love Aaj Kaal

No matter how good a movie is, it lingers only for a while. Rarely do I sit down to write about the after effects of any movie. But after watching the recent Bollywood flick Love Aaj Kal, I couldn’t help pondering and wincing at the state of romance of Gen Y.

The movie has beautifully blended the love stories of couples of yester years and the couples of today. Couples back then chose to love their beaus trusting their gut feeling. But the present lot of romantic couples let “rational” thinking override most of the time. While trying to think and act too rationally, so that our lives don’t get messed up, the essence of love in lost in most couples. Gone are the days when love stories began with chasing the girls, stealing loving glances every possible time, meeting secretly, making vows to stick through thick and thin, so on and so forth. That was how love bloomed. However, things have changed 180 degrees today. I’d like call our generation the “making out” generation. We go out on dates, do the deed and after few months or so we realize we aren’t compatible enough and start running in opposite directions. If that’s not the case, citing our career goals and the most widely sought after reason; distance factor, we choose to part ways.

We call ourselves practical like the young couple in the movie does. We are yet to reach the state of throwing break up parties like them, but we sure have become pro at getting through with one relationship and moving on to the next ones. My mind is racing with examples of so many couples who have gone through similar break ups citing distance factor. A friend of mine fixed a final date with her then boyfriend to part ways. Wishing each other all the best they stepped out as single individuals who were more than ready to mingle with the probable crowd of singles in the city. As of now, my friend is in a ‘steady’ relationship.

Unlike the elderly couple in the movie who represent the forever kind of love, we are far from reaching even the first year mark. For many of us, the whole idea of being in a relationship for more than a year or so with the same person is in it self is very boring. To curb this boredom issue, my friend suggested us to date the seniors at college. That way, she says, we’ll have high chances of reaching the one year mark and when the guys graduate breaking up will probably remain the only option. Win- win situation, I guess. Therefore, it comes as no surprise when even the seemingly most compatible and adorable couples of the college decide to part their ways once they are done with their convocation ceremony.

The scene in the movie where the young couple decides to break up citing long distance relationships and the stress baggage it brings along with is very apt for people of today’s generation. The reasons are same. Long distance relationship equalizes to higher probability of misunderstandings. Granted we live in the era of communication, but when the person in question is physically absent, no means of communication seem to help the relationship work. Eventually people in long distance relationship give up and walk around like a free bird.

I am the kind of person who appreciates people moving swiftly from one relationship to another sans the emotional baggage. However, the whole idea of high school and college sweethearts getting married always appeals to my old fashioned romantic heart. But it seems the forever kind of love is hard to find these days. The best example is that of my friend who broke up with her boyfriend of two years citing stress and miscommunication due to the distance factor. The distance: 28 kilometers from Kathmandu to Dhulikhel.