I have often read stories and watched movies where the couple in love could read each other's eyes, which got me thinking; if we had to define their love, how would we go about it? Which word or phrases would best describe their love for each other, what could possibly capture the beauty, the depth and the profoundness of the love that they have for each other?

I thought about it for quite some time and finally decided that their love is till infinity, forever and beyond eternity and set about elaborating these phrases. And that is when I landed myself in a nice hot soup.

I found the phrases a little clichéd, felt that most of the readers would do too and hence decided to try defining the terms a little objectively. That is when I realised not only were those terms clichéd,  they are downright ridiculous. How? Read on.

Love till infinity

But what does 'love till infinity' mean exactly? Some argue that in plain English, at least, it does not mean anything. It is intended to be an exaggeration in speech to indicate an intensity of passion, but infinity is not a place that one can reach. Some agree with Shakespeare's quote, "I love you beyond measure", which can be related to human reality within space, but infinity is merely a mathematical concept that lacks the specificity of successful poetry. Poets, storytellers and scriptwriters, of course, write whatever they like.

And then there is the over-used and much-flogged phrase "I love you to infinity and beyond'' (seriously, the acronym for this phrase is ILYTIAB and has a place in the Urban Dictionary) which in the physical sense is an impossibility. So how do we use an impossibility to describe love, or does it denote that it is a love so profound that it is impossible to define it?

Love for ever

'Love for ever' - is another cliché! I mean how can love be forever when the people who profess to love each other are mere mortals and will sooner or later follow the other clichéd line - "Dust thou art, to dust returned!" After all, the only thing that is unstoppable is time and nothing does last forever. Maybe it is simply a word, a catchphrase to denote something that cannot be expressed adequately in the limited languages that we mortals use to communicate.

Love beyond Eternity

And this is the best of the lot - Eternity means timelessness and can be extended to mean something that has no beginning or end. So how does one love beyond something, which in itself has no beginning or end? What does this paradox, love you beyond endlessness mean?

Then again, agreed that these are clichés, but they are universally accepted and are well accepted apt descriptions. So do I stick to my original stance of using these phrases? Or was there a simpler explanation for that profound emotion, so fundamental to our very existence, which has been lost in the mists of time? And we humans use the most flowery language to express that emotion because we are unable to accept its very simplicity? As one of my very favourite songs goes:

Hamne dekhi hai in aankhon ki mahakati khushboo 
Haath de chhuke ise, rishton ka ilzaam na do
Sirf ehsaas hai ye, ruh se mahsoos karo
Pyaar to pyaar hi rahane do, koi naam naa do

Pyaar koi bol nahin, pyaar awaaz nahin
Ek khamoshi hai, sunti hai, kahaa karti hai,
Na ye bhujti hai, na rukti hai, na thahari hai kahin,
Noor ki boond hai, sadiyon se bahaa karti hai

Sirf ehsaas hai ye, ruh se mahsoos karo,
Pyaar to pyaar hi rahane do, koi naam naa do

Muskurahat si khili rahati hai, aankhon mein kahin
Aur palkon pe ujaale se jhuke rahatein hain
Honth kuch kahate nahin, kaampte hothon pe magar
Kitne khaamosh se afsaane ruke rahatein hain

Sirf ehsaas hai ye, ruh se mahsoos karo
Pyaar to pyaar hi rahane do, koi naam naa do...

The translation could be as follows (done by me, so not sure of how well it has captured the essence of the above):

I have seen a delightful fragrance in your eyes
Do not reach for it, to either bind or claim it.
It is a fleeting essence, only to be felt by the soul
Let love remain as love, do not attempt to name it.

Love is not words nor is it a voice
It is a silence, only listens and does not speak
It cannot be quenched; it does not stop or wait anywhere
It is a drop of light that has been flowing for aeons.

It is a fleeting essence, only to be felt by the soul,
Let love remain as love, do not attempt to name it.

It blossoms in a smile, somewhere in the eyes
And dances in the shadows of the lashes
Your lips do not say anything, yet in their trembling
So many silent stories come to a fluttering halt

It is a fleeting essence, only to be felt by the soul
Let love remain as love, do not attempt to name it

Maybe that is what love is, only to be felt and should not be described. And in this world of contradictions, the more the words we use to describe the quality, the more we diminish its essence because we actually qualify the very thing we want to exalt.

There is a principle in quantum physics - Heisenberg's Uncertainty Principle, which in simple terms states that there is a fundamental limit to the precision with which certain pair of physical properties of a particle, known as complementary variables, such as position 'x' and momentum 'p' can be known. Extending this to the philosophical plane of love, would it not mean that greater the effort we spend in defining the quantum of that emotion the lesser we would focus on the quintessence of that feeling?

So what exactly do I do? I still want to stick to the original phrases that I had picked. The words, infinity, forever and eternity also lend themselves so beautifully to a pictorial representation:

Forever, (no specific symbol so I stole one of those assigned to eternity) - a circle:

Give forever a twist to reach Infinity:

Knot it for Eternity:

And finally, tie it with the Red String of fate:

And my story is similar to that - two very opposite individuals, looped by life, twisted by destiny, knotted by time and tied together with the red string of fate. And would not the above phrase be very apt to describe the love they share? That theirs is a love that is indeed: infinite, forever and truly eternal.

To tell the truth, I got lost and decided to jot down the merits and considerations of the case, namely, which phrase would best describe such a love. That sounded good. But then I made a mistake when I settled on making counter-arguments for every point I noted. (Please remember - never argue with a Libran, especially if you are one, and when it was I versus Myself, I ended up sleep-deprived and overwhelmed ) 

Now I was in a fix, how do I go about writing a romance, a love story and describe their love for each other, when I am confused with my own arguments (not to sound vain, but then all the above points are quite valid, right? )

However, I am not one to give up easily and I kept writing only to finally realise that I had written a story rather than an essay because somewhere I kept revisiting the scenes and rewriting them to suit what I wanted to see. I did not like some characters, so deleted them; hated the way some characters behaved, so changed their traits, found certain events were too brainless so altered them. Carried away by my enthusiasm, I went on polishing the story, which turned out to be Three Act Tragedy, no reference to the play by Dame Agatha Christie and it is definitely not a tragedy, I mean there is some angst, a brief period of separation, nothing tragic, and definitely no villains. But I like this phrase, and even if it does not fit, it stays; after all it is my story.

And yes, the title of this tale is definitely not "Love: till infinity, for ever, beyond eternity", which was what I had originally planned, though it would play on these words. It is a word, which however, describes their love quite well - one word, an adjective.

I am giving the link to the song mentioned above at Harshu's request - 

https://youtu.be/doPtBhDTpj0