A Frequent Rabbit Hole.
Mumbai Rains, Love and COVID-19.
Hello Dear Friends
Hope you are fine and safe.
Unfortunately, COVID-19 reached me and my wife last week and we are home quarantined. Staying in the same house, but not still connected via Whatsapp Video calls and got me into a rabbit hole about love.
I have been thinking about love, well I have been thinking about our modern understanding of love. What is love?
A modern definition would go something like this: Love is an intimate feeling, a tender emotion, an all-compassing state where you feel happy, content, and comfortable.
Scientifically Love is defined by a complex neurological process accompanied by the release of the happy hormones: Serotonin and Dopamine.
Ask a parent, they might use the word ‘unconditional’
Ask a poet, they might name their muse.
Ask a musician, they might take their guitar in their hand and smile to themselves.
In Classical Roman society, Love was caused by Cupid, the plump child with a golden bow and arrows. In Classical Greece it was Eros. In Classical India it was the Kama.
So many definitions, so many interpretations. If Love is an absolute feeling then why does it vary so much from time to time, place to place?
Perhaps, love is not a personal feeling. It is a socially constructed entity, controlled and regulated by institutions of contemporary society.
Take the example of Bollywood, it would be a lie if we were to say that it has played no part in our understanding of love. It is strange really for a country with such low tolerance for young people loving each other on their own terms to produce so many movies each year teaching us to be such lovers. The fact that its notions of love are quite problematic is a topic for another day.
But how did you reach the contemporary understanding of love?
I think you might recall the newsletters I sent in February, and if you do you will further recall that love as we know it today was a product of the renaissance and the cultural movement thereafter.
During Renaissance, there were two contrasting interpretations of love. Earthly Love and Spiritual Love. As you can probably guess, earthly love was connotated with pleasure, passion, desire, and intimacy of body. Spiritual love was the love that was not restricted by the flesh, it was the connection of the souls. The latter by default was considered sacred and pure whereas the former was considered inferior.
Slowly, these divisions blurred and the two ideas assimilated giving rise to a romantic notion of love which was physical and yet spiritual, it is earthly but it also comprises the promise of eternity.
The topic of love confounds me, so innate and so essential yet so extraordinary. But I guess that’s the beauty of it.
I might soon turn into a love philosopher if I keep musing about these things… I wish! I am curious what do you think about love? Reply to the email and I will respond from my isolated bedroom.
What was I Reading/Watching This Week?
Where Should We Begin? with Esther Perel - A great podcast about modern-day love.
The trailer for the second season of Modern Love is here. And it has Kit Harrington in it!
Substack is going to give free classes to its writers to help them monetize their newsletters.
Branson inaugurated Space Tourism. Are we to follow suit?
What does Zomato’s IPO success mean for the food delivery industry?
What was I doing this week?
I was in conversation with Roxanne Chinoy, the Strategic Partner Manager – Reels Content at Instagram talks about the growth of reels and how to master them.
We at PFA hosted our second workshop with Gonica Khanna about Character Design.
I attended the Third Community Meetup by Pepper Content- Honest Confessions by Writers. It was such a blast.
That’s all I have for you today. Do let me know your thoughts on this whole halfway through the pandemic state of our lives. Reach out to me anytime for anything @pawan_rochwani.
Wishing you a happy Sunday. Take care and stay safe.
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