"Machi Namakkellam kashtam da" - a good friend of mine across four years in IITM.
Okay, so I didn't find any drive to write for so long. But, to talk about love, is something I haven't really done at any detail on my blog, and I wanted to generally post about it sometime, and hence some initiative to write after a month and a half almost. I felt, as someone, who has no experience in these matters, it would be an interesting analysis to make. This post talks more about love in India, possibly a small bit of foreign influences, yeah, but deals more with Indian scenarios, as I can relate to them better.
So, when I grew up, all I knew about love was, the meeting of two individuals, they fell in love with each other at first sight, sang songs, ran around trees, went for movies and all the usual stuff, and then the parents came in, hurdles in solemnizing the relationship were overcome, and everything ended hunky dory. Much of the love I saw in my growing up years, was that in movies. I didn't care to think much about the logic in them, at that age it didn't really make much sense to me, so I got introduced to the idea, but didn't try analyzing the concept. Soon, things started changing. Love started happening around me. There were love marriages in the family, something that was possibly unheard of in the previous generations, (If someone from the family is reading this, a small tidbit - Paati's younger brother had a love marriage in the 60s, but that was with his uncle's daughter, and still was a huge deal in those days) and the movies were taking form. People I knew started going out with girls, the word we used then was 'committed' (like Macha, X and Y are committed da!!). When this happened with batchmates, it was something unacceptable, felt like open flouting of social norms. Then came in, the idea of dates, and dating. Well, the first time when I or my friends, heard of the concept of dating, it was sure as hell freaking out. We were adjusting to the mentality that it's not really wrong for a guy and a girl to go out together in the capacity of a boyfriend-girlfriend as long as they were "committed" to each other, but the idea of testing out compatibility by means of dates, before really getting together, is something that went above our heads. A few more years down the line, today, getting into relationships over the internet has become easier, Skype makes the world very small. With relationship-hunting becoming very easy and customized, the number of people in relationships has multiplied. On the flip side, break-ups have increased too. The more callous ones break-up over gifts, and distance, while the slightly more serious ones too break-up over stuff like two-timing. Oh ya, how did I forget, people even have the luxury of two-timing, that's how easy getting into relationships has become.
So, how really did this evolution happen? The earliest I can think of, is love in the 50s. Why I do not precede those times, is because love before the advent of social Indian cinema was a taboo in the country, and people in love were far and few in number. The only kinds of love I've heard of in that period was of people who'd travel to Rangoon (Burma/Myanmar) and settle down there after getting married to a lady there. Ever since, Indian love has always reflected contemporary cinema, and vice versa. With the advent of cinema, and the movies of Dev Anand, and Guru Dutt, and down south with a Gemini Ganesan, love was more of a spark at first sight, the thunderbolt as Michael Corleone says. A sight, and the guy would be head over heels with the girl. In early Indian cinema, this would lead to the guy asking the girl's father for her hand in marriage, and then it slowly turned to both these folks liking each other, and getting together eventually or not, depending on how their parents took the whole thing. After all, the lead characters could not lose out on their family values. Then came the rebel period of the 70s and 80s. Everything about this period was a rebellion. It was cool to smoke and drink on screen, the hero could have a few grey shades to his character, bringing him closer to the Indian public, and this was when he fell in love with the girl, who was ready to rebel for him. The sheer number of films in which Kamal Haasan rebels against the society for his love, is something that epitomizes this period. In this period, the thunderbolt was still there, but the more important aspect of a relationship was the love between the lead characters, "true love" as they called. They would live for love, and they would die for it too. In some sense, it also seemed to echo the "perfection" of a Romeo-Juliet tale. Then came the 90s and 2000s, where it took a different dimension. Love need no longer be at first sight. It grew inside the characters, till it reached a level where they'd attained the "true-love" threshold, like a character in a video game, who waits to get enough ammunition before he fires, and then the lovers fired. The singing, and dancing continued, but the idea changed considerably. Globalization happened, and foreign ideas started invading the Indian love scenario. As I'd described earlier, the advent of the dating revolution happened, and in some sense, people started hunting for love. People could no longer wait for it to come and hit them, if it did at all, and started searching for it through various avenues. People started going out in school, were pros at relationship through college, and by the time they started working, were even used to handling break-ups. What is it that people have started seeking? Earlier it was helplessness, people who were in love didn't know how or why it hit them, it just did and then went with the tide. Later it became a thrill, obtained in flouting social norms, which was compounded with this helplessness. Then, it became a need for companionship. Today it has become a style statement.
