Birds Of Love-Shore
D.J.
"Love!"  What a charming word is it! It is an indefinable emotion, which anybody can feel towards anybody, anywhere, anytime, irrespective of age or other barriers. Will there be anybody in this world, who has not ever relished the sublime feeling of Love?

This is a collection of true to life love stories; the stories which depict love from teenage to the state of old age. The indivisible relationship between love and one’s success or failure in life can be visualized all throughout these stories.

Translator's note

Are the terms 'falling in love' and 'love at first sight' misnomers? Yes, to some extent, according to me at least, they are. Nobody 'falls' really, know? So also, love at first sight can be termed as 'crush' or 'infatuation', especially during teenage, the time when the estrogen hormone plays hide and seek in one's life.

However, this collection of short stories by Miss. Deepa Menon made me alter my preconceived notions. The stories made me feel that they are true to life and can happen anywhere. The characters made me feel that they are living next door.

Most of the stories in this book narrate love at first sight or falling in love and the plight of their lives afterwards.

"Love is the triumph of imagination over intelligence," said H.L.Mencken, the American writer of yester years. I have always felt that it is an apt statement to describe love.

The general impression about such falling in love is that, most of it does not mature into marriage as is the 'set' norm in life, and in case it does, it fails inevitably. Recently, I happened to translate a pathography, which also described 'falling in love at first sight'. The relationship matured into marriage and it grooved for thirty nine years or so, it said. So love at first sight cannot always be ruled out as an immature sentiment.

The first story in this book "The destiny" describes such an impulsive love. But to my surprise, the love has not failed, even though their lives did not prosper. The rich heroine preferred to live with her poor husband even when she could easily grab back her luxurious life at her home.

The second story, 'Super Express KL7D7174 Kodungallur to Thrissur' is the typical example of the crush of a rich village girl who did not have any exposure to life. The story gives the moral that, wise intervention by the concerned families can prevent a marriage from being shattered. The family did not decide to break up the relationship, which was quite an easy job. Instead, they honored the life of the boy also.

The story of "Jodhpur Ravi" revolves around two individuals who never regretted their decisions and worked hard to achieve prosperity in life. They did not resort to any short cut methods other than hard work. They, who began their life from scratches, rose to the status of employers from the state of mere employees with meager salaries. Hard work paid dividend, and their lives thrived! Good moral of course, to the young readers, I presume!

The story of Urmilla and her family is a true to life example of 'middle child syndrome.' The family didn't know how to counteract the negativity caused from being the middle child or handle the situation psychologically. The middle child's life went astray, resulting in big catastrophe. The story reminds that children should not be simply brought up, but their emotional dispositions should also be taken care of.

Thus each and every story has something to tell the readers. We can of course enjoy the 'love' part of it and at the same time learn how human minds work. There is no set ways in case of love. Loving simply happens! If you are bold enough to fuse some intelligence also into your love, your life will not fail!

Let me thank Miss: Deepa Menon for giving me an opportunity to reconsider my approach and attitude towards such cases; and also I'm thankful to the author for making me recollect the love quotes! Let me end this note with a quote from Amrita Preetham, the famous Punjabi writer--I used to cry for Romeo and Juliet while a teenager, but now I cry for their parents!-I don't remember whether I have quoted the exact words,  but I am sure I could reproduce the essence of it which had got etched in my mind from my teenage days when I read it. That single sentence tells us everything, I presume!

I wish Miss.Deepa Menon great success in all her endeavors.

Sriletha Pillai.