Love Scars by Kalai Selvi Arivalagan (non fiction books to read .TXT) 📕

A wounded deer leaps highest,

I ’ve heard the hunter tell;

’T is but the ecstasy of death,

And then the brake is still.

Emily Dickinson

The day started with gloominess. When Saranya entered the sprawling office entrance,  she felt uneasiness at heart.  

“Is there any bad news waiting for me?” As the office complex has been closed for the christmas holidays, it looked empty without anyone, who kept walking around, going from one floor to the other, or from the floor to the food court at the extreme corner of the complex.  

The lift was empty and none to accompany Saranya. Usually Saranya avoided taking the lift alone. Once inside that small, enclosed space, the loneliness scared her. Until the lift reached the third floor where her office was, she will stood numb. Most of the time she walked the stairs. First floor or second floor or third floor, she preferred to walk and mostly avoided the lift.

Using the stairs turned out to be a healthy exercise not only to her body but also to her mind. Most of the people who worked in the first three floors became her friends. Whenever she halted for a few minutes at the landing slab, a space that connected the floor with the other, definitely someone from that floor would greet her. Saranya knew more people in that complex than anyone in her office. Though she maintained distance with her colleagues, whoever she met on her way turned into good friends.

Saranya understood how far it is true in her case. An article that hit her mail on that day filled her thoughts.  

When we take time to check in with our heart, each person we encounter can be seen as a fellow traveler in the journey of life.

Anyone can be a friend. And anyone cannot be a friend. It always takes time for every one to get introduced, understand and then realize the compatibility and the wave length or frequency that matched their preferences. From school to college, from college to her work place, she did have many friends. But only a very few matched her wave length. Such relationships did not exist for a longer time. It turned into void within a year. Friends who impressed her a lot unfortunately waved good-bye within 365 days. Every year around the month of March/April she told good bye to one of her thick/close friends.  It took another six months for her to return to her normal self and lead a normal life. Her virtual world shook for a while with this parting and her sub-conscious mind could not take this sharp pain that nulled her brain powers.

When she started to read poetry during her high school days, she developed an interest in reading metaphysical poems. More reading of metaphysical poems, helped her to develop interest in learning about life and the puzzles it had within. Whenever she went to the library, she started to hunt for books that talked about life after death. Not only death, she wanted to read more about dreams and how dreams played a crucial role in a person’s life. Dreams could foretell what will happen next and they can guide the person better.  

Dreams are more connected with our sub-conscious minds and every dream had a meaning to interpret. They are predictions of our future life. She loved to interpret the dreams her friends shared with her. Happy or unhappy, her friends listened to her interpretations and accepted them as genuine and correct.

Dreams dreamt in the morning and dreams dreamt during sleep at night may have different interpretations. Dreams are a collection of images, feelings and memories that occur involuntarily during the REM (rapid eye movement) stage of slumber.  Every one dreams in their sleep. Yet, most of us may not remember or only have a vague remembrance of what we saw in our dreams. According to a study, some people don’t dream and are never disturbed by dreams.  

Dreams are considered as fantasies. A reflection of what we think at our subconscious level and mostly they are thoughts that could not be expressed or shared with anyone. Dreams may often involve persons whom we may know or familiar with or even unknown. Sometimes, the dreams take us to unknown lands we have never visited, or locations that we love to visit. Dreams are always interesting for they give us the space for acts that we may not be able to do in real life. Dreams may be a simulation to our unshared emotions or threats that we may experience in real life.

Dreams are always not positive. Sometimes we may experience negative dreams or nightmares that may shake us and wake us from our deep sleep. They may bring in anxiety, despair or even scare us to the maximum. Nightmares may occur again and again and they can lead to psychological distress or sleep problems like insomnia.

On that day while taking the stairs to reach her office, Saranya felt dazed and confused. In her deep sleep, she had a wakening dream that made her heart palpitate heavily and sweat profusely as if she encountered a ferocious lion on her way.  She dreamt being in a tight hug and the interesting part of the dream was she could not see the face of the person but could feel the emotional pull that resembled a magnet. That was electrifying!

