“You might be locked into a world not of your own making, but you still have a claim on how it is shaped. You still have responsibilities.”

I realized recently that Valentine’s Day actually means something – it stands as a dedication to the man who displayed magnificent valor in favour of a faith, a trust in companionship; it is a symbol of survival, of hope and of victory. Why must it be looked down upon as a cumbersome public display of an alien culture? If Poland and Germany can celebrate the same event together, why not Asia? How does an Asian man’s passion differ from an American’s? Geographical boundaries are meaning lesser and lesser to me with time. Look at how the ultimate Christian festival affects almost all our lives today. Why are some accepted and the others not? Valentine’s Day is the celebration of the bravery and grit of a man who believed in the strength of companionship, and risked his life for it. How different is his conviction from that of Gandhi? Or of Mother Teresa? How do we calculate the respectability of an action or event? Is it not the passion itself but the intent that the passion serves? The Greeks only asked one question when a man died – “Did he live with passion?”. Have we now evolved to qualify only certain ambitions of a passion as ‘great’?

“How do you define maturity?”, Rahmat asked me out of the blue as we were watching Friends on TV yesterday. She has this seemingly effortless ability of framing questions around the most deeply sought-after knowledge. It amazes me, how she yearns to understand, comprehend and grow – continuously looking to make sense of her world. I am her junkbox, I think – and as she keeps shooting questions at me, I try and gather myself as quickly as possible after the shock, and give her my thoughts- trying to articulate, analyze and understand my own self. She makes me think, rethink and be more articulate than I have ever been. She makes me realize I think differently with time, with each experience, event and action - she has contributed to my mental shift of context- one of my most powerful realizations ever. When she contests my opinions is when it gets very interesting – and I am highly enjoying being on the other side of questions for a change!