Old  quips  like  ‘love  is  blind’ and  ‘love  is  unconditional’ are  needing  a    re-look  today.  A  quick  talk  with  the  various  spectra of  society  leaves  the  listener  bemused  at  the  intermediaries  which  seem  to  have  seeped  into  this four  letter(erstwhile pious)  word in  this  fast-moving 2k society.

The moot  question  which  I  posed  to  all I  spoke  on  this  issue  was:-

Who  is  truly worthy  of  your  love in  life?

And  the  options   which  I  attached  to  the  question were:-

• One who loves  you, but  you  don’t ?  or,

• One whom you  love  but  he/she doesn’t?

Though  the  ideal situation  is  when  you  love  someone  and  he/she  equally  reciprocates . But  the  ideal situations  are  seldom  found in actual life  and  they say the  true  two-way  love  is  only  found  in  movies or  in  novels  and  we  all  know  that  the  director  of  the  movie  or  the  author  of  the  novel  always  blends   a  tragic  end  to  the true  love story. Simply  because  true  two-way love story only  existed in  history or  in  fiction but    seldom  exists  in  today’s  self-centric  world.

That  brings  us  to  the  second  category – the one-way love  and  which  is  the  most  common in  today’s  relationships. Though the  lovers  may overtly  masquerade   to  be  in  the  first  category  but   in their   post-sojourn confessions ,  they accept  that  it  was  simply one  way affair .

Like  this  , in life  everyone faces  the  dilemma  of  liking  someone overtly  or  covertly. Some  gather  the  courage of  expression it , others  do  not  ;  and  repentantly   drift  away  with sands   of  time.  At times  one  realises that  someone  just   loves   them  unconditionally  but you  wish  to  hold  yourself  back because  of  host  of  reasons. So  the  mist amidst  the emotion of love   increases and  the  moot question in the  mind remains  unanswered.

Whom  should  you  love?

• One who loves  you, but  you  don’t ? or

• One whom you love  but  he/she doesn’t?

On asking this questions to many a young friends i got such variety of answers  left  me  shell–shocked .  The variation  in the answers were  not  gender-biased  but rather  age-biased. At different stages  in  life  the priorities change towards  whom you love? Tragically , Yes!

A  child  never  looks  for  a  two-way  love. He  loves  the  people  who  love  him  and  he  loves  the  people  he loves…. So  simple.

No conditions  ,

no inhibitions

no  egos .

He  loves his  friends,  he  loves his  brother,  his  mother, father, sister ,  servant, neighbours  , everyone. So  the  child  is  always  in bliss because there is  so much  love  in  his life. Not  only his  love  is  unconditional his  reciprocation of  love too is  unconditional…… . You  smile  at  a  child  ,he  smiles  back  at  you. (Trying  doing that at  an  adult!)

An  adolescent ,  loves  whom  he wants to  loves, he has  just  learned  to  make his  choices  and is  proud to  be little  fastidious about whom  he wishes  to  love  and  be  seen with. He  has little  time  to  understand  the  feelings  of  someone  who  may want  his  attention. Time  is  premium  to  him. He  wants  to  achieve things  fast . He  wants  to win  the heart of  the  person  he  loves. He  tries to make  the  other  person  love  him. For  which he may even try to make a  façade and  leave no   stone  unturned. If  he  fails,  he laments but  then  may  try   someone  else ,  but  still  whom  he  loves…  At  times  in his fast pace  to  achieve he  keeps  stumbling  from  one  stone  to other  till  he  crosses  over  empty handed  into the   next phase  of  life  i.e  of an  adult….

An adult , coupled  with  his  experiences  of  adolescent  period  thinks  he  can  make  the   right  choices  and  goes  more  strongly towards  the  persons  he  thinks  he  loves.  He  delves  deeper  into  the  myth  that the  person  he loves  must  love  him  too.  That  does not  always  happen… sometimes  it  happens  only at the  surface level    and  you find  relationships  develop  overnight   but then you also find  them  sever  soon on  trivial  issues.  Love  marriages  too  are  very  common  amongst  the early adults  today and  lesser  said  the  better about  the  future  of  such marriages.  Very  soon  both  the  partners  confess  to  be  living  a  life  of  compromises  with each other.

Finally ,  comes  the  ripe  age  or the  old  age. Having  lived  a  life  of  love-hate  relationships  the  old  no  longer  cares  for  his own likes  or  love  .Like  a  child  he  too simply wants to  be  loved by  anyone  and  everyone . He  doesn’t  bother  about  the  color ‘caste  or  creed   of  the person who loves  him. He  simply loves  to  be  loved. He  promises  to  reciprocate now to  everyone.  He  remembers  his past   and  vows  not to  be choosy. He  now  loves  everyone  who  loves  him… even  if  it  is his  ….pet  Dog.