Do relationships die?

I have tried this several times with children: I ask a group, “how many of you remember the name of your grandmother?” Quite a few hands go up. Then I ask about grand-mother’s sister’s name, or name of great-grandmother. Hardly any hands go up. Then I ask how many remember the name of the Father of the Nation, or the great King of Ayodhya who conquered Lanka. All hands go up.

This is an exercise in understanding relationships. Our relationship with Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi is not dead, even sixty one years after his demise. Our relationship with Lord Rama or Emperor Ashoka is not dead, thousands of years after they left their bodily form. But our relationship with our own great-grand parents is dead, and we remember nothing about them.

We remember our old servant who passed away. We recall our best friend who left the city and disappeared with his family in childhood. We cannot forget the boy or girl on whom we had a childish crush, and who we could never gather the courage to speak to. This is the beauty of relationships. I feel that a true relationship is not by the tie of blood or marriage, not even by duty or law, but by the emotional bond. The person who has left us and gone to the other end of the globe, the one who had an untimely death, or one who we just stopped meeting and drifted away from – some of these have left a strong footprints in our journey of life. Having had them as part of our life has enriched us forever.

Make a list and see who your true relations are. It will be those who remain deeply embedded in your mind and heart.

For ….. true relationships can never die !

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