So, is this good or bad? I'm not here to judge that, and with no sort of experience whatsoever, I am in no capacity to judge either. Though I must admit, a couple of the older styles appeal to me, much more than the latest one. One of my friends was not ready to accept to me for nearly a year into his relationship, that he was "in love" with his girl, till when he was apparently getting to know her, and strengthening his relationship before getting to "that stage". This kind of attitude is something I'm sure I would never be able to embrace, and at some level, even feels blasphemous to me. But, as I've oft mentioned in this post, as someone who hasn't been in a relationship, and harbors no intentions of getting into one anytime in the near future, maybe my opinions are just that of that rare third person observer, Rashomon style! But, as Suriya/Ajay Devgan says in Aaytha Ezhuthu/Yuva, the whole idea behind romance seems as simple as "line-propogation , hormones, XX, XY, chromosomes", that's as simple as it gets. All the baggage, extra luggage it brings along after just some kind of plot to get the effective act done! Really? Well, again I don't know. Try out for yourself! Well one thing I'd be eternally thankful to "love" for is the million beautiful songs it has given us. Also, the lyricists grow extra intelligent and choosy when it comes to this emotion of mankind, and the right words just fall in place. There are exceptions everywhere, but I am talking about the general trend.
P.S: If you think I've wasted your precious time here, I'm sorry! After all, its fun to prepare for TOEFL writing on random topics on your blog, rather than writing on the boring topics the mock test gives! :P
P.P.S: Ok stop the bad words, how much of it can I take, really! :D
Okay, so I didn't find any drive to write for so long. But, to talk about love, is something I haven't really done at any detail on my blog, and I wanted to generally post about it sometime, and hence some initiative to write after a month and a half almost. I felt, as someone, who has no experience in these matters, it would be an interesting analysis to make. This post talks more about love in India, possibly a small bit of foreign influences, yeah, but deals more with Indian scenarios, as I can relate to them better.
So, when I grew up, all I knew about love was, the meeting of two individuals, they fell in love with each other at first sight, sang songs, ran around trees, went for movies and all the usual stuff, and then the parents came in, hurdles in solemnizing the relationship were overcome, and everything ended hunky dory. Much of the love I saw in my growing up years, was that in movies. I didn't care to think much about the logic in them, at that age it didn't really make much sense to me, so I got introduced to the idea, but didn't try analyzing the concept. Soon, things started changing. Love started happening around me. There were love marriages in the family, something that was possibly unheard of in the previous generations, (If someone from the family is reading this, a small tidbit - Paati's younger brother had a love marriage in the 60s, but that was with his uncle's daughter, and still was a huge deal in those days) and the movies were taking form. People I knew started going out with girls, the word we used then was 'committed' (like Macha, X and Y are committed da!!). When this happened with batchmates, it was something unacceptable, felt like open flouting of social norms. Then came in, the idea of dates, and dating. Well, the first time when I or my friends, heard of the concept of dating, it was sure as hell freaking out. We were adjusting to the mentality that it's not really wrong for a guy and a girl to go out together in the capacity of a boyfriend-girlfriend as long as they were "committed" to each other, but the idea of testing out compatibility by means of dates, before really getting together, is something that went above our heads. A few more years down the line, today, getting into relationships over the internet has become easier, Skype makes the world very small. With relationship-hunting becoming very easy and customized, the number of people in relationships has multiplied. On the flip side, break-ups have increased too. The more callous ones break-up over gifts, and distance, while the slightly more serious ones too break-up over stuff like two-timing. Oh ya, how did I forget, people even have the luxury of two-timing, that's how easy getting into relationships has become.
