BANGALORE: When a creeper finds a sturdy stem, it grows on to it. Soon it finds it can’t live without it.
And does it do any harm? Sometimes no, and at other times yes. Being in a relationship is something like that.
Sometimes, you are the creeper.
Sometimes your beau is.
I’ve seen girls clinging on to boys’ shoulders, never being able to detach themselves off them, because they are used to being ‘taken’ around. Taken, meaning, literally driven around in rich boys’ BMWs or in just about anything that can pick them up and drop them at the destined locations.
I recently had a chit-chat with a girl who said she hates taking the autoricksaws. “I got so used to my boyfriend taking me around, that after the break-up I couldn’t imagine travelling alone,” she admitted.
She avoided going out for almost a month until another man crossed her path. Now she is getting used to him driving her around.
And there are those boys who have to have girls by their sides, just to foot their emotional quotients. I know of this man (a grown-up boy) who wanted a girl so that there was someone or just something he could fall back on. “I was going through a rough patch in my life,” he told me. “I had people from work and business taunting me. And I had no life. I wanted one. And I wanted someone who could help me,” he added.
He went on to get someone who eventually left him. The stem was not strong enough to withstand the weight of the creeper.
Creepers are of no harm sometimes - for as long as they don’t belong to the parasitic category and if the branch is strong enough to bear the burden it has taken upon itself, then it becomes of the most beautiful responsibilities.
Then it takes a nature that comes close to a mothering experience. “I know I am here today because of my wife,” said Aneeth (name changed).
“She was there for me when I needed her. And now, it’s time that I give it back to her,” he added, also mentioning that she deserves his caring hand now.
The Merriam-Webster online dictionary defines a creeper as ‘one that creeps,’ as (a) a plant or (b) a bird that creeps about on trees or bushes searching for insects. In short, whatever creeps to find a sturdy support becomes a creeper. But understanding the physical and emotional support that homo sapiens need for daily endurance, I believe they ideally top the list. Because, a wise man once said, ‘I ask not for a lighter burden, but for broader shoulders.’ bngexpresso@expressbuzz.com
