One likes to acquire what is not within one’s ambit. Any rare thing once possessed loses the charm of having it, but a thing of whatever quality is not yet acquired is a rare thing, and so has its importance. There is a saying: ‘Distant bells are charming.’ The future is always more charming because it is far from the present.

A man generally pines for distant objects and moments in the hope of gaining imaginative pleasure. We often discover an element of magic in distant objects. Romance vanishes as soon as the object of romance is achieved or acquired by us. The fact is that the element of distance casts some magical spell on us. All human faces and distant objects look romantic from a distance. Keats has so rightly said, “Heard melodies are sweet, but those unheard are sweeter”.