Dilution

By Harsh Joshi

If you add 90 mL of water to 10mL of 1M HCl, what do you get?
What’s that? Yes! 100mL of 1/10 M HCl! You’ve got it!

But wait, this isn’t a Chemistry Lecture! And so that’s not the question that I have today, that I’d like answered. The question is thus:

Has love been diluted?

Has its expression become so easy with the advent of SMS and IM and Facebook and other such tools that we have lost the importance of the words, “I love you”?

I think so and it is something that depresses me to my utmost, because the expression of love is perhaps the highest a human being can go. Of all the testaments scattered around the world, the testaments of love are the ones that are most fondly remembered across cultures and across the different phases of time.  Of all the places in the world from wherein inspiration can be drawn; I can hardly think of anything that is more inspiring of well being than the exploits of Romeo for Juliet or those of Ranjha for Heer no matter the fictional nature of the first and the tragic nature of the latter.

Every morning after I get up, the first thing I do is message her, wishing her a good morning and expressing in 160 characters each day, the hopes and aspirations I hold dear. And as soon as the message is delivered I wonder; it is so easy these days isn’t it!  You just have to pick up a phone, no effort required...punch a few keys and off it goes! The testament of your love, in 160 character {n.b: Spaces are counted and paragraph breaks account for 2 characters}

I feel bad sometimes, bad for our generation that we are so caught up with technology that we sometimes actually forget to feel the love that we are sending through telephone signals (Radio waves are they? Someone who knows should kindly clarify...)  I feel bad for myself that I cannot deny the fact that however much I’d enjoy writing a letter to her each and every day, I don’t do it, just because sending a text is simpler. I feel bad because there are things and topics and I feel like talking to her about for hours on end but neither she nor I have the time to do any of it; because these days every living hour is spent in pointless assignments and projects and such that serve no real life purpose.

No, contrary to your understanding I am not blaming you per se, nor am I complaining about the injustice of it all, I just am wondering if technology has somehow crept up in the definition of our love. Can we (couples at large) still say that our bond is independent of any and all technological interferences? Only a few can and I am jealous of and still I am happy for them; jealous because I’d like nothing more than to be free of the dependency of technology for the expression of my love and because I envy their independence and happy for them…well for no other reason than because they are in love. It is the best feeling, believe me.

The way I understand it, the expression of love is important, it belittles conflict and paves the way for a happier tomorrow. We humans are a proud species, why depend on technology then?

So, the next time I meet her I’ll say it more than I ever have, more than I do via technology. At least I’ll try and I hope that you’d try too!

---