The desire to know whether or not a woman is cursed with curiosity is one of the most active and insatiable passions of the masculine soul. - Ambrose Bierce

The stairs looked endless. Though she walked on those stairs every day, she never felt so tired. On that particular day, she felt heavy at her legs. Every step seemed to be a strain and she has to deliberately lift her leg to move further. It happened at that moment. She always kept her phone inside her bag, and never carried on her hand like others. Unusually she heard her phone ring. She opened her bag and took her phone to attend the call. The phone slipped from her hand. Shocked she leaned forward to catch it before it fell down. The sudden turn made her jerk and her right leg twisted with a slip. Before she realized what happened, she started to roll down the stairs. No one was there to prevent her from the fall as every one preferred the lift.

Saranya shivered at the thought of rolling down the stairs when a powerful hand stopped her fall. She could now hear the palpitating sound of a racing heart and the smell of a strong perfume reached her nostrils preventing her from a dramatic swoon.

Within seconds he prevented her from that drastic fall. Saranya lost her conscious for a minute. Vel let her down carefully and made her sit on the stairs. He took the water bottle from the bag and sprinkled some water on her face forcefully. The water woke her up and she opened her eyes slowly. She could feel the pain on her sprained right leg.   

Saranya did not open her eyes immediately but she could feel the powerful hands around her that saved her from the fall. That tight-hold reminded her of the dream. With a racing heart, she looked up to see who saved her.

“Thank God, I saved you from the fall.” Vel felt relieved for he could save her from rolling down the stairs.

Saranya searched for her phone down the stairs. She could not see her phone anywhere.

“Here it is” Vel handed over her phone.

“Thanks.” Saranya mumbled. “You saved both me and my phone.”

“Nothing great. You are saved from a drastic fall. Go home and take rest.”

Saranya tried to get up and stand with her hands on the slope of the stairs. She could not balance her right leg and put it down firmly on the stairs. Vel helped her to stand by leaning on the wall.

“I think it is better if you take the lift.” He helped her walk to the lift and accompanied till she reached her office.

Vel helped Saranya to sit comfortably at the reception. Unexpected development of events made her feel shaky. A shock went down the shiver and she could not tell what would have happened if she had a fall.

The girl at the reception helped Saranya to take rest in the ‘Sick room’. She felt better after lying down for 30 minutes and drink a bottle of chilled water. When she washed her face in the chill cold water, she felt much better.

“Hi, What happened?” Suganthi peeped in.

“An escape.” Saranya didn’t want to recount the bad experience.

“Let us move.” Without answering any more questions from Suganthi, she walked slowy to her cabin and switched on her computer. She decided to concentrate on her day’s work and forget whatever that happened to her.

Small things always fill our days with happiness; we feel cherished and grateful for the moments that made us feel so excited. These moments happen everyday in our lives, though we think only larger moments bring us the maximum happiness.  

When we realize small things can bring the maximum happiness into our lives, we feel how wonderful our lives have become. The minutes when we look around and see the beauty of nature, kindness and laughter, an ordinary day changes into a blessed day.  

The day started for Vel as usual. Nowadays he found travelling during the day, which was unusually hot, becoming tedious and tiring. During peak hours, he found it extremely difficult to manage when he met people who kept on talking non-sense. Even a petty issue turned into a bigger issue that affected everyone around him. But what happened on that day was completely different from his usual encounters. While traveling he had always helped youngsters who come running to get into the bus. He would give his hand to help them getting in.

Though he helped Saranya from an awkward fall on the stairs, he didn’t think about that incident again. On a busy day like that he rarely find time to think about anything else except his job at hand.

While walking home after work, he suddenly remembered the incident that happened in the morning.

“Thanks.” Sree greeted him with his usual tug at the shoulders.

“Where did you go today?” Vel queried anxiously.

“Nothing special. I received a call