'Love is a many splendoured thing'

by Bandula Seneviratne

The present day Sri Lankan society is inundated with topics such as Diaspora, train derailments, Pope speaking on behalf same sex marriages, teachers climbing roofs in protest, forcible kneeling down of female teachers, sons of top rung politicians getting involved in free-for-alls, boat people to Australia getting drowned in the high seas, forest fires in America and Australia, birth of quintuplets, elections, calamities in Sudan and Egypt, saloon doors, incest, rape, computer jilmart, cost-of-living and what not?

But people hardly speak of: Saliya and Asokamala, Rama and Sita, Pabawathie and King Kusa, Romeo and Juliet, Samson and Delilah, Shajehan and Mumtaz, Prince Charles and Duchess Camilla Bowles, Lady Diana and Dode al-Fayed, Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton, (They married each other twice), Mrs. Shirley Boonwat (Burma) and Sri Lankan handsome band leader and pianist Seneviratna, Princess Margaret and Group Captain Petor Townsend of the R.A.F; Bill Clinton and Monica Lewinsky, Sir Thomas Maitland-Governor General of Sri Lanka (1805) and Lovina Aponsu, the Gypsy dancer, Hollywood's Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall, Mark Antony and Cleopatra, Prince Rainier of Monaco and Actress Grace Kelly from Hollywood, Pauline de Croos and Kirambakanda, Rev. Father Mathew Peiris and Mrs. Ingram.

Some of these famous love affairs ended in happiness and the parties lived happily ever after, while some ended in tragedy and disaster. Folks do not speak about love and love-related stories now. No one speaks about love that sent two persons on raptures' roadway. Love has been relegated to the forgotten lingo, confined to silly teledramas depicting calf love and therefore, pushed to the back burner.

This should not be the case. It is love that makes the earth go round the sun. After all the whole world loves a lover. This is an endeavour to jot down the way that some human beings expressed their love towards others with the underlying principle "It is better to have loved and lost than not love at all".

Napoleon to Josephino: "My unique companion. You whom fate has destined to walk with me the painful path of life. The day on which I no longer possess your heart will be that on which parched nature will be for me without warmth and without vegetation". Chandrika Kumaratunga about Vijaya Kumaratunga: "His exceptional good looks, remarkable humaneness, his sharp intelligence together with his oratorical skills and deep mellifluous voice, as well as his warm generous personality gave him a charisma unparalleled by any other political leader or actor in Sri Lanka."

Janaka Kumbukage - Actor: "Love is not a commodity to be exhibited. It lies dormant in one's heart" Casanova: "Love is three quarters curiosity".

Prince Charles about Camillia Bowles: "A breath of fresh air "yes she is". A charm I cannot define still draws me to you". Mark Twain: "To get the full value of joy one must have someone to share it with".

Anon: "When my love declares/swears that she is made of truth I do believe her though I know she lies".

"The most precious things in life are the enduring, loving relationships we make". "I made several attempts to get a little space from her heart. But unsuccessful".

Muttaiah Muralitharan - Cricketer: "My family is my life". Amitab Bachchan - Actor: "Love and death both come uninvited no one can alter them". Dalai Lama: "Love and compassion are necessities not luxuries. Witout them society cannot exist". Police: "They treat lovers like criminals and criminals like lovers".

Blake Carrington to his wife in "Dynasty": "Sometimes I wake up in the night in a panic wondering what my life will be without you". "To me you are everything that a man could find in a woman".

The writer is a retired Senior Superintendent of Police.