The ship will sail over the horizon but there is no need to worry
Dil Chahta Hai (2001) is a movie that has had a deep impact on my generation. Aamir Khan’s look in the movie with that little goatee wasn’t common back then but now it is very common and so many men in India have tried it including yours truly. I remember as a young kid, many of us wanted to go to Goa for our under-grad trip and that was the first thing my friends and I did soon after finishing our engineering. One particular scene involving Akash, Sid, and Sameer (portrayed by Aamir Khan, Akshaye Khanna, and Saif Ali Khan respectively) at Chapora Fort became quite a phenomenon and thousands of people have since tried to replicate that pose in numerous photographs.
In this scene, Akash and Sameer are sitting there admiring the natural beauty of the sea and Akash expresses the intention of visiting Goa every year. Sid on the other hand is in a much sombre mood and points his friends towards a ship that is sailing over the horizon. He states that soon life will take them in opposite directions and forget about meeting every year, but it might be a possibility that they might not end up meeting even in 10 years. Akash and Sameer set aside Sid’s realism and state that they will always remain, friends.
While in the movie, the climax takes us back to this very place, what Sid stated in the scene is very much a reality that many of us are either experiencing or will experience soon in the future. From my personal experience, I can say that what Sid spoke about is absolutely true. It has been more than 10 years since I passed out of school and although there were people with whom I used to speak everyday back then, I haven’t spoken to them for more than a decade now. It has been more than 5 years since I passed out of college and the same is true here as well. There are people with whom I used to speak on a daily basis but haven’t spoken since then.
Now I’m currently pursuing my higher education in a prominent B-School in the country. I have met some really incredible people over here in this span of about 1.5 years and I get to interact with many of them on a daily basis despite the fact that we are now separated by distance due to the ongoing COVID-19 Pandemic. However, it is a reality that we may not speak to each other for years once we graduate from here in April next year. In each stage over here, we all had thought like Akash and we had promised each other that we will stay in touch. However, that didn’t happen and it won’t happen either for the simple reason that it is the nature of life.
Life can be described as a cycle of transitions and with each transition, the priorities of people change. With changing priorities, it becomes difficult to maintain the promises of staying in touch with each other. Life takes us in different and opposite directions exactly like how Sid describes in the movie. However, we don’t learn from experience. We still make promises, plans, and almost take it as a burden that we should make it a point to meet regularly. But as usual, they don’t work out.
Currently, I feel that I’m in a situation where most of my peers are in a state of transition. Some of them have changed their jobs, some have moved to different places, and some have gotten married and have begun a new inning in life if I could describe it that way. Comparatively, there hasn’t been a drastic change for me as I’m still a student even now but I guess that will also change soon. We all have boarded different ships and are sailing in different and opposite directions.
Now, what is the point of this post and all this rambling? To be honest, I really don’t know. It is just an expression of thoughts and feelings that are coming to my mind. However, what I would like to say is that instead of thinking about how you will keep in touch with friends years from now, you should probably just enjoy every moment you get to spend with them right now. We spend hours thinking about the future which nobody knows when rather, we should be focusing on the gift that nature has given to us in the form of “present” or today.
The ship will indeed sail over the horizon. Nothing can be done about it. Life will take us and our friends in opposite and different directions. We may not speak to each other in the future. We may never meet again in our lives. However, we need not worry about that now and instead, we can and probably we should very well just enjoy the present moment with them because as Mary Angelou once said
We spend precious hours fearing the inevitable. It would be wise to use that time adoring our families, cherishing our friends and living our lives
To put all this in simple words: You need not worry about staying in touch with your friends in the future. Rather, enjoy every moment you get to spend with them NOW.