This is a question that has been put to me, not quite often but many times in different scenarios. It is not like I do not cry, I do remember most of the instances I did, though admittedly few.
Thinking about those moments reveals much about what kind of person I am. The feeling that I have let down someone really close, that hurt. I cried silently. Facing an extremely difficult choice between two people, I cried aloud having made that choice. Hearing a song for the first time, tears rolled down taking me by surprise. Reading an article about guns and how human life lay waste triggered an intense anger inside my head and the emotion came out as hot tears.
We all have an emotional threshold beyond which our dam breaks. What we cry for will differ during our growing stages, but a pattern is set and the threshold is a product of our experiences. I do believe, just like being positive and smiling is important, crying our heart out is equally important. This we do not usually tell our children. Cry hard, laugh harder!
I think somewhere a social norm is set, boys don’t cry much and girls cry often. But we have all seen grown up men weep, in joy and sorrow. I wonder whether crying is unique to humans, as is laughter, that which differentiates us from animals. Teary moments stay with us longer than moments of happiness. The happiness can drain away pretty fast, but the quite moment of grief/pain/solitude stays with us longer.
A beautiful moment in ‘Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara’ highlighted this. A guy who is afraid of water bodies is taken deep sea diving by close friends on a bachelor’s party trip. The actual experience is so overwhelming that it produces silent tears from his eyes. Piognant! The next time his friends asking him how he did it he just says – ‘Simple’, takes a deep breath and exhales. Just keep breathing…!
Brad Pitt recently said, and I paraphrase – ‘Being happy is overrated. I do not want to be always happy. We all have happy and sad moments. What I want to be is satisfied with what I do.’ Being in a state of “always happy” is an oxymoron for human life.
So my friends, cry, cleanse, remember, laugh and continue breathing…!