So, how really did this evolution happen? The earliest I can think of, is love in the 50s. Why I do not precede those times, is because love before the advent of social Indian cinema was a taboo in the country, and people in love were far and few in number. The only kinds of love I've heard of in that period was of people who'd travel to Rangoon (Burma/Myanmar) and settle down there after getting married to a lady there. Ever since, Indian love has always reflected contemporary cinema, and vice versa. With the advent of cinema, and the movies of Dev Anand, and Guru Dutt, and down south with a Gemini Ganesan, love was more of a spark at first sight, the thunderbolt as Michael Corleone says. A sight, and the guy would be head over heels with the girl. In early Indian cinema, this would lead to the guy asking the girl's father for her hand in marriage, and then it slowly turned to both these folks liking each other, and getting together eventually or not, depending on how their parents took the whole thing. After all, the lead characters could not lose out on their family values. Then came the rebel period of the 70s and 80s. Everything about this period was a rebellion. It was cool to smoke and drink on screen, the hero could have a few grey shades to his character, bringing him closer to the Indian public, and this was when he fell in love with the girl, who was ready to rebel for him. The sheer number of films in which Kamal Haasan rebels against the society for his love, is something that epitomizes this period. In this period, the thunderbolt was still there, but the more important aspect of a relationship was the love between the lead characters, "true love" as they called. They would live for love, and they would die for it too. In some sense, it also seemed to echo the "perfection" of a Romeo-Juliet tale. Then came the 90s and 2000s, where it took a different dimension. Love need no longer be at first sight. It grew inside the characters, till it reached a level where they'd attained the "true-love" threshold, like a character in a video game, who waits to get enough ammunition before he fires, and then the lovers fired. The singing, and dancing continued, but the idea changed considerably. Globalization happened, and foreign ideas started invading the Indian love scenario. As I'd described earlier, the advent of the dating revolution happened, and in some sense, people started hunting for love. People could no longer wait for it to come and hit them, if it did at all, and started searching for it through various avenues. People started going out in school, were pros at relationship through college, and by the time they started working, were even used to handling break-ups. What is it that people have started seeking? Earlier it was helplessness, people who were in love didn't know how or why it hit them, it just did and then went with the tide. Later it became a thrill, obtained in flouting social norms, which was compounded with this helplessness. Then, it became a need for companionship. Today it has become a style statement.
So, is this good or bad? I'm not here to judge that, and with no sort of experience whatsoever, I am in no capacity to judge either. Though I must admit, a couple of the older styles appeal to me, much more than the latest one. One of my friends was not ready to accept to me for nearly a year into his relationship, that he was "in love" with his girl, till when he was apparently getting to know her, and strengthening his relationship before getting to "that stage". This kind of attitude is something I'm sure I would never be able to embrace, and at some level, even feels blasphemous to me. But, as I've oft mentioned in this post, as someone who hasn't been in a relationship, and harbors no intentions of getting into one anytime in the near future, maybe my opinions are just that of that rare third person observer, Rashomon style! But, as Suriya/Ajay Devgan says in Aaytha Ezhuthu/Yuva, the whole idea behind romance seems as simple as "line-propogation , hormones, XX, XY, chromosomes", that's as simple as it gets. All the baggage, extra luggage it brings along after just some kind of plot to get the effective act done! Really? Well, again I don't know. Try out for yourself! Well one thing I'd be eternally thankful to "love" for is the million beautiful songs it has given us. Also, the lyricists grow extra intelligent and choosy when it comes to this emotion of mankind, and the right words just fall in place. There are exceptions everywhere, but I am talking about the general trend.
P.S: If you think I've wasted your precious time here, I'm sorry! After all, its fun to prepare for TOEFL writing on random topics on your blog, rather than writing on the boring topics the mock test gives! :P
P.P.S: Ok stop the bad words, how much of it can I take, really! :D
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