Love can happen at any age. For love age is immaterial but certainly I do not think so. When we fall in love after teenage we tend to think about many other issues rather than love only. We judge the person on economic, social, educational, cultural, regional and religious levels before trying to establish a relation with that person. But during our teenage when we still are in high school we tend to fall for the person instead of the status and other such features are then immaterial. We love the person as a person who is at par with us, not the other way round. The love of teenage if it survives is the strongest because that love is pure, true and innocent. The couple grows together, struggles together, sacrifices together and survives together, thus the bonding is very strong.
One can fall in love after the teenage too, when one is more mature and judgmental but that love certainly can’t be compared with the pristine purity of teenage love. In love the status, monetary consideration and cultural background should not matter, rather love for the person should have an upper hand. So if you are thinking of falling in love, sooner the better.
Can Love Survive Without Marriage?
Love definitely among two people can survive without marriage too. If due to various circumstances and obstacles that are numerous particularly in South Asian marriages, the marriage does not materialize that is the epitome and zenith of any love; Love if it was true and pristine can certainly survive and thrive, even if on ideal Platonic level only. Love does not require another person to reciprocate the same. Love can be one sided and will survive the brutal shocks of society, time and people. In that manner love is immortal. It takes more courage and spirit to bear the pangs of one sided love. Even if there are two partners and one gets married, the other can survive on love only. I am a witness to a number of examples of this kind. If both the partners get married to strangers, still the feelings of love certainly will be suppressed and caged to a certain deep dungeon of heart but the feelings of love can never be killed and the reserved space in the heart is the testimony of this fact.
Love and Sex
In the oriental tradition love is sacred even if it is among two people. Sex and physical part of the relation is the least talked aspect of any relationship. For love to succeed physical part is not essential. Love as a feeling does not always translate into marriage or sex. Love remains and survives even without involving the physical aspect. The strength of any relationship is tested during the separation. In the oriental tradition from Laila-Majnoon, Shirin-Farhad, Heer-Ranja etc most lovers never had any physical intimacy with each other, but their love certainly is immortal one. This is the norm with most orientalist love stories, that it does not end up in physical relations and that is its tragedy too. The marriage is not a free license for unlimited and omnipotent sex and physical part of marriage is not the only reason that it will survive, because sex as an act survives just for eleven minutes to borrow Paulo Ceolho’s words. If the love is absent from any relationship particularly marriage then there are few bleak chances that it will survive.
The dominant reason for extra marital affairs and sex outside marriage is absence of emotional intimacy and love in marriage. Marriage as an institution is the basis of family and indelible unit of society. Marriage can survive without sex but not without love and care. Partners cheat and become unfaithful when they feel unwanted, uncared and unloved in marriage. In our society love is supposed to be the least priority in a marriage. Caste, religion, economic status are the real criteria that determine whether two persons can get married or not.
The unrealistic and unruly criteria have resulted in the institution of marriage becoming strife torn and weak. The need of the hour is to discover the real essence of love particularly in marriage, only then we can have productive couples around us with brimming positivity and optimism, otherwise broken homes and juvenile delinquents will be staring on our faces in near future.
Love needs to be made the epitome of our every relation, that will make our lives worthy of living, and each moment will be a bliss for our existence.
