Angela Henry forages into the extra-marital arena, exploring the consequences of an affair in her new book, A Perfect Affair…
“I was smitten the moment I looked into his eyes. His gaze seared deep inside me, awakening every scrap of conscious emotion in my body. I shuddered but stood my ground and returned his stare. As our eyes remained locked, our hands united. Every sensation was blissful. We came closer and closer until only a thin air gap separated us. I closed my eyes and drew even closer. Nervousness, excitement, love and lust – all bundled into one shot of exhilarating emotion and shot right through my spine, paralyzing me. Everything became silent. Traffic became mute, passer byes became non-existent, and the world seemed to shrink to accommodate only us – me and him.”
Falling in love is indeed beautiful. Not only butterflies but the whole damn zoo seems to occupy one’s stomach when ‘the one’ comes into view. Unlike Rihanna who found love in a hopeless place, I found it between the pages of various novels. Jane Austen taught me love surpassing pride and stereotypical misgivings of human nature. With Tess Gerritsen romantic thrillers infused with a lot of thrill and adrenaline (and of course, few sensuous invitations into the lovemaking!), I began to associate danger and excitement as addendums to the feeling of love.
In contrast, John Green presented a pure form of love and its expression in his acclaimed ‘The fault in our stars’ and ‘Paper towns’. I began romanticizing innocence as an expression of love. Nicholas Sparks taught me love as a memory with PS I Love You. And I had by then built a beautiful castle in air full of rich dreamy hopes of falling in love and finding my prince charming.
But suddenly I made the mistake of picking Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn. And all my concepts of love went for a swing. Love wasn’t sweet, exciting thrill anymore, but entirely twisted and frightful expression of one’s primal emotions. It startled me. The actions of the lead were so disturbing and terrifying – Amy’s idea of love and togetherness were so twisted that the novel became the ‘one that I could never complete’. It made me question –
“What is love, actually?”
When we even look at today’s world around us, love’s image has become tainted. The determination of one’s pure feeling is clouded by the statuary expectations of certain rituals or habits that seemingly define love. Several dilutions, distillations, misconceptions and constrictions later, the real identity of love remain masked.
In today’s youth, with their continuous datings, hookups, one night stands and breakups, the concept of love seems wasted. What they call as love is actually something else entirely. A minute of attraction and infatuation gets translated into superficial love which fades suddenly when they start getting tired of each other. Adding fuel to the fire are the feelings of jealousy and hate that weave a web of deceit around the dynamic minded youngsters and force them into the vicious cycle of false love.
Since time immemorial, love has always been shaped by the cultures and traditions of the society, and influences from fantasy products like books, movies, dramas and poetry. And now, they alone are to blame for the nothingness the feeling has been reduced to. The passion has turned into obsession and possessiveness into ownerships resulting in high crimes likes stalking, acid attacks, rapes, honor killings and murder as well. Termed as crimes of passion, they present to us the darker shades of love.
When the society condemns the relationship of two individuals, when the couple’s parents put pride and ego before accepting their children’s choices or when a scorned lover cannot accept rejection, there is a wave of violence that destroys the pure harmony of love and life. Root cause of all the problems lies in the fact that individuals aren’t able to interpret, understand and channelise their emotions correctly. When a person is not able to accept rejection, potpourri of emotions get mixed and his pride is hurt and ego starts to fuel hatred into his heart. He, now vows to destroy the life of the very person he used to love. Further, contributing to the cause are factors such as caste, creed and religion that have formed an unrealistic social divide in the society that till now has been unbreakable.
Finding true love is not a child’s play nor is sustaining a relationship easy. The path contains lots of obstacles, distractions and diversions that can very well lead us to damnation. In the end, it is always up to us, our upbringing and our set of values that decide how well we traverse the path of love.
Are we happy enough to live in a mirage of attraction or do we seek true love?
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Love is a blessing..
It is something people ”wish for”…
and when they finally get it , Ironically , take it for “granted”
The concept of love varies through generations..
It is a popular 4 letter word to invoke a plethora of emotions..
Some may say Love is divine..
Some may say Love is a chemical reaction..
a frequent event…who keeps a track of it..
But is that really love.. or the lack if it?!
Some may even hate the dreaded 4 letter word for unknown reasons..
Random / Raw thoughts :
Love is — saving the last slice for her.. even though its my favorite pizza 🙂
In a world full of honk-horns and noise..
Love is..the sound of her wind-chime..
Love is.. being connected even without technology..
Ofcourse its chemistry.. with a generous amount of Biology..
I can go on and on.. but I cant keep this Pizza waiting
(Pizza = Love 😀 )
Wow… I really love the way you have captured the essence of the feeling! Wind chimes and wonderful times!
For me, love has always been about being there for each other at all times, at all stages of life!