I am quite curious to know how many people differentiate between being sentimental and being in love. There seems to be a thin and almost invisible line between the two. When I feel sentimental about something or someone, I think I have a feeling that I put on a false front - the 'ought' component comes in. I 'ought' to be doing so and so and the worst part of it, someone else 'ought' to be doing so and so. There is no liberation in this since we sort of set the expectations that one 'has' to do this and that.

Love or affection is all about reaching out minus the niceties and expectations. It is so simple that it seems so elusive and most often misconstrued. It does not expect anything. On a similar note, I keep wondering about the caption in the one of the ads - 'We all change for the ones we love'. I do not agree with that. Love does not really expect any sort of change in the other. Love is all about accepting the person as he or she is and finding a right balance to be able to connect and relate with the person surpassing all the differences. This does not mean that there is no emotional binding between the individuals. It simply means that you care so much for the person and you trust the person so much that you ensure that he or she has enough room and hence is more comfortable.

There is no such thing as 'unconditional love' since love by definition itself is unconditional. Love actually liberates instead of being bound to something.

We have had many people talking about National freedom. We have talked enough of it - the sacrifice, the struggle, the long list of people who laid their lives for the common cause, the atrocities committed and a whole lot of other things. We all know that. We have talked about that. We acknowledge all the sacrifices that they made in the form of many national holidays. So thats not the what this blog is all about.

This blog is about what freedom means as an individual. More often than not, it is seen as conflicting with values and questions like "Where does the compromise on values start and hence freedom start?" arise. Is personal Freedom necessarily a compromise of values? May be not. Values does not mean restricting oneself and freedom does not mean "becoming bad". Freedom is to be able to do what one perceives as 'correct' in accordance to his or her highest sense of righteousness. Hence, freedom is in accordance with values. It is more like a paradox. The knowledge of values (wrongly conceived as restrictions) actually liberates you. This gives us the capability to give mutual respect for each other's personal space and at the same time be intimately associated. This will make us realize that whatever others do, how we react to other's actions is solely our liberty. End of it all, we are at liberty to chose our state of mind from a zillion different options - anger, sadness, gloom, desperation, sheer dejection or ecstasy. This also empowers us to be at peace with ourselves irrespective of what is happening around us. We are not only free, but we are obliged to take the responsibility for what we end up doing wholly. I guess it is this responsibility or rather the shrinking from this responsibility or the fear to take this responsibility that makes us feel that we are in chains at times, while we truly are not.

Many of us run into situations which provide us with the opportunity (or is it ordeal?) to step into an unfamiliar territory. And many of us turn it down because of our mind says it is risky and the fear factor steps in. There is nothing abnormal about this. Almost all of us grew up in the environment where we are always asked to be careful. No one says 'Take the risk and face it squarely'.

There are many instances in life when we hesitate to start something, when we hesitate to end something, when we lose a job, or fear to be assertive even in situations that hurt us badly. We always think ' When I feel less afraid, I will go ahead with the plan'.

What we fail to realize is that unless we keep stepping out of our comfort zones (and in the process expand our zone of comfort), we will never grow. And each time we consider stepping out of the comfort zone, fear will grip us. There is nothing wrong in feeling the fear. But what makes us stagnant is doing nothing about it. The only way to overcome the fear is to go ahead and do what we fear. The moment we decide to take responsibility for the fear and handle it, it gives us a positive momentum to handle it and whats more, we are already doing something about the fear.