What can you say about a twenty-five-year-old girl who died? That she was beautiful. And brilliant. That she loved Mozart and Bach. And the Beatles. And me.
What can you say about this book? That it is beautiful. And brilliant. That it will make us feel true love. And it will make us cry. And we will fall in love with it.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------What is Love? This very simple looking three-word-question is more complex than any jigsaw puzzle in the world. The definition of love may vary from a person to person, but the basic idea is the same.
Some say love is worship. I agree since we use the word ?worship? for God and it depicts the sacredness attached with love. Some say love is God. I agree. God is invisible and the scientists haven?t proved his existence. God is more associated with faith rather than evidence. Similarly, we can?t see or touch ?Love?, but we can feel it when we have the utmost faith on the other person. True love reaches its pinnacle when we trust our beloved more than we trust ourselves. Some say love is sacrifice. Oh yes, I completely agree here too. Love means to sacrifice your happiness and comforts & to prioritize the contentment of your beloved. Your happiness should lay in the happiness of your soul mate, so if she thinks she can be happier with someone else, then let go!
I know it?s easier said than done, but then who said Love was easy? Love can make you go through severest of pains but that pain eventually will help your spirit to re-kindle and leave your soul with an eternal feeling of bliss. Course of true love has never been smooth, neither will it ever be. It?s much better if the one you love is living happily with someone else rather than living unhappily with you!
You should set your love free; it will certainly come back to you again, if it?s true. But if it doesn?t then it wasn?t yours in the first place. Many people confuse love with other feelings like lust, infatuation, friendship, charity, inferiority complex and what not. Love isn?t all that. If you love someone because you like his/her touch then it?s lust. If you love someone because he/she is attractive, then it?s infatuation. If you love someone because you like to share everything with him/her then it?s friendship. If you love someone because the other person may feel bad at rejection then it?s charity. If you love someone because you have been kissed by him/her then it?s inferiority complex.
True love is when you cry for the other person at his/her pain even after you know he/she is going steady with someone else. True love is when you can sacrifice your everything for him/her without expecting anything in return, not even a thanks, not even a smile and not even the fact that he/she will come to know of your sacrifice.
True love is that feeling which makes you strong from inside. You look down from a 20-storey building and a chill runs down your spine by even a thought of what will happen if you fall from that place. Pause for a moment, take a deep breath, close your eyes and see the face of the one you love. Now look down again from that very place and ask yourself this question ? will I jump from this building if I have to save my beloved?s life? And if your love is true, you will see the fear vanishing from your veins, a smile coming on your lips and utterance of the words ?Yes, I will!?
Everyone should certainly fall in love at least once. Love is such a divine feeling that it will make you a very noble person indeed, your whole perspective towards the life changes. You look forward to the next sunrise and understand the worth of human life. You understand the basic motive of life ? which is not to live for yourself but for others. Everyone lives for themselves, the real person is the one who lives for others and love is one such feeling which helps us and teaches us to live for others. After all it was this love for humanity which made Mother Teresa do all what she did.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------?Love Story? by Erich Segal is one such book which has described all what I said by a heart-touching story. It?s a story about Oliver Barret IV and Jenny Cavilleri. They both were as different as day and night as far as the personality traits were concerned but they both had one thing in common ? divine love for each other.
The story is very simple indeed yet it has touched the most complex of the matters in an artistic manner. It starts off as puppy love story between two college going students who then graduate to a married couple. The book will take you to an altogether new ride of an undiscovered world of true love, thus, you will not only be able to read it but feel it as well. The novel has a delicate sense of comedy, which will put a smile on your face more often than not.
Although I can tell you the whole plot of the book here in detail, but I really don?t want to, since the story is depicted so beautifully in the book, that it will be an insult to a masterpiece if I describe it here in a layman style. So, I recommend you to read it yourself and I promise you won?t regret. But yeah, one word of caution - be prepared to shed tears in the end. 95% people cry after reading this book and the remaining 5% lie about it.
The book has thrown light on a wonderful thought, ?Love means not ever having to say you are sorry.? There is no place for formalities like ?Thank You? and ?Sorry? in love. Love is free from all these bandages. If you are matured enough to fall in love, you should also be matured enough to understand that ?To err is human? and our love should be great enough, to not to get affected by small disagreements, arguments or even a minor/major mistake by our better half. If such inconsequential things can affect ?the greatest bond in the world?, then your strong fort of love isn?t actually a fort but a weak wall standing on the pillars of adjustment.
This book also depicts another battle ? love v/s death. Which is more powerful? Some may say death, since it sets the lovers apart from one another. But love and literature I feel are the only two things, which can conquer death. Lovers may die, but the love never dies. It stays alive in the hearts, the memories and the world. Romeo and Juliet may not be alive anymore, but their love is still living. It?s immortal. Whenever, new couples fall in love the flame of true love burns yet again. This flame will never turn off. It will burn forever and ever and ever!
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© Tanmay Singh, 2005