What is true love.

Someone asked me the other day - how do you know it is true love? I didnt have a reply at that time, but it set me thinking...how does one define true love...or rather - how does true love really manifest itself? I still cant say for sure what makes it up, but I do know a story, one which most of you must have heard about, or seen recently; a story told through the lives of three friends, of their joys and sorrows growing up together in a megapolis like Bombay, but more importantly, a story that focusses on the relationships that they go through in the course of time, and each story demonstrates an important aspect of love - taken individually, they do teach us a lot about life, but in totality, they aptly illustrate the meaning of 'true love'.

Akash is the quintessential flirt - with a happy go lucky attitude to life. For him, two weeks is what his relationships are, ending because he 'finds' someone else to satisfy him for the moment. But then he meets Shalini - and he detests him, because he had tried to hit on her in the past (with no success). But that soon gives way to friendship, which becomes love. However there is a problem, Rohit, Shalini's fiancee, not only detests Akash, but he also is prepared to use any trick in the book to keep them apart. Despite having been badly beaten in their earlier encounters, Akash is prepared to risk another match up with him for the sake of the girl he loves. He fearlessly goes upto her parents and asks for her hand, even if it is during her wedding ceremony. He doesnot filch when standing upto Rohit, for the sake of the girl he loves. He has shown us, that it is this courage, in the face of all adversity that demonstrates his love.

Sameer's ( aka Sam) relationships are also like Akash's, they too never seem to go beyond a few weeks, although it is never him who ends it. Most girls end up dumping him, but just as quickly he manages to find someone else. But then he meets Pooja, introduced to him by his parents. Both of them quickly reject the idea of marriage, but become friends. In due course of time, both he and Pooja realise that they love each other, but not before Sam pursues her incessantly and draws her away from her nerdy boyfriend. Sam now is sure that he wants to spend the rest of his life with her, and this acts as a push to keep on trying to get her close to him. A guy who was never at ease with his priorities, his choices or his desires, ended up having a lot of disasterous relationships in the past. But it is this conviction that Pooja has brought about in him, has changed him and made him sure of himself. Love has transformed him into someone who knows what he wants and then goes about getting it.

Siddharth (or Sid) was different from his two pals. At first glance, one might shun him to be a recluse. But a deeper insight into his psyche demonstrates his creative talents, and his mind which is constantly evaluating his surroundings, without caring for the world around him. He is an artist, not because he has chosen this profession, or because he has a natural flair for it, but because this is what he was meant to do. It is during one afternoon, lost in his thoughts, that he meets Tara, an architect, who is a divorcee and single mother. She has a lot of problems of her own, which have led her to embrace the bottle, with a potentially devastating effect. Sid, is drawn to her, but in his heart, he knows, that it will never work out - the age difference being one of the factors, but also the fact that she is going to die soon. Nevertheless he is prepared to stand by her, at times going against his family and friends, and give her the support she needs at this juncture. Sid is willing to sacrifice all, for a relationship that may never be, because he loves her. In the end, however, Tara, in her own way, acknowledges what Sid has gone through, and this is reward enough for him. His acts show us that true love is all about selfless sacrifice - giving it all without expecting anything in return.