Page 136 - You Only Live Once [BooksLD]

And now, the most practical people like my papa would also cry and feel
good about me when they see my capacity to make people laugh and cry.

I point to each one at Ricky’s, my new home. There is no greater joy than
falling back on those who will always be there for you. Maybe that’s the
reason why your heart belongs to your loved ones, your home, even if you
are miles apart.

I love you all. You make me complete. The passion, the fear, the struggles,
the setbacks; it is yet a dream - to become a standup comedian! This is me.
That’s my time folks! Happy New Year!

As I walk down the stage, the salty breeze of the sea resonates with claps.
Alara kisses me on the cheek.

‘You’re a rockstar!’ she says.
‘You have always been one,’ I reply as she makes her way to the stage.
My dad walks up to me and hugs me. ‘I am proud of you, beta !’ he says

and apologizes through his expressions.
‘I love you, dad!’
‘Is she your girlfriend?’ he asks teasingly, like a typical middle-class

Indian man in his sixties.
‘Kind of!’ I say and dodge the question. We aren’t so comfortable
speaking of our relationship in front of our families yet, you see.

Alara walks up the stage with our emotional Ricky and says:
It’s beneath the blue sky and by the deep ocean where I looked for you.

It’s in the period after sunset and before sunrise when I looked for you. It’s
at my home and on islands far off where I looked for you. I could never find
you elsewhere until I discovered you within. Oh! Happiness, it’s been a long
journey seeking you. I wish you were as simple to stumble upon as the
clouds of sorrow in my heavy heart. Now that you’re here, I will never let
you go. You were as good as taking a decision and now I shall choose to be

happy.
This one is dedicated to my mother.

She loves the mountain.
He loves the sea.
They decide to travel
twice together every year.