I know, I know, I shouldn’t be taking such everyday sayings so seriously. It was a comment on something which is rather sensitive to me, which is probably why I never looked on the funny side of it.

I was sitting alone on a bench at the atrium of my school. Another guy joined me. He was mostly a lonely person at school too. It was his birthday today.

“You think I fucking like coming to school?”

“Huh Ramesh, do you think?”

“Dude.”

“It’s your birthday.”

“Happy Birthday.”

We both were on the same page. As such, there was really nothing to talk about. It’s one of the biggest reasons why I like talking to people who actually disagree with me: I like my perspective to be challenged and be changed in the process. I took out the laptop and started working on the project which was due in 2 days’ time.

“I need your work, dude.”

“Here, it’s in my thumbdrive.”

I copied his files into my compilation of raw materials that I had used for the project, and left his thumbdrive plugged in the laptop. The topic had moved to something else.

”Alot of people my age are attached.”

“I wonder how it’s like.”

He stopped eating his sandwich, and looked up.

“Browse into my thumbdrive.”

“There are 2 pictures there, see them?”

“Yeah?”

“Open it. Either one.”

“Nice?”

“Who is that?”

“My girlfriend, back when I was in Secondary 1.”

“Oh.”

“Yeah.”

He was smiling even wider now, and went back eating his sandwich.

“Yesterday, she SMSed me, and told me she had sent in song dedication on radio for me”

“That’s really nice man; you guys still keep in touch.”

“It’s what happens when you really love a person”

“We are men who love truthfully.”

“Maybe I don’t have a girlfriend because I’m just not ready for a relationship.”

“You know...”

“These people who you say are attached, how long do you think they actually last?”

“How fulfilling do you think these relationships really are?”

“Maybe I’m just not mature enough.”

“Do you think I’m mature?”

“Ramesh.”

“Being mature isn’t about what someone says about you or what you do. No one can label you as mature or immature. Not even yourself.”

“Being mature is about how you feel.”

“So, all these people who are attached, how do they do it?”

“How do they find people who love them?”

“We’re in this school, and half of the people here aren’t truly educated”

“You think they know how to love?”

“They can even seem to get their education paths straight.”

“At this age, no one’s ready. We’re not ready to love.”

“What about all those 18-year olds out there?”

“They seem to know what they’re doing.”

There was a substantial long pause before he gave his reply.

“They... don’t.”

The topic died from there. I continued on the project. He continued his lunch.

Have you ever seen one of those romantic love movies from Hollywood? The couples on the big screen never really SMS each other. In fact, those couples don’t even talk much. The girl and boy would just look into each other’s eyes, and that’s about it. They don’t talk or anything. Some lovey-dovey music would be playing in the background, the sun would be setting, and after the kiss, the credits would be rolling.

Love never really has been explained, or even been talked about in detail in the face of the public. In fact, things like Sex and Religion has been talked and discussed about in public, but not love. Why?

It’s probably because love is defined as what you want it to be. Or at least I think it is.