“By the pricking of my thumbs,
Something wicked this way comes.”
-Shakespeare, Macbeth
Love. Every year thousands of people succumb to this affliction. Most (read deluded fools with a death wish. Or fools for love,if you prefer) rush towards it like a parched person would run towards a mirage.
Others fight it, only to give up and greet it with resigned acceptance.(Brave hearts.?I don’t think so. You fight, or you die trying.)
The rest. The lucky few who are immune to it, live out the entire duration of their lives in happiness and contentment, cocooned in the bliss of being tied or bound to none.
Alas! This dreadful illness rears its ugly head, without fail, every year, on February the 14th. Like clockwork. Valentine’s Day(Ugh!).
Incidentally, Saint Valentine did not limit his patronage to just lovers. He was also the patron saint of bee keepers, epilepsy, and…wait for it…PLAGUE!
You know what bees give you?Honey,yes,of course. But that’s just bait. What they actually give you is immense pain, followed by anaphylactic shock,which, my lovelies, can be fatal.
Epilepsy and Plague, of course, need no further introduction. If this is not more proof of the fact that Love is one the most deadly diseases to have ever wreaked havoc upon the earth, I don’t know what is.
Yet, humans are fools. They never learn. They’re optimism is awe-inspiring, if a little heartbreaking.
It is like Alexander Pope said, “Hope springs eternal.”
But eternity is only eternal until Death deigns to kiss it.
Death, Love, same thing. To-may-to , To-mah-to.
If everything I have said above has still not put some sense in you, kindly proceed to read the rhyme below,
After all, a ditty always has been easier to remember than drab, preachy prose.
*ahem,ahem*
Ah,love,sweet love,
How thou doth ail me.
You lure me with your siren call,
Then proceed to impale me.
The moment I place my trust in you,
You go ahead and fail me.
Yet knowledge of your devious ways,
From your treacherous path, doth not derail me.
The write up was prepared by Samyukta Menon.
