A Hopeless Romantic’s Guide to Love
Kids, it was the year 2022 and the annoying virus that had been haunting us for the last two years had finally taken a break. The world had opened up and people were ready to embrace it. I, like other fellow romantics who were done with the façade of online dating and virtual relationships, was looking forward to meeting people, getting to know them by their words and eyes. But little did I know that it will be a hard thing to find my person with the yellow umbrella.
I believe it was the year 2014 when Ted Mosby, the protagonist of the show, How I Met Your Mother, ended his chase of finding ‘the one’ and met the mysterious girl with the Yellow Umbrella. Now, while you may be on Team French Blue Horn or Team Yellow Umbrella (no spoilers given), I just wish to talk about the romanticized notion of this umbrella.
Yellow, that brightest, boldest and daring-most color that dares to stand out in a crowd. In a swarming traffic of black, grey and white cars, a yellow cab stands out perfectly. If I remember correctly, it was the very reason why P.K. (the doosri gola wala citizen) wore a yellow helmet, so that God might take better notice of him.
So if yellow is that bright, charming and noticeable color amongst all the colors, what is stopping us from finding our mysterious person with the yellow umbrella. Why is our person not standing out amongst the crowds? Why are they not running towards us with the same intensity we are running towards them and well, bad decisions and problematic relationships? Are we hoping, like Ted Mosby, that it might take nine seasons of love stories, heart breaks, friendships, being left at the altars and two minute romantic dates (again, no spoiler given) for us to finally get love? Are we being optimist or just hopelessly romantic idiot?
The world changes every day today. We have battles to fight, hatred to avoid, stands to take and a lot more. In all these movements, have we forgotten to seek out ‘the one’? Are we avoiding them purposefully? Are we saying we crave love but haven’t really given space to love in our lives? What are we doing?
At this point, you might be thinking that I am doing injustice to the title of this piece. I am not giving you any great advice or guide on love. I am just throwing hard hitting questions on you! There, there. These hurt me too.
But this is my hopeless romantic self. This is my guide that I have to offer you. We have become rational creatures, investing in stocks and deciding fates of countries and brand advertisements. We have stopped doing things impulsively. We have stopped wearing our hearts on our sleeves. In simple terms, we have stopped being irrational. Especially when it comes to love. Now who shall tell you that even neuroscience says that your rational and irrational parts of brains are completely different and work independently. So why do you think your rational brain will do the work that was clearly meant to be done by the irrational one? You have to be your silly self when it comes to love. You have to giggle, shy, blush whenever that person sees you. You have to do things to see them smile, and make your day out of it. You have to. Because love is that simple, and that difficult.
You have to put your heart out. You have to love, because in the end, that’s the best thing we can do (as Ted said). Ted Mosby did love every individual he met in his life, believing that to be ‘the one’ of his life. At moments, he broke down. At moments, he wanted to run away from everything. But he didn’t. He continued to love, and torment his heart till he finally found the one. And if he can do it, why can’t you?
Still, who am I to tell you anything? It’s my irrational brain writing right now while your rational brain reads this. You don’t have to trust me. You just have to go watch the show, How I met your Mother, and probably its new spin-off series, How I met your Father, to start believing in love again perhaps.
And when you do, and when you meet your ‘the one’, do let me know because I, like you and many more, will still be hoping and looking out for our yellow umbrella.
P.S. Be that Yellow Umbrella of your life as well. Love yourself first to let more love in your life.
