DE Online Desk:
Have you ever felt like this – This is the end. Nothing can be done anymore. My life is messed up. What’s left to expect in my future anymore? Why the hell is my life like this? Is there a reason to go on living like this and so on.. I am sure many of you had such depressing thoughts running all over your mind. The big question is, are you just overthinking or is there any bitter truth hidden in these string of questions.
Let me share a small incident from my own life when I was in my 11th or 12th grade. My psychology teacher asked the students in the class (that even included me) this interesting question, “What’s your take on your own life?”.
I don’t exactly remember what everyone said but I know what I replied. I told her, “My life seems too stressful, there are too many problems to handle”. She merely laughed in reply. “You are too young to say that, your life has just begun, my dear. You haven’t experienced anything yet”.
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At that time, I felt bad that she brushed off my reply as a silly one but as I grew older, I realized what she said was absolutely true. To elaborate, about why we shouldn’t be too easily depressed about the challenges, problems and failures in our life, here’s an elaborate incident by an acquaintance that might inspire you and be of interest.
The Unrequited Love Story Of Adarsh
A tall, slightly wheatish young man in his thirties, sat on his couch sipping a hot cup of coffee while he flipped through the pages of the morning newspaper. Adarsh was a bit of an old school as he preferred to be updated with news on the papers rather than the ones on his mobile feed everyday. According to him, there was a nostalgic feel to it.
Just when he was rising up from the couch to dig something for lunch in the kitchen, his phone rang. It was a known number that remained unknown to him for some time. His heart raced, it always had when he used to see her in person and now it did more once he saw her name on his phone-Pallavi.
As soon as he picked up, he was greeted with the words “I am going to get married”. Not even a hello. Wow! Does she want to give me a heart attack? He thought to himself. Silence hung between them for sometime as Adarsh tried to process the news. She patiently waited for his reply. He finally took a deep breath and asked, “Do you love him?”.
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Pallavi softly replied, “Yes”. Great! That was a rapid fire answer, he thought again. “Then go ahead”, he said, steady but calm. Adarsh felt like he was playing the role of Amrish Puri in DDLJ telling Kajol, “Jaa Simran jaa, jee lee apni zindagi” when he said that. “Tell your parents, you’ve made your decision”, he continued.
There was a sudden pause, her voice was trembling with uncertainty. It was clear she didn’t expect such an answer from Adarsh. “How can you say that so easily?” she asked, struggling under the weight of her emotions. He had to take a deep breath again before he explained even though he had no idea if it even mattered.
“Because I loved you, it was true and deep. I even expressed and told that to you several times in many ways. But never once did I ask you to love me back. My love was never conditional, never about possession. It was real.
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And now, you love someone else. That’s okay. Love doesn’t always return in the way we expect. Maybe the man you love will love another someday-because love is a circle, constantly in motion. But here’s what I know: the love I gave will come back to me in some form, someday. It always does.”
Her tears filled the silence on the other end, and then without a word it went dead. That sound-the soft, heartbroken hanging up of the phone-was one Adarsh had heard before. It took him back to a time when he had asked her to join her after landing his first job.
Her reply then was a stinging rejection: “Are you crazy? Don’t you have anything better to do?” What was he supposed to do? He thought to himself. Ask her to run away with him from her own wedding. He knew if anyone dared to ask her to do that she would give the same answer she had given to him that day. That moment transported him to the past, dragging him deep into memories of unrequited love and dreams unfulfilled.
For years, he felt like he hadn’t really lived. His heart had loved fiercely, but the question that haunted him was, “Had he ever been loved that deeply in return?” Wait. Yes! A name burst into his mind like a flash of lightning, the one who he had deliberately cut off from social media. He always sensed she cared for him, maybe even loved him.
As he was in the grip of his own heartbreak then, he had made it clear to her that he was in love with someone else and friend-zoned her. Anakha was her name and he hadn’t spoken to her for two years once he said. “Let’s just be friends” to her except for the occasional, impersonal forwarded messages.
That night he tossed and turned on the bed, his thoughts were centred on his life. It wasn’t a cakewalk for him. He was constantly struggling to get the job that he dreamt of, and once he got one that was when he proposed to Pallavi. He just had a small and simple dream. Acquire a job and then marry the girl he was so deeply in love with. He soon understood it wasn’t possible to be successful in both professional and love life.
Pallavi was getting married now, the woman who conquered her heart and then broke it in pieces. It had taken him so long to get over the pain of her rejection and now this. He kept thinking, she was moving forward and what was he doing, lying there on the bed being depressed about his failed lovelife.
Without further thought, on a whim Adarsh took the phone that was lying on his side table. He sent a message to Anakha on WhatsApp. It was pretty straightforward. “Can I marry you?” he wrote. Her reply was instant “No, I can’t.” Another stinging rejection. Adarsh felt he would fall into depression because it felt like a slap-a hard, cold blow.
But 22 days later, she called him, her voice filled with curiosity. “What about that message? Were you serious, shall we go ahead?” He was stunned and speechless but broke into a slow smile later. In what felt like the blink of an eye, Adarsh’s parents visited Anakha’s family, and soon they were married. Years later they had a beautiful daughter named Diya.
Today, Adarsh is a happily married man, blessed with a beautiful family. But the journey he had was far from easy, and it taught him one profound truth. Every rejection, every setback, every betrayal-especially from unexpected people-shapes you. Those painful experiences aren’t just obstacles; they are stepping stones. They make you who you are.
And once Adarsh looks back, he holds no anger, no bitterness. Those hardships were life’s way of teaching him strength and perserverance. If we fail to achieve the dreams we desperately cling to, we don’t need to lose hope. It’s because something better is waiting on the horizon, something far greater than we could have ever imagined.
So, smile and cherish every moment- don’t be fed up of life because everything happens for a reason, and it’s all leading us towards something good.
