Poetic Justice - I

Ranjan Yumnam *

Love is undefinable;
Merriam Webster says loves means strong affection for another arising out of kinship or personalities;
attraction based on sexual desire: affection and tenderness felt by lovers;
affection based on admiration.
Phew! How mechanical?
I ask: Does dry hump qualify for love?
Dump dictionary; it's for lazy people who does not know love
Love is best felt experienced, not defined
As some famous person said (can't recall who), love exists when you are not spiteful but forgiving;
It means when your heart throbs when that person of interests is around;
Like the breeze you can feel but can't see;
It's when you fall, but you stand up despite having an aching gout because you must for that person
It is that extra mile you take even while sleeping in the cold night planning how you can perfect the anniversary for that person next day
It is when you lose all hope but see a glimmer of bright future with the soul mate
Love can be quite an asshole too;
It makes you jealous, vindictive and amorous,
It clouds your mind and push you to irrational ways
Waylaid you into taking desperate measures
Like murdering the boyfriend of the woman you love with a crude hammer as in a Netflix series
But that's not me
My idea of love is patience
Patience equals love, at least most of the time
It means not shouting back when you are hit
It means quietly going to your favorite corner of your bedroom suppressing the revengeful thought in the face of fury from the other person
It may even occur that you hold your pants tight and don't get the passion turn into rapey
I can go on and on about love
Yet I won't be able to fully define it
For love has so many shades, not necessarily 50 shades of Grey (Sorry John Dakota)
One day I will write a treatise on love
But I know i will procrastinate
As I often do before drawing my bath and the power goes off (which soothes my mind)
Don't underestimate the power of love
It can transform fools into smarties
It can make geniuses into fools
My advice is choose whom you love
That's the difference, not the dictionary!!
A few days back I went to a restaurant to eat salad (i don't do carbs now)
The waiter looks bemused-
I could feel his agitated thought; a healthy male in his prime wanting to have grass
I told him I am on ketogenic diet
He thought I was trying to lose weight for my own wedding
Oh bro, you are so wrong
But I didn't say it
I didn't give him a piece of my mind
For it won't affect him and doing so will also delay my salad
Instead I told him "Dude you have a nice haircut. Which hair saloon is it?"
I think that's love
its the respect and the compassion for the other person
When that waiter goes back to his home after work, I fancy he might be telling his wife
"Babe, I met a man who eats salad praising my hairstyle"
The wife frowns and retorted "Are you trying to say I never admire you"
That's the thing with wife, they always misinterpret you
Luckily for this chap, the wife is not from a political family
He got scot-free and the evening turned romantic, what with his haircut
If i were him, I would have admired her curls before trumpeting my own virtues
You know, sometimes you have to play games to get love
Play nicely and don't go overboard
Like I told my female friend who is an alcoholic
Dear, you look so pretty when you get tipsy
I instantly got love points!
Then when she poured her fifth drink, I got scared
Then I told her "You are at your most charming self at 4th peg"
People want validation and she dismissed the fifh round and instead offered it to me
That's love, Meh trying to save a lady from falling into disgrace
As you know women and alcohol is a deathly combination
Their hormones fly off
They begin to mistake smelly odour of men as sexy pheromones
Your place or mine?
Then they end up in a place call Adultery
That's not love
Alcohol fuelled affair is not love.
It ruins the family of the persons entangled in the illicit arms, pants down
Nice thing about love is Love begets Love
When you really love someone, the other person knows it
Even when someone is dumb in her hippocampus, her bond marrow will feel it
That feeling is love
You can reject love; you cant rscape feeling it
Its a karmic cycle
Like a empty balloon longing for air to blow it up
Like that waiter trying to seek some form of esteem from his wife
Like the water trying to find its level
I mean who doesn't want love
Some people don't deserve love
They seek love but don't have the magnanimity to give love
For example, Hitler.
He had many consorts but butchered thousands
That's not love; its pure narcissism
Talking of narcissism, I lost lots weight and I look to the mirror pats myself for my feat
Salad helps
I forgot to tell you that salad never came at that restaurant
It was not in the menu
The waiter apologized
But love is everywhere
Love is never out of style
It's in all menus
Your wife's included!

Ranjan Yumnam

* Ranjan Yumnam , a frequent contributor to e-pao.net, wrote this article for The Sangai Express. This article was posted on January 07, 2017.