“LOVE IS…”

What is love?

With the winter approaching at 100 miles per hour, I am sure love is going to be cuddled (for the lucky few) all around and seep into all the small cracks that one can peep into (Oi! Peeping Tom, sambhal ke!), I take this huge step for every Majnu and Romeo (Laila and Juliet, too) who dared to thread - to try and answer the boggling question that has captured the hearts (and imagination) of all men (and women) since the beginning of time (whenever that was): “What is love?”

I must admit that I am no expert in the subject - then again, I don't know who's got the PhD either - so accordingly to yours truly “Love” is (in no specific order):

• blind.
• free.
• full of fear.
• lawless.
• getting hit by a bolt of lighting bolt on a clear blue day.
• without reason.
• being together.
• a fool’s paradise.
• a full cup that must be carried steadily.
• a cool breeze on a hot summer afternoon.
• a flea, a fly, and a flitch of bacon.
• a day after the fair.
• cherry, merry, plum and dumb.
• a burning candle in the middle of the hurricane.
• a cock-and-bull fairy tale.
• a bad excuse for divorce.
• a good excuse for marriage.
• a wonder that lasts nine days.
• as welcome as flowers in May.
• stammering every time you open your mouth in front of her.
• an oasis in a desert.
• second nature.
• a banana float with lots and lots of chocolate syrup on it.
• dates, chocolates and an empty purse.
• an LSD kick.
• a sweet pain.
• stranger than Mills and Boons.
• fair and sluttish, black and proud, long and lazy, little and loud.
• fame in a magnifying glass.
• burning midnight oil and writing love poems.
• giving Valentines on February 14th.
• fishing without bait.
• feeling warm without the fire.
• wishing hair on a bald head.
• blushing, hearing her name.
• a roller coaster ride, from hell and back.
• hanging, drowning, burning, and bungee jumping – all at the same time.
• attending extra classes just because she might turn up.
• taking her out on the prom night.
• giving her a ride home.
• walking with her till her front door.
• getting a good-night kiss on the cheek.
• looking at the moon and seeing her face.
• ice skating without the ice.
• a Judas kiss.
• a head like a snake, a neck like a drake, a back like a beam, a belly like a bream, a foot like a cat, a tail like a rat.
• a hair in one’s neck.
• thinking up novel ways to say “I Love U!”
• getting hold of flowers, beads, and just about anything and going, “she loves me, she loves me not, she loves me…”
• writing her name on just about anything, anywhere.
• trying to join your name and surname with hers and vice-versa.
• going 10 miles out of the way, just to accidentally meet her on the way.
• carrying her books.
• spending hours in the card-shop to find the most perfect card.
• walking on air.
• getting drunk without taking the mortal sip.
• spending hours in front of the mirror to look your best for her.
• talking to flowers and dogs and goats and…(you get the idea!).
• a big blow on the purse.
• going to the movies and holding her hands.
• sharing the ice-cream cone.
• talking for hours without saying a single word.
• the feeling of triumph even while losing.
• hugging and jumping together on the piles of autumn leaves.
• never young, never old, and never dead.
• wishing there were more than 24 hours in a day.
• a great force hidden in a sweet command.
• shy.
• a lost cause.
• letting your dog sleep with you.
• hanging in there through thick and thin.
• wishing she were here with you.
• trying to bell the cat.
• to build castle in air.
• to burn one house to warm another.
• to call a day night, and a night…lord knows what.
• promising her the moon and the stars.
• beyond logic.
• to comb your hair with a three-legged stool.
• to cry with one eye and laugh with the other.
• trying to learn being a gentleman.
• to say sorry first.
• to appreciate her mother’s cooking.
• to die a dog’s death.
• to dance the Tyburn Jig.
• to fall to pieces.
• not found in the market.
• to break the other guy’s jaw and getting black and blue in the process.
• never without jealousy.
• like drinking hot cocoa on a chilly night.
• like waiting on the other side of the toilet door.
• dreaming about her.
• to have a stomach and lack meat; to have meat and lack a stomach; to lie on a bed and can’t rest.
• to have windmills in one’s head.
• staring at his/her passport-size photo for hours and hours.
• watching butterflies hopping from flower to flower.
• like looking at sleeping babies.
• to make ropes of sand.
• to sing Spanish love songs under her balcony in the middle of the night.
• to make an ass of oneself.
• learning to mind one’s P’s and Q’s.
• talking to her on the phone for hours.
• to play chess when the house is on fire.
• thinking up ways to break in her room and wish her good-night.
• buying her balloons.
• making and watching her smile.
• buying presents for her next year’s birthday a year before.
• a ring with no beginning and no end.
• sweet in the beginning but sour in the end.
• to rebel.
• to pack the bags and run away in the middle of the night.
• more rising than falling.
• watching autumn leaves fall.
• a gift much expected, luckily found.
• something which will make a good eye go squint.
• something that comes in through the window and goes out the door.
• something which cannot be compelled.
• a four letter word which makes every sane person go insane.

I am sure many of you freelance Romeos and Juliets, desi Majnus and Lailas, got few ideas of your own on what this mind-boggling feeling is. If so, share it, 'cos it's just like I keep saying time and again (if you don't know, then pay special attention now) ... thoughts and Cadbury's were meant to be shared.