The Paradox called Love

There is a famous couplet of Ghalib which I adore:

Mohabbat mein nahi hai fark jeene aur marne ka,
Usi ko dekh kar jeete hain, jis kaafir pe dum nikle

It means that in love there is no difference between life and death because the person you yearn to live with is the same person you can die for.

There cannot be a bigger paradox than love. These lines in honour of that very paradox.


How does one tell as to why he feels lonely?
The one who was yours once is now someone else's,
If this is what the world is about, why is it so?
If this is the way things happen, why are they so?

Once you extended your arms and i reached out to them,
In your heart then resided my heartbeat,
If such was the proximity then why is there a distance today?

Noone has ever come out of a heartbreak,
And yet we knock the door of love again,
Why does he up there rekindle hopes when it hurts and it pains?

Whether you call it a relation of hope or that of sadness,
This relation of love is something we are born with,
When the relation is so rooted, then how come it breaks?

V.V.Vikram