The Right Way to Love

Mom always the rational voice had a great theory, walk into the battlefield of love by all means but don’t jump in without preparation. Ensure you know the ground realities, have done a count of the enemy forces and most important of all know and keep the retreat option ready.

Involve yourself like a professional with the head not the heart.

What it means is ensure the person on the other side is more smitten by you than you are. Belongs to the right social and economical background. Is good looking, well educated and has or atleast has the prospects of having a substantial bank balance in times to come.

No, this doesn’t mean that mom was heartless just practical. ‘After all it’s the question of your entire life or atleast a good chunk of it, so why take chances?’ is what she asked time and again

I found her rationale very, very irrational. Love by its very definition is supposed to be all about the heart. No, not the biological heart which pumps blood, but that heart which is actually a part of our brain and which makes all the stolen glances and quick kisses turn a golden hue years later when science dictates they should have actually turned a rusty red.

In Udaipur while on an early morning stroll around the lake I came across two little puppies playing. They seemed to be siblings. I bend down to stroke them and offered some chocolates I had with me. One of them lets call him Nutty grabbed at the chocolate bits and ran away to enjoy it while the other lets call him Cutie stayed on playing with me. Wanting to be fondled and petted and not too worried about his share of the chocolate.

I found that sweet-sad, he seemed more interested in love than food, by Mom’s calculation he was a fool and destined for hardships while Nutty would grow up strong and powerful and live a more comfortable life. But you know what, had it not been for Cutie I wouldn’t have remembered the incident. Characters like Nutty we meet so frequently in life that they don’t leave any lasting impression. Its poor frail little Cutie who makes the incident memorable and remains in the mind’s eye.

I have been through a lot in life, those who know me will vouch for it. There is hardly a loss I have not faced, whether of a parent, sibling, love or friendship but I still believe in my brand of love. Spontaneous, deep, wild and free. Even after learning about the hardship life is if you were to ask me, I would still say living one day completely, fully in the company of love is better than a whole life of loveless comfort.

We sometimes do put material comfort or social acceptance above everything else but the truth is only that which stems from one heart and reaches out to another can have the capability to bloom into a sweet scented plant that delights one and all.

I don’t know if any of this makes any sense. I don’t know if any of this will help you take the right decision in life but I do hope it will make you stop and ponder awhile.

Dear friend I wish you the very best in life, I hope you know this is being written for you and I hope you remember that you mean a lot to me whatever you choose to do I wish you the very best.