"Dil toh bacha hai jee...

...Thoda kacha hai jee!"

Ishqiya - one of the most awaited films this year, sums up the life and times of a lot of us - it is about love yes, but also confusion, deceit, anger, frustration, expectations, unexpressed emotions, the power of a good meal, stealth and hope...surprisingly the cutest couple to me in the film was Mamta and her lover - that seemed to define the simplicity of love in a morass of utter, total societal and institutional chaos!

Not surprisingly then, this was one of the lessons I learnt this week which seemed to have everything - a sprained ankle to start with, the magic of end-of-season sales, a mid-week holiday, the illusion of romance and the disillusionment of dependence...

U know, sometimes we expect...We expect people to be predictable, available, dependable, (either/or as applicable), but that doesn't mean they have to be. On the other hand, them not being so doesn't mean one should stop expecting..Ok, maybe you withdraw from a certain person but you may then latch on to another one! Its a loop but its neither as crazy as it sounds nor as helpless. Simple hai na, aap expect karo, koi expectation pe khara utarta hai ya nahi - yeh lekin control karne ki koshish mat karo - bas ki itna yaad rakho ki yeh aapke haath mein nahi hai. Somewhat akin to the basic ideology outlined in the Bhagwad Gita - "abandon all attachment to the results of action" but act you must. Expectation is passive action and it is something you are choosing to do.

So go on, aspire, expect, make demands on your friends and family, or even random strangers if you please - the urchin on the street does! coz even if it seems we may not get what we want, we just may...so why give up!;-)