WHAT IF - ZINDAGI NA MILEGI DUBAARA

by sneha prasad

[Jounralism hons,first year ]

designed and edited by mehak koundal [b.com program , first year]

What if Arjun never went on that trip? What if Kabir married Natasha? What if Imran never received that letter? What if Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara was never made?

There are times in life — what poets call a “moment of grace” — when the life you had and the life you could have are divided by an ocean, where the old and the new don’t meet or merge, they repel. You can either stay where you are or, maybe just once, hold out for something better.

Arjun, stuck in routine and numbers, is like all of us — keeping happiness at bay like dessert he’s going to relish later. He waits. He leaves relationships, friendships, and waits for that decadent dish to be served: a dish called happiness, life. Then he meets Laila. And Laila believes in having her sweet treats first. She makes Arjun see the futility of existence — and something cracks in him.

But what if he never went on that trip? What if he looked for contentment in numbers and confused being wanted for being known? What if you do too?

We live every day like it’s a rehearsal, as though the main event is yet to begin. We waste life thinking there will always be more life to waste. But what if there’s not? Why do we need the world to end to finally live? What if death is inescapable, but so is living? And why is Arjun escaping it — and why are you?

So now, the moment of grace: why do we stay in relationships that don’t work, in jobs that don’t satisfy us, in places we’re not welcomed?

If you forgot everything — all the ways of living — but just had this: this is your life, fragile, delicate, transitory. Everything is made of smoke, and so are you.

Would you drink your next cup of coffee and feel its warmth? Hug your best friend and allow yourself to be held?

What if everyone has an Arjun in them, but a Laila too?

What if the world wasn’t ending tomorrow but beginning — and the dessert was right in front of you?

What if?