Is it the gurgling laugh that escapes from a new born child, wrapping its tiny finger around his father’s thumb, as it falls in rhyme with life gently? Or is it the wrinkles near an old man’s eyes that deepen when he sees his wife of more than 50 years, freshly bathed and draped in an old brown Sari accompanied by the lingering scent of incense burned during the early Morning Prayer, bringing him a hot cup of coffee? Or perhaps it is the last glance that the child gives his parents, brimming with fear, excitement and an inexplicable feeling that glues his vocal chords together, when he enters primary school for the first ever time? Maybe it is the twang of the violin that reaches the blind girl’s ears as she plays her first piece in front of her favorite Music Sir? What about the rhythmic claps the Bharatnatyam dancer bows to as she leaves the stage after a stellar performance?
What about that which fills those eyes lined heavily with Kohl as she waits in trepidation for you to give her the first ever kiss? What about the excitement that pounds your heart when your phone beeps at 2 AM in the morning? What do you call the feeling of soft silk against her bare back as she tries out her wedding gown? What about the dimples that form when she looks at a faded old photo of a family reunion? Is it the chasm that separates two lovers in different cities?
What do you name the glorious smell of freshly printed paper that invades a book lover’s senses? Is it the glimmering ink on a writer’s wrist marking his name in the pages history forever? Can it be your best friend’s hardest push on the swing set that took you soaring through the air? Or maybe it is the pilot’s voice announcing touchdown, waiting to be embraced by the soil of his motherland? Is it the stern decibels that your father issued against you when you slapped your younger brother? Or perhaps it’s the smell of pepperrasam wafting through the corridors of your ancestral home?
Is it also the screeching of your elder brother’s car in the drive way as you anticipate his return from the War? Is it the sigh of relief that slips from a man nearly hit by a bus?
Is there love in the depths of a wine glass that keeps many a married man away from his bed? Is there love in the fingers that bleed to win a kite fight for his younger sister? Or the young eyes that burn as they mix chemicals and make crackers to feed their own families who never celebrate Diwali in the first place?
Tell me; is there not love in a daughter’s eyes as she guides her cancer- weakened mother proudly to the stage as she collects her first rank medal? Is there not love when a young boy helps an old woman across the street? Is there not love when you share your only piece of chocolate with your new neighbor?
Isn’t it love that fills your heart as you watch the Helium balloon race into oblivion in the vast sky? It must be love that warms your heart as you hear the tinkling bells of your niece’s anklet strapped onto legs that are taking its first ever steps?
Oh, it has to be love that clouds your mind when you see your girlfriend of 5 years walk behind you around the sacred pyre? It has to be love that fills your mouth as you gobble up gulab jamuns made from your grandma’s delicate fingers after a hot lunch?
What other name can you give this when you inhale the black pollution, dirt and chemicals and yet smile between the incessant coughs, glad to be reunited with the city that inspired you to become what you are? Won’t you bear testimony to the fact that it is love that you are ensconced in when you hug your partner after an arduous fight?
Is it not love that sears your heart in blinding pain of a betrayal? That chokes you over the death of a loved one? That wells up your eyes at the point of goodbye? It must be love that scalds your soul when you stare at your stillborn child? It must be the love in you that dies a slow death as you watch nations slay each other? It must be the love in you that makes you rethink your impulse to swallow ten tablets of aspirin?
It must be love that blooms when rain soothes your wounds and cleanses your tired heart? It has to be love that sprouts shyly as you wake up to a golden sunrise? It will be love that fills the silence between you and an old, forgotten friend!
Love will thread your life’s million pieces to form a never ending journey of emotions. It will toss you into the arms of joy, bathe you in all the colors of happiness, plunge you to the dark depths of sorrow and make you weather the sins of your past.
Love is not everywhere yet it is truly there only when you see it everywhere. To live and to die without ever truly experiencing love is impossible. You seek the key to happiness in all the wrong places not knowing that you have it with you all the time. It is nothing but your ability to love. It’s the most beautiful act you can ever do in this lifetime.
To love is, perhaps, the greatest and the only gift that we have.