Am so much in love with the Chicken Soup for the Soul series.. That one after the other am picking up new one to read, without even finishing the previous one and toggle between the different versions. Very nice, cute little inspirational stories. I read these at leisure.. Two or three per day.. That’s it. Some stories seem so familiar.. As if it has happened to me.. Or I have seen that happening to others, while some stories seem like fairy tales.. Or as it happens in the movies.. Especially the Bollywood movies.
The current set of stories which I am reading are for the romantic “Indian ” soul. Apart from being being exposed to Bollywood movies in our growing years, there are other some peculiarities of Indians, the value systems, influence of Indian customs and traditions etc. And probably that’s the reason why there was a scope for this book. Before I had picked up this book, I was wondering why it is romantic “Indian” soul.. Idea of love and romance should be similar across globe, isn’t it?.. But the peculiarities made the difference.
In India, there was (and still is) concept of arranged marriage (pardon me for my ignorance, if such concept previals in other parts of the world too). The girls father will select a suitable boy. In earlier days, the girl and the boy used to meet directly on their day of their marriage. So there was no means to know each other, understand each other.. Forget about falling in love. And in spite, marriages have sustained in India.
It was indeed pleasure reading the stories of love, care and affection which have taken place in such circumstances. Small gestures of affection and concern, no explicit expression of feelings still being there with each other all the while, providing unconditional support to the partner.. To see him or her.. Achieve their dreams, even if they wont be part of the dreams.. Everything was so natural and right from the heart.
To me, all this seemed like a fairy tale. Now when I look around, I have hardly seen any such thing. Why talk about others, I myself don’t fall in that category. There would have so many cases where my support and understanding was needed, but I failed providing the same to my partner.. Instead of adjusting, I complained.. Instead of showing affection, I argued. Of course, on all such occassions, later on I did realise my mistakes and I did try to correct them. However the very fact that such things happened in the first place, makes me think.. Have I understood the meaning of love
I really thank to all the contributors who have shared their stories to form this beautiful book. Indeed a lot many things to learn.. To get inspired and to make, not only your own life, but lives of everyone around you.. Full of happiness and love.
Simply me 