Boulevard of Broken Dreams

This morning on the way to work I heard the Green Day song “Boulevard of Broken Dreams”

It is ironic that I should listen to this song on this day. Because, thousands of miles away one of my friends is saying good bye to loneliness and embracing a life partner, and millions of others from all corners of this world are happily falling victims to Cupid (you know what I am talking about; just in case there is someone who doesn’t understand, today is Valentine’s Day – the chances of such people existing are 0.00000001%).

If I remember correctly the song goes something like this –

I walk a lonely road

The only one that I have ever known

Don't know where it goes

But it's home to me and I walk alone

I walk this empty street

On the Boulevard of Broken Dreams

Where the city sleeps

and I'm the only one and I walk alone

I walk alone

I walk alone

My shadow's the only one that walks beside me

My shallow heart's the only thing that's beating

Sometimes I wish someone out there will find me

'Til then I walk alone

How true - I am sure many of us went through this at some point or other in our busy lives (don’t be fooled by the music video that shows three people walking on a desert road, after their car breaks down, singing this song – saying “I walk alone”).

Listening to this song, I remembered another friend of mine. She claims she is highly emotional as she is Piscean. But I started noticing something more, something dark, and something profound. She seems to have been lost in her past.

My friend, you seem to have understood

nainam chindanti shastrani

nainam dahati pavakah

na cainam kledayanty apo

na sosayati marutah

"The soul can never be cut to pieces by any weapon,
nor burned by fire,
nor moistened by water,
nor withered by the wind."

But still, why do you lament for those who are no longer with you? Why do you feel lonely and sad, just because one person deserted you? Why do you think that you are alone in your journey? Why does Sunset upset you, isn’t it an opportunity for a new day? Why don’t you end the past and make a new beginning? Why don’t you find a new friend who can walk with you (because, as you rightly said, walking alone is wandering but if two people walk together, there is a destination and it is not wandering)? The more you think of the past, the more you wish that the present is wiped out, and the more future looks dark and bleak.

The same Gita (The Devine Sacred Song) also said

matra-sparshas tu kaunteya

sitosna-sukha-duhkha-daha

gamapayino ’nityas

tams titiksasva bharata

"The nonpermanent appearance of happiness and distress, and their disappearance in due course,
are like the appearance and disappearance of winter and summer seasons.
They arise from sense perception,
and one must learn to tolerate them without being disturbed."

So, my friend, forget the past, forget the people who deserted you. Move on, because a new day awaits you. A new beginning is waiting so you can start afresh. A new friend is waiting at the end of the boulevard with new dreams, those that are not broken and not to be broken. All the best.