My Love

Chennai Speakers Forum

CC # 5

My Love

Her blazing eyes, the stylish looks, her well toned curves, the graceful walk, I was so much in love with her. She was all that I had ever wanted. Her dark colour, set off her brilliant eyes seemed to entice me towards herself.

”Come here darling!” she seemed to be saying. I was so spellbound; my feet took decisions on their own. They moved towards her, my eyes glued on her every aspect. I admired her from top to bottom, front to back. I couldn’t see any problems. She was P E R F E C T.

As I was admiring her, I was also thinking within me “Dude, this lady is gonna cost you a lot of maintenance. “ Petrol prices being what they are, I had to agree with my inner voice.

Yes fellow Toastmasters, I was looking at my first car, my very own Skoda Fabia. A better car didn’t exist in my smitten mind. I was so elated; I didn’t catch the glimpse of pride and love in my parents’ eyes.

My parents gifted her to me for my 21^st Bday and as a graduation gift. I christened her Chocolate. Why I did so is worth a story of its own J

It was but another milestone in a journey that began long ago....

I still remember, when I was a kid, i was sick quite often and due to that my mom and I had to travel to a lot of doctors, from Kolkata to Mumbai, Chennai to Delhi, who used to prescribe a lot of tests. For each of the tests, I used to throw a tantrum and demand a toy. My mom would always get it for me, and I would have to go through that horrible test with tears and terror , my mind only upon the toy I would play with when I returned home.

That went on for quite a while and I had with me a large collection of GI Joe vehicles, Shape changing aliens, awesome looking cars with imaginary superpowers and lots of missiles and nuclear bombs.

Today when I look back at them, I realise how much trouble I would have caused my parents. I did not know if they had enough resources to buy me the toy I wanted, I did not see the tears in their eyes when I was being tested. I was suffering from a very rare genetic disease, the cure for which was not yet discovered. I didn’t not care for that... I was happy with my own toys.

As i grew up, my demands also kept growing, from toys, to books, to video games, to mobile phones, to watches , to computers, to laptops and finally to Chocolate!

Where I should have been using the toys and loving my parents, I was doing it the other way round.

People were being used and objects were being loved.

Slowly, over the years I came to realise the seriousness of my conditions and the troubles my mom had to go through with me.. for me. Sometimes I can see a hint of sadness, the fleeting glimpse of pain, trial and tribulations that lay just beneath the surface recollecting the times gone by. For me that was what constituted my childhood, for me, it was normal, for her, it was a punishment .

The love my parents had and have for me cannot be measured. The toys, the education, the cars are just the tip of the iceberg, what lies beneath is truly priceless.

Toastmasters, we live in an era where everything has a price tag attached to it. Ironically, the smaller the object, the bigger the price tag!!

How many of us can put a price on our happiness ? How many of us can measure our love for a loved one?

Jewellery, cars, homes, mobiles , vacations  everything is being sold in shops. But does anyone of you know about a shop selling happiness? Love? 

None.

Yet we measure our success, our achievements and our wealth not by what we have here in our hearts but what we have in our pockets

This piece of paper can get you friends, spouses and kids, but can it get you their heart?

This piece of paper, however crushed, still finds another hand. But a heart once crushed can never be whole again.

There are some things money can buy, but  for everything else there is our Mastercard.

Use that card, not to buy yourself a Chocolate, but for bringing a smile on the lips of ur Loved Ones.

Thank you.