I Love You

Catching the fleeting joy of a sunset.

Feeling the soft caress of the wind.

The gentle sun like a lover’s touch

upon my skin.

The world I live for.

The love I’d die for.

And all because

You pass this way but once.

           How awfully romantic! Isn’t it? The scene that immediately comes to one’s mind is of a glorious sunset on one of the beautiful beaches of Goa. Two souls . . . bonded eternally. Two intoxicated minds. Two exhilarated beings. The words that are bound to follow are, “I love you” and then predictably, “I love you, too”.

Don’t go away! I’m not here to tell you a nice comfy and cozy romantic love story. Nor am I going to criticize the most commonly used phrase in Hindi movies, or Hindi movies for that matter. Or anything of that kind. Just be patient for a while . . . now where was I? . . . Ah! . . . Yes! . . . “I love you” . . . “I love you, too”.

This phrase has a lot of substance in it . it has the power of changing lives, and in both ways, good or way. An eternal bliss or an utter misery. People find themselves on . . . if I may use the term inspite of having personal reservations . . . on Cloud Number Nine as soon as they hear these words. Indeed, these words have a magical effect on a person’s heart and mind. But have you ever had a second thought about this phrase? About these three words . . . I . . . LOVE . . . YOU . . . ?? So complete in themselves and collectively defining all that exists between the earth and heavens.

I - the  most selfish word. Even in a phrase as selfless and as innocent as “I love you”, ‘I’ comes first. Can one simply deny its importance? How selfish, egoistic, arrogant, demonic, and even devilish - one may think! But there is another side to it. Let me clarify. Do you think that I wrote this article with the sole objective of making a reader, unknown and faceless, enjoy reading this? Well the answer is – No. I’m writing this to pour out my thoughts on paper, to articulate them, to find and explore the truth. And in the process, I’m making this an enjoyable reading for you. Makes sense doesn't it?

The history of mankind is full of instances that would justify that ‘I’ is not as devilish as people perceive. In fact it is more altruistic. The greatest scientists, philanthropists, leaders of masses and visionaries would all have been mediocre and an iota of nothing, but for their quest to satisfy their ego, or shall we say their quest to find the truth or attain Moksha or salvation of their souls.

Mahatma Gandhi. Do you feel that he ever feared the great force against which he stood so firmly? Do you think that he would have been a different person if there was no one following him? It was his quest, his desire, his thirst for the truth, justice and peace of mind that moulded the history of an equally great nation.

“And then of course there is TRUE LOVE . . . Is it worth what it costs? And how about fidelity? Does it work? Is it love? Is it even human, that perverse passion to be with only one person? And if it doesn’t work, do you still get a bonus for trying? Can it work both ways? . . . And yet – Life is a comical business, and there is nothing funnier that love traveling through time . . . Death is another story . . . Parallel to death, love is tiresome, childish business, though men believe more in love than death . . .”  ~ Mario Puzo

Inspite of all, this one should love. As they rightly say, “One should not fall in love, but should rise”. I feel that one must experience this beautiful emotion. But beware! There is no such thing like pure selfless love. I don’t believe that such a thing exists. You should love yourself enough to be loved by others. You should feel that you can reward yourself by loving others. This way you will cause lesser pain to yourself. For then it would hardly matter. You would be too happy loving yourself to care for others. And isn’t it happiness that we ultimately seek when we talk of loving someone?
            
        So, ‘you’ becomes least important. Atleast that’s what you will feel. But again, what is ‘I’ without ‘you’? In thermodynamics, we are having the concepts of System, Surrounding and Universe. The surroundings can be defined as anything in the universe that affects the system. So ‘you’ becomes as important as ‘I’ when you accept the fact that one single person cannot constitute the whole universe. Furthermore, how can one realize what he or she is without the existence of other people who are as real as you are. So to be just to others, one must do justice to oneself. If everyone loves oneself, likes what one is doing and tries to be honest and selfish to a certain extent . . . 

To love when it can be lost.

To go on when progress

seems futile.

To believe with every

fiber in your body.

To live, to hope. And to

Never give in.

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Written long back (in 2002 mabbe) when I was in college for our college's annual magazine. Opening and closing lines are from an ad, guess it was Reid & Taylor! And the passage in between is from a Mario Puzo novel may be 'Last Don' - don't recollect! Found it in my mailbox while writing Love is a two....