Leaving on a Jet Plane

If played at the right time, or the right place- any song will seem like a message from God. "Leaving on a Jet Plane" is that song which i'd hate listening to on any other occasion. But if it's relevant to the moment, i'd find myself in a huddle with other people, singing my heart out, tear in the eye and pointing my half empty beer bottle to this hero who's leaving town. We make things look like he's going to war, or he's going out to the Wall, saving us from the Night Walkers, and he may never come back. We want to remind ourselves how much we love this guy, and we want to believe that this guy may never come back again. And you are one of these people. You act like you're that only best friend who was always there to protect him, and this is the end- because this is where you let him go.

---

Holy Shit. Wake up.
He's only relocating to a better place, with a better job, better lifestyle and a much better salary than you. And if you're worried about not being able to see him again, don't. He'll make sure to visit once in a year, for his own reason which is more or less like a reality check, to gauge how much he's progressed in Life. And
if you think that sounds brutal, fuck you, because you would do that too if you were in the same place. I'm not saying that he'd come back and gloat or anything. He will miss all those good times with you, we're all human- and moving on is always tough- but he will only realize how tough leaving is when he's eventually left, and when he's by himself in a new place and he will have no one to tell him just much he's being
missed.
I spent my Saturday evening at a send-off for a close friend, and this one did not have any of those
points I just mentioned. Just a fun evening with friends, dancing, music and drinks- without a single "we will miss you" chant. The only thing that we did do wrong, I felt, is call it a "Good-bye" party; a title I feel we could have done without as well.
My point? That I feel the whole sequence of you swaying around with your friends, crying over that "Jetplane" song and all those "We will miss you" messages to that friend who's leaving, eh, it's just too much drama. This poor guy isn't even feeling that bad about leaving, he's probably excited- and here
we are putting up this show for him to force those tears out of him and make him admit that he will miss us.
If he doesn't give in, and if he holds his ground by telling us to chill out, then hell breaks lose, everything's gone haywire, and yeah I've even seen fights start over this "how could you not be emotional" shit.

It's a Monday now, and that person's gone, and we're back to doing what we do, carrying on with this
endless loop of keeping ourselves busy. If we think about how did our weekend go, we'll probably think
on the lines of "Bahut hogaya. Enough drinking, enough drama, it's time I concentrate on my own job
now"

See? Now this is what I call waking up.
There are those people who said the same thing to themselves even before that send-off party happened on the weekend, and they were considered the outcasts at that time because they were sitting quiet and
watching, while the rest of us were in the moment.

Don't get me wrong. I love you over-the-top-emotional people, because that's what makes every send-off
so much more draame-baaz. But i'm just saying it's fine if the one who's leaving doesn't join our rona-dhona charade, and it's absolutely fine if we never play that bloody "Leaving on a Jetplane" song on every damn sendoff..!