Love- made and manufactured:

It’s amazing how one word can describe so many things, emotions, feelings, bonding and of course love, itself. One word to describe how we relate to each other, how we get into relationships. We as humans emote so many feelings, but love is the first feeling we develop and perhaps it is the last when we leave this world. In between, however, we only talk about love. How easy life would be if we would “feel” love rather than searching for it, rather than trying hard to express it or trying even harder to win it.

One of my colleagues recently came to me with a request to write a letter to his lady love. And it took me some effort to convince him that it was his love and it would be highly unfair of him to express his feelings through my words. Finally he settled for an expensive ring to express his feelings. And I couldn’t help but wonder. Does love need to be expressed through words or rings or anything for that matter? Love just has to be felt. How ironic then that we have become so materialistic that we have forgotten one of our base instincts….Love.

We celebrate Valentine’s Day, Mother’s Day and so many other days just to find an excuse to come up with more materialistic pursuits to impress our loved ones? But does love really need a day to be expressed? I wonder. We treat out friends to parties and feel happy when we get gifts on our birthdays and weddings and anniversaries. But do those gifts really express any congratulatory love? Does every expression need materialistic proof?

Does a mother need proof to express her love and concern for her offspring? Does a brother need proof to show love for his sibling? Does a friend always ask for something in return when he comes in handy? And does favour by a fellow human demand a favour in return? Never. But in today’s world we need symbols to express everything. Love needs expression on Facebook. A favour demands a favour back in return and everything has to be weighed and measured.

And finally, the love among us all. It seems to have disappeared. Gone. Poof. On one hand we have to give proof to express our love and on the other we don’t feel the love at all. It’s a weird feeling, this love. Songs have been sung, books have been written and lectures given but we never learn. It is perhaps the easiest thing to do, and the most difficult thing to learn….to love.

With where we stand today, it seems to be a difficult task to do. But a century of conditioning and materialistic pursuits cannot be washed away in a day. And changes take time to come by. Showing a little bit of pure love should not be a difficult task. All it takes is a smile, a twinkle in the eye and a wholehearted expression of satisfaction to express. Love is right here, amongst us. We just have to look.

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