Short Story – Love and Hatred
Photo credit: takekha from morguefile.com
The story is about a pair of twins Love & Hatred. They were born in a gap of just over 2 minutes or so. Love was the elder of the two. They were twins so it is but obvious that they had the same parents. Both shared the same cot, shared their clothes, shared their toys and shared almost everything that was brought up to them. Their parents loved them both equally without any discrimination towards either of them. They went to the same school in the same school bus in the same classroom and also studied under the same teacher.
Everything that they did was together; every joy they felt was together, still there was a vast difference in their personalities. Love used to love everyone around him. He simply loved the idea of being able to live in the midst of all living beings. He loved every creation of God. He felt protected under the umbrella of the blue sky, thanked the sun for providing light to everyone, enjoyed the rains as it gave him water to quench his thirst, loved the plants & trees as it gave him fruits and vegetables fill his stomach and oxygen to breathe, played with the animals and birds as he connected his soul with theirs.
Hatred on the other hand used to hate everything that crossed his path. He felt unsecured under the same open blue sky, hated the sun for the heat it generated which made him perspire, disliked the rains for it drenched his clothes and spoiled his footwear with the wet soil, didn’t care for the plants & trees as they brought with them too many insects & worms that disgusted him, couldn’t stand the animals & birds for their unusual and untimely howling and chirping.
As they grew older so did their emotions within. Love was filled with more love, compassion, positivity, kindness, generosity, tenderness and more heart. Hatred was filled with even more hatred, disgust, negativity, animosity, displeasure, enmity and envy. Years passed by and their individual emotions just grew stronger by each passing day. Love felt blessed and Hatred felt cursed.
Meanwhile there happened a situation which was to change their lives forever. Unfortunately for them both they happened to love the same girl named Coincidence. But neither Love nor Hatred ever committed to Coincidence about their love for her. Neither did they both knew that the other one loved her. But one day it so happened that just by coincidence, both Love and Hatred decided to propose to Coincidence for marriage. Coincidence, as the girl she was by heart very warm and charming and beautiful, she happened to love Love for the man he was.
As both the brothers were friends with Coincidence and as luck would have its day both decided to meet her at a particular restaurant near their college and decided to keep it as a secret to surprise the other. They ordered for their food along with their favorite wine. In the midst of a very casual conversation Love suddenly got up, pulled his chair back and knelt down to propose Coincidence with a ring in his hand. Hatred was taken aback by this shocking incidence. He couldn’t believe what he just saw but he believed it to be one of the many pranks played by Love. He felt may be his brother knew how much he loved the girl. Coincidence’s joy knew no bounds as she immediately accepted Love’s proposal and kissed him in agreement. Hatred not believing his eyes lashed out at his elder brother for his deed. A major argument followed where Love tried to pacify the anger of Hatred. Coincidence had no option but to take them both out of the restaurant as they were creating a ruckus for the fellow customers. Out of embarrassment she hastily went inside to pay the bill, not knowing what was about to happen next between the two brothers.
Hatred had already started hurling abuses at Love for deceiving his love Coincidence and turning her away from him. Love tried his best to reason that that was not the case as they both never knew about the fact that they loved Coincidence and it was just a coincidence that this happened. Hatred not ready to listen to his elder brother he started heavily abusing and manhandling him and in a fit of rage started punching him. Love was calm as flowing river trying to convince Hatred that it was purely unintentional and that even Coincidence loved him as she had accepted his proposal. Hatred turned even more red as sensed rejection from the only girl he had loved. Continuing to hit Love, Hatred was so furious he picked up an iron rod that was lying around and hit Love directly on the head.
Love started bleeding profusely and felt down losing consciousness. Just then Coincidence happened to rush outside to calm down the brothers but got dejected with what she saw. Her love was on the ground unconscious and unable to move. She slapped hard on Hatred’s face for what he had done. Just when Coincidence was tried waking up Love, he breathed his last with his hand in Conicidence’s. She couldn’t believe at what just happened. She sat lying there with Love unmoved as she was stunned with the occurrence. As he saw his brother dead on the road, Hatred realized what he had just done was the biggest mistake of his life. He knew he did the unthinkable. His brother was trying to calm him down and make him understand but the cloud of rejection had covered his mind that led him to this mindless act.
Coincidence stood up crying and shouted, “You know what you have done? You have killed Love. He was your only brother. I got my love and lost him at the same time. What have you got by doing this? Do you see any possibility of the meaning of Hatred in life without Love? You had a life because of Love. You are just a piece of lifeless wood now. You have left Coincidence deserted with your act of cruelty. Without Love there will not be Coincidence and nobody will ever ask for Hatred!!”
——————
Love & Hatred are two sides of the same coin. In every situation we like to access the possibility of our reaction towards that situation. And according to our perception about the situation we usually toss the coin up in the air and choose whichever side falls down heads up. But wouldn’t you believe if I say that it was just a coincidence that this side of the coin showed heads up?
__END__
