Dile pe mat le yaar

Once upon a time in a far far away land, there was a dodo. Now this dodo was peculiar. It was fatter than the rest of the dodos. While you can say it was not soo fat as an elephant, it was still on the heavier side when compared with the rest. This dodo was different. If looks were the way one judged, they always judged it wrong, always undermined it, always belittled it. It learnt to take everything in its own stride. As far as it was concerned, it is what is underneath that counts. For this dodo was strong believer that beauty is only skin deep. What counts is the real mettle of a person. So thus it lived without a care for what the world thought.

Years passed, and the dodo was happy with its life. It moved up in life and was content with the way things were. It did not really care for what others thought about it. Mind you, it developed a thick skin over the years. It learnt that you can be sensitive, but you cannot show it to the world. It carried indifference as a cloak. While others thought it to be snobbish, arrogant, insensitive and cold blooded, it did not bat an eyelid. The tears it shed were always under the dark of the night, all those jibes which cut its heart were locked in the deepest corners of the heart. It moved on in life looking at the blessings. Life is too short to cry over, it thought.

Friends, they were the blessings it had. They joked about things, they pulled its leg for its almost elephantine personality. It laughed with them, never taking things to heart. Then one day, a friend played a trick. Then all the world collapsed around it. It then realised that maybe all those light hearted comments were not so light hearted after all. Maybe in all this, there was again that hidden prejudice. Maybe it was too blind to actually see that. It broke the dodos heart that its so called friends perceived it to be different. That even the friends judged it based on its looks alone. That even they never cared for the person beneath its veneer.

Copious amounts of tears were shed by it. It poured out its angst at the irony of life where even your friends judge you on your looks alone. No matter that beneath all that tough exterior you were too sensitive a soul and that the tough outlook is the only way of protecting yourself from the unkind world. The friend said it was all in the jest of the moment. But did they not realise that the prejudice was always against it? Did they really did not understand that it was touchy about it?

While it was still moping about the injustice of all of it, another dodo came up and said “ Dil pe mat le yaar” true thought the dodo. What use is it when your friends cannot respect your feelings and understand you enough not to trample on it. There was no point in indulging in self pity. Because at the end of the day, life moves on and so must we.

Kahna bahut aasan hain ki dil pe mat lo, par usko nibhana bahut mushkil.