Love-ology!

Love …what is love? Is it the most amazing experience ever? In Devil's Advocate, devil compares love to eating thousands of chocolate at once.Why? Do people really sacrifice or stalk when under the 'influence' of love? It seems like just another emotion yet has been projected as ‘so powerful’! The word 'Love' has its origins in Germanic forms of Sanskrit term ‘lubh’ which means desire. Philosophy describes as love as ‘ejection of emotions’. Biology describes it as a state where there is an increased secretion of dopamine by hypothalamus. It says that the secretion is higher than in case of lust. It is said that you can simply switch off the sexual urge but never a romantic surge. Now….now…if a biologist-playwright was to describe Heer’s ‘love for Ranjha; he would put it something like – there she (Heer) saw him (Ranjha), the gait so graceful that her dopamine secretion increased and went into overdrive.

If you ask someone who had just had an increased dopamine secretion (I mean… fell in love) about his/her sweetheart, their eyes would glow up like thousand lamps just lit up even the most masculine men would blush like a princess and softer genders blush like…hmmm…hmm…I don’t know. If granted a wish, they would wish for….no not world peace…they just always wish to be by their darling, their inamorata, their beau…..they would also add that …they would just want to sit beside their loved one and peek into their eyes and that they could just fritter away their entire life lauding their ‘beloveds’ beauty and poetizing it.

But I am sure something happens after that because lust does ensue love (def. not talking about parental affection). Lust is due to sex hormones which are triggered by dopamine. Love also leads to increased oxytocin which leads to cuddling and which generally culminates in sex.

I have a friend who falls in love every other month and gets laid too (he is not Indian); I am sure this guy has a serotonin transporter gene. People with such a gene often mistake the initial thrills and anxiety for love and go for it. So what happens to his previous love(s) and associated hormones?? I don’t know about the ‘girls’ but his 'love' hormones are replaced by endorphins. As far as I am concerned, I am sure I am completely devoid of this gene. Even if I ever happen to fall in love I would skillfully parry those feelings regarding them as anxiety and thrills.

Ever heard of the phrase PYAAR TO ANDHAA HOTA HAIN RE! Love is blind…..RE!! People actually fail reality test. It has been seen that people notice only good things about their partners in the first 2 to 4 years of relationship; that is because of the enzyme Phenyethylamine. After four years the levels of this enzyme come down. That is why Americans live with their partner for at least five years before they get married to them. Now don’t ask me about the high divorce rates in USA. I don’t know:). It is very true that you have to live with a person to know him/her.There is nothing such as love at first sight but there, sure, is lust at first sight.Some goody two shoes argue that only men know of such a thing.Others wont argue because they know the truth.

It is natural that lust must ensue love but in some civilization like ‘ours’..love ensues lust. ..yaah pehle suhaag raat phir pyaar ;) . A civilization where girls set high standards for the groom and finally settle for the one that their parents point out to.Yaah yaah even the goody two shoes!!I would really like to study that phenomenon but I am short of candidates and devoid of an experimental model.