I have often wondered if people who keep leaving would stop doing so if they didn't have faith that those who they leave behind will still be around when they (are ready to) come back.
Songs about leaving have a special quality. I am thinking of songs like abhi na jao chhor kar, or na jao saiyaan chhura ke baiyaan, or aaj jaane ki zid na karo. There is such open admission and frankness about feeling like one's life's breath is being pulled away, if one's beloved leaves. There is a childlike quality to the request, and a feeling of someone laying themself bare before you when they ask that you stay a few more moments. It reveals a certain vulnerability, and in being able to reveal that vulnerability unabashedly, it also shows great strength of character.
na jao saiyaan chhura ke baiyyan, kasam tumhari main ro padoongi
machal raha hai suhaag mera, jo tu na ho to main kya karoongi?
Oh! the speechlessness of the moment if one were told so openly that their departure would bring tears to someone's eyes. What could you possibly say to someone who says to you - If you were to go away, I would be lost- ?
Or when someone says with a pleading smile, just when you're about to leave-
abhi na jao chhor kar, ki dil abhi bhara nahi
Sigh..
Who could possibly refuse these requests?
Not without a certain part of me turning to stone the moment I left.
