make this decision! And really, what happens if the girl focuses solely on sunflowers, and completely misses out on the lone lily or stray roses hidden along the way? If not pick a rose, she might have liked to smell its fragrance on the way.

Leaving the girl to her dilemma, let’s follow this other rather lovely dear girl from the movie Queen. With a song like the one on this post, one does get coerced into falling in love, is also my humble opinion. Still, there is a lot going on here, so try focusing and keeping up with me here.

For starters, this decent sort of guy claimed to fall for Rani. Then left for foreign lands. Came back and declared she is too boring and docile for him. The timing was terrible of course. After some tears, Rani decides to go on. And by go, I mean she goes on her planned honeymoon all alone.

Life hasn’t really gone according to her plans. The man she was faithfully in love with, probably the only one she had held hands with, had jilted her eve of her wedding. But, Rani is with new friends she has made on a trip to foreign lands all by herself.

A much older, incredibly good looking Italian chef first flusters her, then gives her a chance to prove her worth. She does. And now, should she wait for her one true love or kiss her crush because there is never a perfect moment than now?

She does.

And with that one heady meeting of lips she has irrevocably swept me off my feet. We wait too long for the stars to align. On the off chance that you want something and it’s there in front of you, be it a delicious dessert or an even more delicious Italian stranger. Go claim it for yourself. If we wait for that forever sort of happy ending, it might just take forever. And we miss out on all the happiness along the journey.

Or, like me, you will wait too long and end up having a nice enough youtube link to a song, but not the video of the scene that would have been so much more fun to share (all because when there was time I did not dare! All this while there was a video of the very scenes I talk about. Unfortunately, like it’s said in My Best Friend’s Wedding.. The moment just passes you by).

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