The conundrum of love

As I read through an excellent book by a stalwart (Love in the times of cholera), while relishing deliriously joyous and enthralling passages, a thought peers through the glass-door of my mind, its patient wait clouding my door and misting my concentration. Finally, having been disturbed by its wait and a little intrigued by the mural it has fashioned on my door, I give the book a rest and run my mind through this intrusion. Unlike the perception of the word love that I've been handed down through various books, magazines, sitcoms, movies and the like (which primarily talks of love as an emotionally- draining, though spiritually-enriching state where one gives oneself up for the sake of another-be it a lover, a family member or even a pet), Marquez (the auther of the afore-mentioned text) uses the word much more fluidly, with various connotations attached to it based on the person and the circumstances of its use. Whereas love is meant as a euphemism for sex in some instances, in others its meaning oscillates between the unflinching passion and infatuation of one protagonist to the casually curious feelings of another. So, in celebration of and contrast to the simplicity of the use of the word by the celebrated Columbian, I have decided to list some words that we associate with or use in lieu of the word "love" (with the word being used most often to describe the emotional state I spelled earlier in the post)and their commonly-cited definitions:

Courtly Love: It refers to medieval-style love, which was conducted as a ritual dictated by the Church and society, right from how often one could glance at another to the duration of the sighs one could let out in the recognition of hitherto hidden yearnings- carnal and otherwise.

Calf-Love: See the entry that immediately follows this one.

Puppy-Love: The ephemeral affectations that grip pre-pubescent, neo-pubescent and young adolescents is reffered to as puppy-love, equating it with the all-embracing, ready affection that puppies and pets often shower on one and all.

And finally, the last entry is the most commonly-known one: Lust, which Merriam Webster Online describes as "usually intense and unbridled sexual desire". At the end of this not so long post on the words describing the exalted state of love, I'd like to quote a famous Indian poet, whose verse so adeptly describes the liberated feel of love (unlike what most people will have us believe it to be- a binding, wasting emotion)- "where the mind is without fear and the head is held high". Tagore used this verse and the ones that followed it in his antology of poems called Gitanjali to describe freedom which his countrymen had been cruelly cheated off, but love to me spells just as much freedom and security as the patriotic fervor for one's homeland.

The Wonder of Words

Did you know that being called corpulent is akin to being referred to as obese, though it isn't necessarily an affront?

Would any in the audience know what a quadroon means? A person with a quarter black blood.

What would you be like if you have a prostration? Or if the economy of war-ravaged Afganistan were referred to as a prostration by news channels? The word itself means abasement that is, being in the worst possible state or a decrepit state. Thus, we can conclude that the economy of war-ravaged Afganistan is in doldrums.

Being disingenuous or using your influence in such a manner is a more challenging and inventive reference to throwing your weight around. Specifically, the word disingenuous is synonymous with calculating. So, I would desist from being that way, if I could help it :-))

Finally, to wrap up this first introduction to my wonderous awe of words, I'll leave with borrowed lyricism- In Love In The Time Of Cholera, one of the protagonists refers to camellia as a flower of promises. I too will end this post with the promise of many more, embellished with newer glistening words to add to my hopefully-not-for-long emaciated vocabulary and that of my fellow word lovers.