Reflections on Love.

X : What is love to you?

Q : I don't know. Love again is one of those ambiguous terms. Everything one says on it comes out as a cliche. So, where of one cannot speak thereof one must be silent : )

X : Don't give me that non-sense and bullshit. I know you feel for her and still love her.

Q : Haha! Why do you have to bring her every time?

Listen, There will always be in love a desire more than the desired. Even if I do feel for her, so what. Such vestigial feelings don't matter at all. They don't serve any purpose and only cause pain.

X : There you go . You just talked about love. Enlighten me a bit more please. What is love?

Q : You know the art of eating my brain, Don't you? : )

Well, I think love is a precious word that has been drifted away from its meaning. My view on love keeps on changing. There was a time when I used to believe in mystical conception of love. No one illustrated it better than Plato in his Symposium. The speech by Aristophanes , the dramatic spokesman in Plato's Symposium, was quite illuminating for me. It summed up the whole tradition of western and eastern romanticism.

X : Can you tell me what was Aristophanes' view about love?

Q : Aristophanes offers us an apologue of a single soul , split in two by the God. Each half desperately seeking and finding its perfect fit or other half. Love is the ultimate union of such a single soul.

X : Wow! thats quite illuminating and poetic . Why don't you believe in it anymore?

Q : Because theres nothing left to believe in it for me. The whole idea is a myth that obscures the truth.

X : Mr: Philosopher can you please explain your reasons for such hostile critique?

Q : Only if you stop using your sarcastic and sardonic comments : )

X : Okay, I won't but give me your view of love now.

Q: Love in relationships is an everlasting struggle for recognition and authenticity. Its a mechanism employed by the mortal souls just to define themselves. Each one struggling against the other. That is the reason that we only love those people who conform to our own conception of who we actually are. In other words, they just tell us what we actually want to hear. What we love in others is our hopes and expectations,nothing else. Therefore, all the talk of selfless, altruistic and noble impulse is a myth that draws a a rosy picture of reality. In fact Love is the most selfish of all human desires. Love is not a union of one single soul but rather a strategy employed by the ego to win over the other person. Love is filled with jealousy, insecurity,uncertainty and fear. Romance only fosters itself in uncertainty, as soon as the union of souls take place (marriage) love ceases to be. So, when it comes to love. I am standing contra Aristophanes.

X : OMG! you ruined my day. That is such a diabolical conception of love. You are a beast, in fact worse. : )

Q : Haha! Tell me something I don't know. Besides, you are the one who asked for it.

X : Don't tell me that you loved her for all that selfish reasons ? : s

Q: Forget me. I am an exception, a 'Nietzschean Ubermensch'. These herd pleasures are not for me :P

Waise be yaar, to quote from Eternal Sunshine, I fell in love with every woman who shows me least bit of attention.

(Both laugh exaggeratedly and leave the room)