Incomplete - 9 - Murdered in Love - 2

Let’s take a reverse gear and sneak into little things during our school life, which then of course mattered most. To buy and preserve ‘baer ke phal’, mouth watering ‘pan pasand toffee’ and waiting for some surprises exchanged in the form of colourful ‘ribbons’ are some of the common reminiscence of the school days. Each second guarded waiting at a place and ensuring every action is beyond suspicion from that of teachers, parents, fellow mates and even neighbours. Liberty of wearing wrist watches was though attributed only to the working class, the time was ticking just right for “us” – it was the new beginning - the first “puppy love” ‘Love letters’ existed and so did ‘love messengers.’ Only to prove that the person in love was more important than others, some messages were blood written. All of this existed unaware that everybody around is watching and noticing this development; unaware that this has become the talk of the town, unaware that grades are depreciating, unaware that parents are alerted. In order to get complete sanction to hold hands and walk around, a test has to be passed; prove your ability to score and score a distinction. On the Day of Judgment when results were out, you find the name on the "toppers list". Timely success blindfolds everything and intelligent people around strategically plot against world's precious feeling called "love", it’s rubbed as infatuation. The next thing to life is to score and this time score the best degree ahead. Taking a clue from epic movies, there exists concept of "waiting" and "waiting for that day"............a long wait only to realize that the loved one is settled somewhere happily with his loved one. Love after all is not about the hugs and kisses, but about the chills that hit every part of your spine when you think about them. Love is strange; it greets you as a stranger only to remain a stranger throughout. Another one, a phone conversation ignites and boils down to desperation within the love minds; a possible meeting in the evening will be disrupted, as the boss stands villain at the work place. The second step of "love", the adamant one, "only to outdo and correct one's perception". Dressed exactly the way to impress and get continued attention, breaking all norms, feeding all the lies, it thrills to bunk office in the afternoon only to meet him and duly come back to attend the missed schedules. Fight out all odds and end up marrying the guy only to find that everything seemed to be just a dream. Learnt to see the imperfections perfectly... aaauch that hurts. Then another form of love, which is termed as "soul partnerships"; everything is felt, heard, dreamt; believe it or not, it will exactly happen the way it is. The "Bhagawad Gita's", "Ramayana", "Mahabharata", "worldly things, positive things, "white" will be the colour; songs will be eternal, peace and only great conversations. Salt and sugar will be proportionate. Holidays will be in serene places, Himalayas will be a dream. A priceless moment and timeless love is born. But it vanishes, where doesn’t know. Then there is "one sided love"; bet "men" will beat "women" on this. They will continue to love, forgive, forget and help only to keep the woman. The ones into this will go through unimaginable levels of happiness only to see the wonderful day come true. Appreciate and empathise then it will be the mistake of life; neglect and it will turn out to be rude; neutral, the hope continues. “Materialistic love”. People fall in love not with the person but with status, standard, wealth and fame. This kind of love however, last longer than imaginable. The reason being all the wants are satisfied, life becomes self centric and one hardly gets time to think what has been missing.
Then there is “internet love”, “trial and test love”, “open love”, “friends forever love”, “unconditional love”, “conditional love”, “possessive love”, “obsessive love”, “love of beauty”, “love of minds”, “love of conversations”, “spiritual love”, “analyst love”, “assessment love”, “sun sign love”, “horoscope love” and the list goes on.
There are concepts of love – Selfish and selfless; Freedom and Possession.
The new trend (borrowing words from a conversation): “Love” is the biggest brand in the world, greatly marketed by Archie, Hallmark and of course Yash Chopra. “Forever Love”, “Long Lasting Love”, “First Love” etc.
Finally “ambiguous" love stories. The reason to start the relationship will be weird; from friends it will convert to brother, then it will convert to affection, and then convert into care, will convert to love. There are many roles to play, one of a friend, sister, mother, lover, wife (brother, father, husband) and god knows what. But then roles are limited so once the interesting “zing” goes away then there is no continuation to it.
Give 100% in a relationship (gender free)
• Be honest – they let you go• Be loyal – they feel suffocated• Be emotional – they don’t want moms• Be a lover – they don’t want “high maintenance”• Be level headed – then its convenience• Be articulate – then it’s manipulative• Be nice – then its diplomacy• Be a reminder – treating them as kids• Don’t remind them – not taking care of them • Fight – not in the line of frequency• Don’t fight – take advantage of the situation• If fat – loose weight• If thin – gain weight• If slim – don’t wear revealing clothes• Smoke and drink – easy picks and drops• Don’t smoke or drink – very traditional• Wear black – inviting somebody• Wear some other color – low color sense• Violence – its because they are short-tempered• Become aggressive – then its crazy• Joke – considered as no respect • Angry – not on par with humor • Take hurts – then no self respect• Take no shit – then egoistic• Spend – they disapprove• They don’t spend – because they don’t want to prove• Laugh and play – one isn’t serious• Serious – get a chill pill• Don’t have sex – infidelity• Ask for sex – maniac• Go the last mile to keep him happy – he isn’t happy• Don’t do anything to keep him happy – he isn’t happy either• If love does not succeed – there isn’t enough love• If it succeeds – then there isn’t love
On a starry night, holding each other tight and sitting on a verandah…..imagine with a sister; having candle light dinner...imagine with a father…..would it make any difference? If the feeling doesn’t change; then go with the trend. Concepts will change, love will change and suit according to the world’s needs…
Ultimately, love cannot be replaced as friendship.
Sharada fell in all the spheres of love; she wondered if she was Krishna’s Meera (epic); and her mind now slowly drifted to the real Meera in the house and she was trying to figure out her love.