"To be, or not to be; that is the bare bodkin, that makes calamity of so long life."

- The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn; 1885




Tuesday, May 10, 2011

The Girl who Lives behind Picket Fences.

At her best she is shallow; for shallowness is the rightful virtue of women who are darlings. Beautiful women are the burden bearers of all things lovely and ought not to be buoyed down by meaningless depths.

At her worst, she is profound, for intellect never fails her. And she is often at her worst: forever discerning epiphanies while believing none existed; trusting instincts while knowing premonitions were apocryphal; fathoming intensity while assuming sentiments to be delusional; searching for love while fearing vulnerability. She is aware of her contradictions.
She reserves her best for the kinds of you: who she knows she runs the risk of falling for. She reserves her worst only to herself. Indeed she lives behind her picket fences and she has no intention to be understood by you at all.

You'd notice her if she walked past you, though she's not your idea of an ideal beauty. You could spot her wearing a red silk dress in a sweltering summer bazaar, where she would unmindfully look through you and breezily walk past you - leaving you wondering if she'd come alive from the pages of the classic novel you'd been engrossed in. Or you'd see her standing with a bottle of beer in hand, wearing a pair of battered blue jeans that hung limply to her tiny waist, and the hems of which have been worn out by use, at an up-street high-tea party. In fact, you could run into her anywhere - where it appeared as though she didn't belong. And yet if she ever let you meet her eyes, you'd notice her silent pride in her intentional irrelevance.

If you talk to her, you'll ask her why she is single; and she'll ask you if that is a trick question. You'll ask for her number and she will oblige.

You'll think you'd fallen in love with her, but you'd merely have been enamoured by her mysterious ways. And she will never reveal herself to you, or to anyone else, subconsciously striving to keep love at abeyance.
You'll want to hold her. You'll want to spoon against her small frame in a soft bed, shrouded among satin sheets. You'll want to brush the careless strands of hair off her face when you wake up next to her in the morning. You'll want to spend hours sitting next to her under a cherry tree in full bloom, familiarizing her with your hopes and dreams and aspirations - painting for her a vivid future together with you, persuading her of your intentions. She'll hear you out. And true to her shallow self, she'll look into your eyes like she meant for herself to be yours. Maybe she'll even allow herself to love you briefly. Yet she will invite you not behind her picket fence.

And deep inside you'll know that someday her steadfast profundity would get the better of her. And then, she'll look through you unmidfully again and walk past you breezily again - as if she walked back into the pages of the classic novel you'd once been engrossed in. And she will silently pride herself on her irrelevance again, and that of yours.

And in stolid abandon, you'll let her go back behind the picket fence - to the realm of un-belonging, where she belongs.

8 comments:

  1. This was soooooooooooooooooooo beautiful.
    In some parts, I felt like I was reading some lines from a Femina ad.

    Ok. I am from advertising industry. So that is a huggggge compliment you know :)
    You are a terrific writer!

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  2. The Girl Who Lives Behind The Picket Fence Is Breathtakingly Gorgeous :)

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  3. You are such a fantastic writer. I'm blown away every time I read one of your posts
    Also, THANK YOU for the suggestion of the Harvard Commencement Speech with JK Rowling. I loved it and duly posted it on my blog so more people can watch it too :)

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  4. Hate how much better you are than me. :|

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  5. Sounds like a state of meta love , the male character here ( an assumption) seems to be more important here than the lady being described . But of course , just my opinion .

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  6. ...the male character here ( an assumption) seems to be more important than the lady being described...

    *OCD*

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