As good lonely as it gets!

With a hectic work schedule ahead, I'm not sure if I'd be able to blog as frequently as I used to. For a while I wanted to blog on something that surrounds me - 'nothing'! Ever heard someone say solitude and loneliness are one and the same? Well, then I'd beg to differ. As much as I love my solitude, I hate my loneliness. So where do I draw the thin line, if at all the line is thin?

Solitude is when you let your mind fly high like a kite with the surrounding atmosphere drifting it away into distant and more distant horizons. You are not with any humans but you are with Nature. As Wordsworth puts it, you are with your mother and it is a divine moment of soliloquy where you talk to yourself but you are not alone...

Loneliness on the other hand is miserable. When your mind is loaded with pressing thoughts and stress, when everything around you seems to screw up and you keep looking and re-looking the 100 entry directory on your cell phone to pick the person you feel like talking to; that is called loneliness. You could be lonely with 1000 people around you and it's just the sense of belonging that matters. Perhaps that's the reason why God created man with desire and with so much attachment to earthly pleasures. Imagine a man born with no desires - he becomes instantly lonely. The biggest punishment that a man could get is to not get someone to talk to when he desperately wants to communicate, share and express something! That is the reason why the worst punishment in any penal code is the inappropriately named 'Solitude Prison'.

I hope and pray that the grip of loneliness introduced in abundance by the new city, new work and new people vanishes pretty soon!