Whenever people (read: women friends) ask me to sit and watch a romantic movie with them, my standard reaction would be to raise my eyebrow at the person with an incredibly, sarcastically emotionless face. If they decide not to pick the hint from that and pursue it further, I would be forced to issue my standard comment of: Get lost! I am not watching that tear jerker.
That being said, I do not watch many romantic comedies because.. well, I just don't like them. It's not that I
don't "like" like them, but I just feel that it stretches the imagination a bit. For all you know, they might be behaving in the ideal manner and it is we, on the other side of the screen and behind the scenes who tend to complicate and screw things up.
This does not mean that I am heartless or emotionless, though I may come across as being just that to many people when I am my usual sarcastic self, which is almost 90% of the time. What it does mean is that, I like love to have some levity involved in the narration of a love story. Yes, there are issues and hurdles that many people face and I'm sure a majority of such situations are drawn from their personal experiences. But, come on, talking about love is akin to regaling! You should be happy, have fond memorable memories masking the sour ones. If people are going to tell a tale about what a struggle it was to fall and finally succeed in love, it turns out to be almost like a drama of epic proportions.
One must keep in mind that the level of patience in the current generation is very low and as the next generation keeps coming in, we might have instances of 12 year olds doing what we waited until 18, to do. From a written fiction perspective, I'd hate to think of the day when they grow up to read about the love stories written and are being written in our time, they might think that homosexuality is a pretty cool and hassle-free deal. When most people (the actual novelists, I mean) write about love and relationships, they tend to focus on the trials and tribulations involved and try hard to capture the angst from such a relationship. If I have to quantify the emotional content, it would be something around this - Joy: 15%, Pain: 25%, Sorrow: 25%, Anger: 10%
But, there are a few writers who carry out a love story very well on their shoulders. The title I have chosen is a tribute to one of the best love stories, THE love story that I enjoyed. It's no surprise that the book is humbly yet fittingly titled, Love Story by Eric Segal.
Love Story has been critically acclaimed and has a very light, compact and simple story between two people who are exact opposites of each other in all possible ways. I would suggest this as a good read for those looking to get some romance under the skin.
Segal's book is rather different in unique in that, he takes a rather bright approach to events and doesn't try to dim the lights with emotion, rather he loves putting on a show with some neon and lava lamps as well. My point is, he is a writer who infuses a good deal of light heartedness and quashes pessimism with good ol' fashioned optimism. In short, he is the kind of writer I would read if I wanted to look forward to fall in love. Needless to say, he was the first writer whose work I read when I broached the realms of the Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew and was ready for more. The book was titled Doctors (Eric Segal) and I loved every minute of reading it.
Cheers,
Aamen.
Awesome read Aaditya! Yeah true,... all the love stories we used to read as kids will be outdated soon and writers shud focus on the current generation while writing!
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