When Cupid strikes

Some Cupid kills with arrows, some with traps.

~ William Shakespeare in ''Much Ado About Nothing'

Cupid is the god of love in Roman mythology; known also as Eros in Ancient Greece; and Kaman or Kamadeva, in Indian folklore. In painting and sculpture of the western world, Cupid is portrayed as a naked form of a winged boy with bow and arrow.

In India, in works of art, Kamadeva is depicted as a young, handsome, winged man with green skin who wields a bow and arrows.

His bow is made of sugarcane with a string of honeybees, and his arrows are adorned with five varieties of fragrant flowers.

The five flowers are Ashoka tree flowers, white and blue lotus flowers, Jasmine, and the flowers from the Mango tree.

It is a common belief that when Cupid, also known in Latin as Amor meaning love, strikes; casts his gaze, or unleashes his arrow; the arousal of affection, passion, desire, or erotic love, is inevitable, and instantaneous. Desire, being the primal germ of mind, even the staunchest practitioner of celibacy will, at least, be momentarily shaken, if not bowled over by the itch - the stirring of that feeling, a kind of madness, which only those in the line of fire of cupid, and struck by it, could feel and describe.

Born to the goddess of love Venus and the god of war Mars; Cupid's ability to compel love and lust, libido and passion, not only plays an instigating role in myths and legends, but also in the life of mortal man; who, when in love, more often than not, exhibits the dual nature of Cupids parents, Venus and Mars.

If Cupid is the creation of Greek-Roman legend, and myth; Kaman or Kamadeva is sired by Indian mythology, of which several versions exist with regard to his birth. Desire is believed to be the first movement that arose, when life first originated.

Eros

Desire is the bond that connects entity with non-entity. Greek mythology connected Eros, the god of love, with the creation of the universe. So does the Atharva-veda of India, which exalts Kama into a supreme god and creator. Whatever be the mysterious origins of Cupid and Kama and the universal operation of passion; it must be said that: without desire, in the absence of love, lacking libido, not having lust, be it induced by Cupid and Kaman, or otherwise; human species as is known today, will cease to exist. Desire, with all its affiliates, is the procreant and the procreator of life - the seed of human sustenance, that which impels and imparts impetus to creation.

Love at first sight, or be it the ravages of love at first sight, is something almost all of us must have felt at sometime or the other in our life. It is nothing new, nor uncommon.

This magical moment in one's life happens most wonderfully and suddenly, unplanned and unexpected. It is neither conditioned by, nor is it limited by, factors such as age and gender; and not controlled by, time and place. It is often said that, "love looks not with the eyes, but with the mind".

This may be true to an extent, when arranged marriages were the norm. Nevertheless, from ancient times, and as told in the age old Indian mythology Ramayana; when, for the first time, the eyes of Rama - the hero of the epic - met those of Seetha, the heroine; like fire in the flint, the spark of love was lit; whether by design of Kama, or common consent.

Similarly, whether in Greek, Roman, Medieval, Renaissance, Baroque, or modern literature; this doctrine of the immediate visual perception, this love at first sight, is a common trope - a figure of speech - in which a person, character, or speaker feels romantic attraction for a stranger on the first sight of them.

Described by poets and critics from the ancient world on, it has become one of the most powerful tropes in fiction, fostered, nourished, and cherished.The love thus generated is, conveyed by and accepted in return, by a kind of electro-magnetic mechanism: the passing of bright beams of non-visible light from the eyes of one to the other, through which it passes to take up its abode in the other's heart.

The language of love is silence, all else being just desire for love. Shakespeare pays a handsome tribute to love at first sight when he says in 'As You Like It': "Who ever lov'd that lov'd not at first sight?Ó'

Research has shown two bases for love at first sight. The first is that the attractiveness of a person can be very quickly determined, with the average time in one study being 0.13 seconds.

Relationship

The second is that the first few minutes of a relationship have shown to be predictive of the relationship's future success, more so than what two people have in common, or whether they like each other - "like attracts like", or more commonly put, as birds of a feather flock together, or are gregarious by nature. Yes.

We are accustomed to instantly size up a potential partner, an intuitive skill that likely developed millions of years ago as our forebears struggled to, rapidly sort friends from enemies.

While today we may not need to protect ourselves with a strong and virile mate, we regularly make up our minds about whether an individual could be an appropriate match within the first three minutes of talking to him or her. Still, love at first sight does not happen to everyone.

In one survey by Ayala Malach-Pines, PhD, of Ben-Gurion University in Israel, only 11 percent of the 493 respondents said their long-term relationships started that way.

As for the rest, psychologists say that the more you interact with a person you like, even slightly, the more you come to regard him or her as good-looking, smart, and similar to you - unless you discover something that breaks the spell.

Hence, it is wise to hang in for a second meeting. It can take years sometimes for two people to fully appreciate, and fall in love with each other. But, whether it's love at first sight or love in hindsight, those first three minutes are essential for romance.

However, I do not see the point in Cupid making somebody fall in love with someone whom that somebody cannot have because he has shot his arrow at only one person. Next time, please shoot the arrow at both.

If not, it will necessitate that somebody to break the ice with a warm smile that would melt that someone's heart.

Love at first sight is easy to understand; it is when two people have been looking at each other for a lifetime, married or living together, that it becomes a miracle, a marvel, and a wonder.

See you this day next week. Until then, keep thinking; keep laughing. Life is mostly about these two activities.

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