Of Love,life and thereafter.......... The smell of fresh brewing coffee in a winter kitchen, the heady smell of musk in a summer night, the aroma of the first drops of rain kissing the parched earth....love comes to me associated with all these fragrances. So much has been said and written about this four letter word that I was quite in two minds to take up this cliche as my next. Words however are as willful as nature. This has been haunting me for quite some time, and till I pen them down, I will not rest in peace. This little word holds in it the power to change one's life, one's entire equilibrium. A mad gust of wind, it dishevels all your beliefs, promises,your strength. An emotion verging on the borders of madness, it is arrogant enough not to give you any explanation, rhyme or reason and simply pull you along with itself like a helpless leaf carried along by the Autumn wind. A pair of eyes, brown, black,blue or fawn....becomes the center of a one's entire world, the ears poised to drink of the sweetness of one voice, the senses aware of each touch, however brief and unintentional it might be. Its strange how people can be made and destroyed by this emotion. It un- nerves me as I prefer being the spectator and watching around me with detached indifference. Having experienced love and calmed by it, I am now an audience to the sagas playing all around me. It is, however impossible to feign indifference to the power this holds. A tempest of insane magnitude, it has the quality of a rushing mountain river. To be carried away by something so overwhelming is a blessing that the humankind has been granted. An approaching dusk spent on a terrace walking together talking away happily unaware of the time flying by, waiting for the rains, listening to music for hours altogether, laughing at little inconsequential things,for me its almost a religion. There is no such thing as fidelity, you either love a person, or don't. As heady as the fragrance of rhododendrons as you trek up a mountain, its helps little to try and reason against. It sets you free yet keeps you tied till you yield. You believe in things you never would, otherwise. I'm falling short of words here, as memories rush to engulf me. So people, go fall in love, laugh, sing, live....and thereafter....who knows what?