Complicated theory called “Love”

Few days back I came across a write up, which was apparently an answer to the question asked by a 16 year old girl, “what is love”? Mother of all questions which is yet to be discovered and answered and documented properly. It reminds me of the time when I was a young teenager studying in one of the town schools in Mumbai. I had a bunch of close friends and we all didn’t realise when our little innocent talks had wavered off to discussing boys. At the end of the school a school bus would drop us home and we, while passing marine drive would count the number of couples sitting their having a cosy moment. We used to wonder who would have initiated the conversation and how they ended up being a couple.
And then came the era of reading all romantic novels and watching all romantic movies. And obviously as thirteen year olds we were starry eyed and would discuss what kind of boys we would like to date and go out with. Not to mention our talks wouldn’t go beyond their looks, hairstyle, dressing sense and popularity. For us love meant going on romantic dates, candle light dinner, holding hands and going for long walk, talking endlessly, exchanging gifts and of-course there were ‘n’ number of feelings involved which was foreign to our body and brain. How naive and innocent it sounds now, sometimes I feel like going back to being thirteen again where love didn’t mean understanding and dealing with the complications of relationship, it didn’t mean waking up in the morning and making tea and supervising breakfast, lunch and dinner, it didn’t mean doing laundry every day or dealing with maids and buying groceries, it didn’t mean spending quarter of the month with plumber, electricians and carpenters, it didn’t mean fighting over who’s turn it is to switch off the lights or to get the newspaper from out, it didn’t mean keeping the house perfect and clean, and it certainly didn’t mean no matter how much you clean the bathroom and try and keep it dry you will always find it dirty and wet. The list is endless. I guess the subject love is a little difficult to understand and there are innumerable definitions to make it more complicated but yes when you are not scared of doing all the “didn’t mean” things mentioned above for someone unconditionally, you know you are in love and that is precisely love. Doing the easy and romantic side of love is simple but accepting it with all the baggage this four letter word comes with is not so simple and when that becomes simple you know finally, “what is love”?