Almost

What is your single least favorite word in the English Vocabulary?

There are a lot of contenders,

Words like regret, remorse, anger, murder, poverty, terrorism, racism,

Sexism, hatred, and may be a few more.

But if I had to pick one,

It would be “almost”.

Why almost? Why Indeed.

Almost represents failed potential.

It represents our ability to be just not good enough.

That we had come to the brink of something so beautiful, so magical,

But fell short of it so many times,

That we crafted a word for it.

Almost.

Almost.

Like when in 1999, sachin was 12 short of winning the game for india.

He was almost there. Single handedly navigate india into that position.

Yet he didn’t win it. He almost won it.

And he was in tears for the hours after the match.

That’s what almost does to people.

Like the time when,

In 6th grade I had a crush on this girl.

Her beauty was right out of your dream,

And her skin was like milk,

Her hairs were like silk.

For a chance to sit with her,

I would happily trade,

A cone of chocochip ice cream.

Over a period of years,

We became good friends,

I am almost confessed to her in my 10th grade.

But she was like a hurricane,

And I was, well a drizzle.

So I decided not to say anything,

In the fear of losing her.

Time passed and we lost touch.

Time carved a gulf between us,

That was to difficult to budge.

10 years later we met for coffee,

She was married now with a ring as big as

IPL trophy.

We got into chatting,

and she told me that she had a crush on me during school.

Oh what might have been,

I thought to myself.

I was almost on the brink of may be something life changing,

There is that word again.

The reason for most of our sorrows.

Almost.

Like the time when,

20 years later,

I almost proposed to my girlfriend.

I decided against it.

I thought it was too simple,

And needed to be something more romantic.

She met with the accident next day,

And suffered partial amnesia.

She didn’t remember me.

May be the ring would have reminded her of me,

May be the the accident wouldn’t have happened,

What would have been?

Who knows?

We were almost on the brink of something beautiful,

And we fell so far.

There is that word again.

Almost.

Almost. The bane of human existence.

Almost. The reason for our survival.