Where’s sweetness in life without love? Love is that perfect blend of sugar and spice which gifts us with moonlight and roses wrapped up beautifully with prickly thorns. This definition implies love between two people attracted to each other.

The Cupid’s arrow didn’t take long to strike my heart either. For this love to spring, all it took was the meeting of two pairs of eyes. After that moment, he was everywhere — in my thoughts, words, and actions, even my dreams. Seemed like every love song was speaking to my heart. A mere glimpse of him was more than a reason for me to smile. Quick the feeling grew but unexpressed it remained. More the distance, strangers we became. Then I realised, this was not love after all.

I was so blinded by this infatuation that I had almost forgotten that love also exemplifies the pure feelings that exist between a mother and a child, between friends, siblings, and married couples. Not always do we hear a mother telling her child ‘I love you’ but the lovebirds walking down the street keep murmuring these words. However, their love cannot compare with the unconditional love a mother showers upon her baby.

A couple I am closely related to can best define love: my grandparents. They shared a life of extraordinary love. And they gifted me a very special person, my mother, by bringing her into this world. They faced many ups and downs and struggled hard at times but never did they stop holding each other’s hands until death crossed their path. Today, even though Grandfather has left us, we can still feel his presence each time we look into Grandma’s eyes, her gaze reflecting the sixty precious years spent with her beloved.

But what is so special about their love when they hardly led a romantic life as witnessed in Shakespearean tales? Their love wasn’t a means of temporary fun but a permanent package of happiness through selfless love.

Hence even though they have been separated, their love is immortal. Today with the meaning of love misunderstood and cheapened, the greatest privilege of being loved is losing its worth. As for me, I’ll try my best not to fall only for someone’s looks again.