It is the far end of the road
and that cab is heading into a turn. You desperately cling onto that moment.
Adrenaline rushing through your veins presents a sense of weariness and boredom
that you almost feel that the time has come to a halt. But the predicament
stands to be your knowledge of that being untrue, for you have learnt it all
too well that such things only happen in cheesy movies and romantic novels;
Where you and that person infinitely stare into each other’s eyes in an
ostensive deadlock and bequeath it all, time stands still.
You know what heartache is
and that is why you don’t want to let go. You close your eyes and let the
moment pass, for it is so difficult that you doubt if it’ll ever pass. And when
it leaves you, you find yourself steaming in fury. Your angst know no limits
and all you want to do is hate that moment with all you can, as that was the
moment which took your mate away.
Now, you must be wondering
why I went in such detail to explain something so gooey, when I seem to have no
association with anything as such. Well, admissibly it doesn’t concern another
human being, but having said that, it doesn’t always have to be another human
being. And because now I realize that I have been boring you for a long time, I
will say it. I am speaking of a show that was very dear to me at one point in
time and when it came to its inevitable end, I began despising it.
It’s “How I Met your
Mother”. From the moment that I saw that dreamy eyed guy glimpse at the
completely unknown women across the bar with such adulation, I knew that I have
been taken by its charm. The innocent-face architect, who dreamed to live
chimerical fantasies, somehow became an indispensable part of my life, our
lives. I admit that I started on it, a few years too late, but that didn’t seem
to matter, for I knew that his quest for finding the mother of his children
was, as Barney repeatedly said, Legend wait-for-it dary : Legendary. From the
first girl he dated to the last girl he ever did, all of the somehow felt to be
a part of my life.
Victoria. She was the first
girl ted dated, since the beginning of the show and how we rooted for them to
go all the way. And when they didn’t, you didn’t feel sad, because you knew he
was headed for something better. And that was, Robin Scherbatsky. Even though
we always knew that Robin was not the mother of his children, they always made
a cute couple, and somewhere in the depths of your consciousness, you always
thought, “I wish they would end up together”. But you always managed to gag and lacerate
that voice for you knew too well that it was a dream that could never be true. Then
along came Stella. The good-humored, polite and unbelievably hot dermatologist
that was removing Ted’s tramp stamp; the chagrining “Butterfly Tattoo”. And you
were thinking, “That’s it. Stella is ted’s wife”. And you start thinking that
Ted’s daughter could be Stella’s daughter and you also imagine a scenario where
Ted convinced Stella to change her seven year old daughter’s name.
Next summer, when Ted is left
at the altar, he is not the only guy who’s heart broken. Even though, you knew
that it was coming but when it actually did, you couldn’t cope with it. You
were furious and you wanted to smash things, but you calmed yourself saying
that, ‘It’s just a show’. Then came Zoey; the trophy wife activist who was
trying to ruin Ted’s lifelong dream. Suddenly you were having De-Ja-Vu; you
were somehow convinced that they are going to date and by some wired chance of
fate, they did. You knew that the relationship was going to be a disaster and
you wanted to talk some sense into Ted, but that was beyond your control,
wasn’t it. In the meanwhile you saw the struggles of Marshall. His fluxing
interests sliding from corporate to environmental. Robin, adjusting to her new
life in the country with new friends. And with every disappointment,
professional and personal, she was molding herself into a person that you were
proud of. Seven years of Barney being AWESOME. Everything about
him was awesome. His desirable and sociopathic beginning, his transformation
from a man in denial to a man that knew his strengths and weaknesses and a man
who was willing to give his heart into fulfilling his dream and marrying the
woman he loved and we can’t forget the time he had a Perfect Week. And lily;
she changed too, but her changes were subtle and with every one of them, she
became more and more adorable. She always was, is and will remain the darling
of the gang.
And on 31st March
2014, when the show that I had, we had, all of us had, come to love so much
came to say good bye, we embraced it with nothing but angst and hatred. People
have different ways of dealing with break-ups and that day, somehow we were
forced to break up with the show. We weren’t ready, at least not yet. And the
way that a large no. of us (the Diehard HIMYM fans) chose to deal with it was,
shower it with abuses, insults, hate and disrespect. We picked the most
likeable and obvious aspects of that finale and turned them into shit. Yes,
Shit!! Is that the sendoff, it deserved? Certainly not! And given the times that
it proved to be a companion through your thinnest times, it was probably one of
the most ungrateful deeds ever done.
When you returned home after
the month long vacation after your board exams, and the vacated house where
your best friend lived screamed at you with so many invaluable memories, the
one who comforted you was this show. When you saddled yourself with the regret
of not having mustered enough nerves to speak up to your crush, again, this
show comforted you. And when I vowed with several other nut head fanatics,
never to watch it again, was it just? No!
Then one day, I played the
Pilot Episode, just to validate my theory, I got hooked onto it. And then when
I came to the ninth season once again, with fresh perspective and the lessened
weight of hatred and a refurbished resolution, I came to the realization that
in it’s own way, the last season was as good as it could ever have been. In
short, it was perfect. And in that moment I realized that sometimes, all you
need to do is: look back. For your past has many mysteries rolled beneath its
dense layers which are just waiting there for you to unravel them. And it was
so obvious.
“You made us sit down and listen to this story about
how you met mom. Yet mom's hardly in the story.
This is a story about how you're totally in love with
Aunt Robin. And you're thinking about asking her out,
and you want to know if we're okay with it.”
I admit defeat, for I have
fought this hopeless battle for far too long and shamed the show in public, out
of nothing but my own personal reasons. So here, I admit defeat, unabashedly
for I tried to hang onto something and when it didn’t happen, I began to detest
it. I tried to go back to familiarity for I wasn’t sure if I would be okay with
what the future held, for I felt betrayed. And is it turns out, it’s just a
brittle wall that you build around yourself, which, one day, falls over your
head and gives you a serious head injury. And as Robin once told Ted,
“You can’t just run back to the past just because it’s
familiar”
And the most important thing
that I learnt from all of it is, that whenever you find yourself at a dead end,
with nothing left to do or find yourself with no hope or motivation to move
forward, just look back. Because your past confides some great treasures that
are waiting to be discovered, and once you have found them, you can begin again
with a completely transformed view of life.
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