In the company of solitude

I know a lot of people who say they need company for everything. It could be for a movie, a coffee at office cafeteria or even a trip to the loo! These people can neither be anywhere nor do anything, if they don't have the presence of a known face along with them. The need may arise all of a sudden. It could be at times, planned too. That raises the question of who fits the bill for a specific need. Faces of people start doing circles and the short listing process begins. Once the list of candidates is ready, phone calls or messages or pinging on the office communicators take the role of messengers.

Many a times, friends who suddenly get the call may be in between an important task. Then again friendship is more important in a good majority of cases. Of course, once a while you face a denial that could result in the question moving ahead to the person next in the list. In the eventuality of all the people who got short listed answers in negative, panic sets in. The stage changes, roles get redefined; emotions do a fly by with the sonic boom at the highest possible decibels ever! A sudden rendezvous with solitude is undesirable for them. It is an unwarranted experience and never gets appreciated, as for most of them Solitude and Company can never be brothers-in-arms! It is nothing but fear of being with the self.

I love being in company too and perhaps have one of the widest ranges of friends among my bunch so much to the extent that I get surprised about my own personality once a while! But this does not stop me from appreciating something as beautiful as the other side of being in company, so to say.

I'm not sure when exactly was that I learned to appreciate solitude. Probably, one of those striking one-liners in a newspaper which told me the difference between Solitude and Loneliness or perhaps the knowledge that poets made them a subject of their classic works! I salute them both since I learned something so magical that I could say I fear not, the love of solitude!