Heer and Sahiba

हीर हीर ना आँखा उडियो
मैं ते साहिबा होई
घोड़ी लेके आवे ले जाए
घोड़ी लेके आवे ले जाए
ओ मेनू , ले जाए मिर्ज़ा कोई
ले जाए मिर्ज़ा कोई
ले जाए मिर्ज़ा कोई

-Gulzar
-- Jab Tak Hain Jaan

I love this song from Jab Tak Hain Jaan. While its difficult to capture the essence of the song in words, I'll try to. In Indian/Punjabi folklore, there are two very famous love stories : Sahiba - Mirza and Heer - Ranjha. In both tales, the lovers dont live happily ever after. In the second story, heer and ranjha never get together,  heer's brothers taking the couple's  love as an insult to the family's reputation kill him.

In the first tale of Sahiba and Mirza, Mirza comes on a horse and takes Sahiba away, for a life together. But their journey is interrupted by Sahiba's brothers, who kill Mirza, thus ending the love story.

In the song, a lady sings and says - don't call me Heer, I'm wish my destiny is like that of Sahiba's, i aeait a Mirza, who'll take me away on a horse.

Here is a story of two girls I knew...Heer and Sahiba.

They were dreamers..... and like all girls they dreamt of their prince charming. Of a Mirza. And of a Ranjha.

Heer, was born in India but far removed from the repressive times of the folklores. So was her best friend Sahiba.

Heer's father was in the army and she had lived her life moving from one town in India to the other. Making friends, leaving them, sometimes keeping in touch, sometimes not. She finally came to Delhi in class XI.

Sahiba was from a town in Punjab and had moved to Delhi early in life. She was from a well to do, closely knit family. Family came first for her. Always. And every time.

Sahiba and Heer met in Delhi in school. And immediately became best friends. In school one was synonymous with the other. They moved on to different colleges in the city, but of course they couldn't go without talking to each other for more than a week. Heer moved to Hyderabad for work, and Sahiba went on to do an MBA. They tried keeping in touch but demands from their respective new situations made them drift apart.

But in a monthly call, they would share their lives, their friends, their loves and heartbreaks.

Heer, highly emotional, trusting and loyal fell in love with a man she thought was 'the one' . She completely believed that they were meant to be, he gave her reason to believe. So she waited for him to ask her. He never did, so she asked him. He backed off and said he loved someone else. That broke her. What broke her completely was a drunken night with him, post this revelation. He backed away again. She attempted to pick herself up, but couldn't. She reached out to Sahiba, but didn't find a response. Sahiba thinking its another of Heer's many loves, brushed it away and ended her email with the wink smiley. Heer shut herself from the world. Then came along a friend. Who'd been with her throughout in Hyderabad, but who in this time became a lot more than just a friend. He helped her repair herself and start believing in love again. But a part of Heer was shattered. And more from the loneliness she felt in those nightmarish times than anything else. Today she and her Ranjha are together. And love each other dearly. There is no one else who understands them better than each other. You can see the harmony and love and comfort and respect in their relationship. Her parents are not happy and object to the match. Heer is fighting, but she knows that her father and mother are as obstinate and high headed as she is, they won't bend. She had to choose between her parents and her love. She choose her love.

Sahiba, has always been a detached and not too trustful of people.. Heer was her only friend that she trusted and loved for a long time. The distance between them had developed cracks in their friendship, but even if they spoke after months and met after a year, the old love rekindled and you could find them talking and laughing like they were class XI all over again. Sahiba was loving MBA. Staying away from home for the first time, even if home was just 20km away. A new set of friends and a different experience in life, it was a thrilling ride. Heer would write to her about the man she loved and she took it as one of Heer's many loves...which would fade away when not reciprocated. So she took what happened lightly. The silence from Heer for many many many months didn't take her by surprise because she was busy and they usually spoke once in 6 months, so this was normal. One day, Sahiba had a major injury and missed her exams, she wrote to Heer , but got a regular reply. She expected her to care and enquire about her everyday. When she didn't see that coming, she was disappointed in Heer. And reached out to another friend. The friend replaced Heer, for everything.

Heer and Sahiba still kept in touch and would meet now and then. Heer was now happy with the man she loved and who loved her. Sahiba had a new job and was enjoying it. When they spoke after a long time, Sahiba told her she was making a man meet her parents. Heer, was thrilled. But somewhere she thought...why didn't she know that Sahiba was in love?

Sahiba's parents loved her Mirza and the wedding was fixed. The families met and dates were set. Heer got to know after a long time. She was a little upset. But she pushed it aside. Sahiba was happy, so was Heer.

Today Heer is attending Sahiba's wedding. She flew 23 hours to get to the wedding and is exhausted, but excited ! Its Sahiba's wedding after all! But things are not the same. She is still Sahiba's close friend , but others are closer. At home, she is fighting a battle with her parents for what she believes in and the man she loves, she talks to Sahiba, but never gets a response. No advice, no understanding...not even a hug. She hugs Sahiba after a ceremony, but finds Sahiba holding her other friends hands. So she backs away and watches from far.

As she stands watching a little girl performing on a song...she cannot stop herself from thinking, where she went wrong and lost Sahiba. And where Sahiba lost her. She wishes for the same happiness in her mother's eyes for her and her Ranjha, as she sees in Sahiba's mother. She wishes for her father to be as proud of his daughter as Sahiba's father is. As  her eyes start to mist, the little girls dances away to ,हीर हीर ना आँखां उडियो,मैं ते साहिबा होई, घोड़ी लेके आवे ले जाए....