Always and forever

Isaiah Berlin

One of my consistent queries has always been: What is the knot that binds love so strongly? Is it beauty, brains or common interests and beliefs? To me it is a combination of all these, don't you think there is more to love than just courting? For all those Valentines out there…do you really fathom the true sense of love? Maybe you will not agree or like the old version of addressing your paramour but see this. The grand bard Tagore reflects thus: “Tumi robey nirobe hridoye momo.” It spells out a whole lot more than the conventional “I love  you”, or “duniya  kisike  pyar mein  jannat se  kum nahien/ik  dilruba hae  dil  mein jo  phoolon  se  kum  nahien.”, Read on… “kya  janu  sanam  hota haye  kya  ghum  ki  sham / jal  uthe  sau  diye  jab  liya  tera  naam.”
It worries me to see 'heartbreak' these days, which is far more a rampant disease than 'heart attacks'. We all want to feel happy and throughout life. Aah! Valentines Day, everything around, colored in red, what a lovely sight for sore eyes! There is love in the air; outside in the park, on the roads, in the cafeterias and here in my home as well. There is so much of excitement celebrating this, and so stimulating too, as if it was charged with some sort of mysterious, invigorating vibes. Make this a day to discover or sometimes rediscover each other. Give it the atmosphere of waiting for the answer while thinking of the next question. This day could perhaps be a day when someone breaks the ice and an unidentifiable part of you begins to melt and some kind of magical metamorphosis starts to happen! Begin today to sail in the ocean of your heart, as if life has suddenly been fuelled back to energy or as if it has rained after a drought.
It often so happens that no matter how far you are, you miss each other and are always on each other's mind. This phase of longing for each other from a distance is true love, cherish it. John Keats (1795-1821) wrote to Fanny Brawne in July 1819: “I am always astounded that any absent one should have the luxurious power over my senses; you have liked me for my own sake, and for nothing else'.

Anna Akhmatova

You might experience a range of emotions, from shouting at each other, to not talking for a couple of days, from  crying uncontrollably to finally comforting each other. Make this a day which will witness a relationship never seen before, and things will seem smoother than before. There is a slight twist  here. For a successful relationship, it is of utmost importance that both  be on the same page. Expectations, demands and debates should be minimized. Do not take each other for granted, it might prove dangerous! You do not always need a madly running truck on the road to kill a love story. Often you yourself are more than capable of killing your own love story.  It is a wake-up call to the modern-day lovers who have made it a fashion statement to love, break up and quickly move on to find what's next!
True love is unconditional .If it is a conditional scenario, then it is not true love. It is as good as a mutual friend.
 “I sang the melodies of a love, I did not yet know, but when I came to know it, the words became a muffled whisper in my mouth, the songs in my breast, a profound silence”, says Kahlil Gibran.
“Be content to discover the soul and surrender yourself to its spontaneity”, so thinks W.B.Yeats.
Love on a rather platonic level, a sort of love between two minds and feelings shrouded by poetry, carves a very special niche for itself in your mind and soul which nothing on earth can ever erase! Do you know that Anna Akhmatova and Isaiah Berlin just listened to each other? He bore into her eyes and she imagined the song in his pulsating heart. This was their togetherness!
To conclude, I must confess, “The most profound form of love comes in silence, in moments when the man and the woman share twilight moments in the swiftly gathering winter.”

Mohsena Reza Shopna writes poetry and book reviews and is president-elect, Inner Wheel Club of Dhaka North