The Gravity of "Us"

I am very much a family person. I love my family. I love my immediate family to death, but I also love parts of my extended family. Not that all of us are great, or characters straight out of the movie Hum Saath Saath Hain. We bitch, we gossip, we do panchayat, we take offence, we give offence — the whole nine yards. But somehow, we still manage to be nice to each other. We still manage to love each other through all the lies and backstabbing. We fight over petty things, but we also forgive easily — well, most of us. And we’ve had big fights. Fights where it felt impossible to come back from, and guess what? We came back. We might bitch about each other, but we fiercely protect each other from the world. Yeah, I can bitch about them. Geetika, you keep your trap shut.

Think of it as a bunch of us being held together by clay. Sometimes, someone comes loose, but with just a tad bit of water, it’s an easy fix. But of late, I think the clay is starting to harden and become brittle. Guess global warming has its effect everywhere, huh? I think we’re starting to take offence too easily now. Maybe Modiji is finally succeeding in making us less tolerant? Jokes apart, I feel like with each tiny instance, we’re coming loose. Maybe as we’re getting older, our ability to stick together is decreasing? Is that even a thing? No, Aayush, I’m not that old yet.

Sorry for digressing so much. But yeah, there are definitely a few connections we’re no longer interested in keeping. Things have happened that cannot be undone, and things have been said that cannot be taken back. And it’s starting to show. Though, it’s easier for the ones who live on another tectonic plate — all you have to do is say “Happy Birthday” once in a while. Harder for those of us stuck on the same plate.

What I fear is that if this goes on, we may become too distant to ever walk back. Think of it like the universe expanding — if we keep finding reasons to be mad and annoyed with each other, and the universe keeps stretching further apart, we may eventually reach a darkness where we can no longer see any other galaxies. Just us, and the emptiness.

As I said, we may all be horrible people who are horrible to each other, but what I always liked about us was that we still found reasons to connect, to talk, to bond. We grabbed every opportunity to do so. And now, maybe… we’re not?

I hope, though, that we find some gravitational pull and don’t let each other veer too far.

Too many metaphors and digressions? Don’t worry about it — I’ll write a book someday and torture you.