After the World War II, which saw atrocities such as the Holocaust and the Hiroshima-Nagasaki tragedy, the novel as a literary genre for quite some time dealt with the theme called writing a novel. Such meta-fiction kind of texts were in a way admission of the fearsome fact; namely, after such horrendous injustices, what literary sensibility? In such times of despair burst on the literary horizon the Latin-American literary boom. The title of our blog is a take on the title of one of the major novels by Marquez, the ultimate guru of the genre.
No, the title is not a mere word play. In a way, it, too, concedes the fact that love is an expensive proposition currently. Look at the day today; in fact, the entire week. A total genuflection it is to consumerism. The give-n-take of Valentine gifts is a market commodification of a great feel of togetherness, right?
No, I am not being cynical. Love is not love when it to the markets n shops bends. Oh, no, it is not a mere heart-shaped goodie of some sort. Congested cafés/bars and overcrowded shops/discotheques may in the mode of done things come. Let us not to the listing of typical ways of the Valentine day add. Poor Shakespeare must be, as it is, turning in his grave, given this take on his lovely sonnet!
May I tell you yet another reason why such a title to the blog (for) today? You must have read about/seen what happened in the North Block of the Delhi University, right? The very many videos of that horrid incident have gone viral apparently.
Well, if a query, even if it were provocative as is claimed, though the journalist's version does not make one believe so, is going to result in a mob, almost lynching, attack, with the police around, on one single young woman just because she belongs to a certain caste the mob does not like, what kind of society are we living in, and that, too, in the twenty-first century?!?
In a such a hostile climate, that beautiful feeling called love which consists of all that is the best, and would certainly make one a better human(e) being, would be rather like the Wordsworthian "violet by a mossy stone/half hidden from the eye" of such vicious, bitter, and ugly world, and it better be!
Pratima@ As a compensation, better to read Shakespeare's sonnets or Elisabeth Barret Browing's "How do I love thee?" or Browning's "Prospice" or Edwin Muir's "Orpheus' Dream" or the story of our own Savitri or her modern versions or listen to great songs, right?
Quote of the day: "Love is all we need" and "wherever we may be, with you there, it is always home" should be the best wishes for the day. What say?
Word of the day: valentine As valentine means someone loved, hopefully very much, the best valentine could be your work, your pet, your family standing by you come what may, and most of all, your own self, right?
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