Love, Actually....

"Love is metaphysical gravity...."

R. Buckminster Fuller

Makes sense? Well dood, even Love doesn't!

I still remember my first one (Everyone does!). And it does make me smile at the sheer stupidity of the whole episode. I've had a couple of 'off' days so u now know what i have been upto. Anyways the blogger guyz are stuck with my blog, I was stuck for topics, and now you are stuck up with me.

For some reason most people are at loss to define it. Amazing isnt it? Considering everybody experiences it at some point of life. It's a vain excercise I say, defining it or rationalising love is akin to getting the real deal about Santa Clause, or Tooth fairies. Sometimes you wonder, are you better off now ? Well not knowing had its own charms and aptly did somebody say "Ignorence is bliss".

I had a friend once. He used to stand near our college parking grounds 4 hours a day just to catch a glimpse of the girl he liked. All this trouble, when she had flatly refused his advances and mercy pleas for friendship. Another one made 400 odd calls just to find out the girl's number. All he knew was her last name was Kulkarni and at that time there were at least 1000 of them in Kothrud, Pune. I can go on and on. I was always the wise one, keeping my distance and lost in my books and sports. All around me people crashed, burned and fell in love at an rate that would beat intern entries in Clinton's black book. Till I could of course!

Have you ever been in love? Horrible isn't it (as Saurabh would exclaim!)? It makes you so vulnerable. It opens your chest and it opens up your heart and it means that someone can get inside you and mess you up. You build up all these defenses, you build up a whole suit of armor, so that nothing can hurt you, then one stupid person, no different from any other stupid person, wanders into your stupid life...You give them a piece of you. They didn't ask for it. They did something dumb one day, like glance at you or smile at you, and then your life isn't your own anymore. Love takes hostages. It gets inside you. It hurts. Not just in the imagination. Not just in the mind. It's a soul-hurt, a real gets-inside-you-and-rips-you-apart pain. Those who are lucky on their first time , well thats where you get incredible movie scripts from!

They say time is the best healer. Ultimately everything fades out. The vivid images become blurred photographs. The voices get lost in the din of everyday's hustle bustle. And one fine morning you wonder what the hell was all that fuss about! And you chastise yourself for all the dumb words, drab letters and the long hours you wasted. In short you get wise, or so you think.

Its a bit interesting to know origins of this. Lets now see what the "Know it all's" or philosophers(and those who died penniless!) throughout the history had to say about it.

As early as 4th century BC the Greek philosopher Empedocles argued for the existence of two forces, love (philia) and strife (neikos), which were used to account for the causes of motion in the universe. These two forces were said to intermingle with the classical elements, i.e., earth, water, air, and fire, in such a manner that love served as the binding power linking the various parts of existence harmoniously together (Gulp! Wow). I am sure he wrote this crap after his 10th beer. By the way he was a Pupil of Pythagoras. While Prof. Pythagoras did his math our studius student sat day dreaming about love. Bet my last buck he made 'Z's in his report card.

Recent studies in neuroscience have indicated that as people fall in love, the brain consistently releases a certain set of chemicals, including dopamine (notice the word dope!), norepinephrine, and serotonin, which act similar to amphetamines, stimulating the brain's pleasure center and leading to side-effects such as an increased heart rate, loss of appetite and sleep, and leads to a feeling of excitement. Research has indicated that this stage generally lasts from one and a half to three years. I say, shoot dart guns full of squishy stuff at your 'love interests' for good results.

All said and done, what matters at the end of the day is whether the dood makes away with the gal. I am not sure about what the fairer sex has to say about it, but I am damn sure that they do not have a clue too. So, dream on! wait for your perfect one("Prince Charming" for females, in case of guys, well do they have a choice?). Live your life. Enjoy it to max. My personal view is that there's nothing such as ideal match. Its only a matter of time before you stumble into someone whom you can tolerate and vice versa without losing your mind. Amen!