Where There Is Love

As I returned home tired of the day's work, my son, with a greeting smile, came running to me. As usual, I kissed him and said, "I love you, my son". "What is love, Papa?" quite innocently he asked. Giving him a chocolate, I simply said, "This is my love for you". The innocent question stirred my soul and all my thoughts fell on the 'simple' word 'LOVE', "What is love? Where is love?" Love is there, I thought, in our care that we give to our kids and in our desire to see them grow before our eyes. Love is seen in the heart of a mother who has to part her children from her and send them to distant lands to win the race of life. Love is seen in the worries of a wife who waits for the safe return of her husband. Love is there in a true friend who works as an inspiration, stands by in all thick and thin and shares all joys and sorrows. Love is seen, by a lover, in the beginning of a smile-love-a composition of a single soul living in two bodies. So pleased I felt to imagine that love is everywhere and 'all is well with the world'. Relaxing on my chair, I picked the newspaper with a desire to know something good of the world. As I went on reading, my newly-formed assumptions about love, life, and the world began to shatter. What I read- four cases of robbery, two cases of murder, three cases of relations breaking, four cases of eve-teasing, two cases of rape, one case of acid throwing, youth indulged in drug addiction, many cases of corruption, some cases of manipulation, hoarding and black-marketing, dirty game of politics, unions going on strikes, people fighting for religions, word war among states and nations and 'much ado about nothing'. I threw the paper with a heavy heart and again asked myself, "Where is love?" The sudden entrance of my son broke the stream of my thought. I caught him in my arms and kissed. "How can flowers be grown on a volcano?" were only my thoughts and two pearls from my eyes fell on the head of my son. Then the 'Preacher of Peace' came into my vision who proclaimed, "Where there is love, there is life".