Loneliness is a tricky thing.

It can have it’s claws pierced in a person’s skin even in midst of his loved ones and people around won’t even have a clue.

Sometimes it’s not just about being alone. It’s about understanding certain emotions which are not open to all.

In a way, it’s about not being able to share what we think. And we can’t share because no body around us sees it in the way we do.

For example, let’s say you watched a movie last weekend with a group of friends. Let’s take a tough one. Say “Memento” or “Fight Club” After the movie was over, you happened to be the only one to understand and appreciate the psychological theme of the movie. Others found it plain bore – so full of gore and so very confusing. You try to explain it to your friends, but they only laugh at you and keep calling the movie a waste of time. That’s where Loneliness kicks in.

You being a part of a group yet so different from them that you are not able to discuss how you think about something you so much liked. You are just not around with people of same tastes. From that word “taste”, I can tell, you are in a similar situation as that mouse in “Ratatouille” who understands and appreciates the taste of food he consumes, which his family and friends are not able to. To them he is just a crazy fellow who is looking for taste in waste.

Forget about the movie, this can be true at various points in life. And you could be inflicting this pain on someone else.

Say, one day a son / daughter after much hesitation approaches his / her parents and confides in them that his / her sexual orientation is not what it naturally should be. In most cases, the first reaction would always be that of shock. That’s about fair. But then would the parents be able to understand that though it’s not natural for them, it’s a natural thing for their child. No force in the world is going to change what their child really wants. Normally what the parents would do is, tell their son / daughter what a shame this is going to cause them in the society. Or even worse, if they force their child to enter a marriage with a member of opposite sex. That would obviously put an end to their worries but that’s where their child’s problems would start. The child now is nothing but painfully lonely, unable to understand whom to confide in.

Loneliness can come out of simple things like ability of understanding and appreciating arts or out of complex things like marriage or relationships. And these happen to be just a couple of examples. At times, we get so prone to it, that we start living in loneliness. That’s when we accept it as a way of life. Then we start growing as introverts or sometimes selfish people who don’t think of what others want. Sometimes, it’s easy for us to term people as selfish. But what we don’t understand is, if they don’t think of their own interests, nobody else will. Or maybe, loneliness hasn’t played such a big part in our lives.

Like Love, Loneliness too is indeed a tricky thing.