Love Beyond Borders: Tales across all sides
Written by Isha Sharma, Assistant Coordinator and Writer
Ancient and Modern, 'Peace or War, 'Love' always emerges victorious cutting across times and geographies
Borders, just like the lines in a drawing book are often defined to either restrict or transgress. These physical lines impact histories, shape and break nations but most importantly govern how people across them cater to each other.
Most significantly, these lines aren't always physical, they exist in many variants of demarcation like societal, cultural, political or even at times personal.
Whether its different religious belief systems or stereotypes accorded with varied ethnic groups, these 'imaginary lines' operate to create 'divide' rather than celebrating diversity.
For instance, 'white' is the colour that brides wear in christian weddings but it isn't seen as an auspicious colour in Hindu weddings. While one can easily inaugurate a conflict over this colour parity, understanding the distinct worldviews of two different religions would put an end to any sort of divide.
As per Hindu rituals, 'white' is traditionally linked to mourning and death while western cultures associate it with new beginnings and purity. Both cultures celebrate the union of two hearts in different colours but who says that one defines and the other divides? Till there's respect and love binding the couple, all colours signify togetherness.
Through thick or thin, peace or war, histories record tales of how only one force cuts across all barriers: the magic of love that sees through souls, not sides.
In 1971, an Indian Spy named Sehmat Kaur married a Pakistani Army Officer 'Iqbal' and passed confidential information back home at immense risk to her own life. Both Iqbal and Sehmat passionately driven by patriotism held true to their nations.
But what emerges unanswerable is the love between these two individuals divided by political tensions but connected through an unspoken bond. What remains as a mark of their love is their birth of a child whom Sehmat decides to welcome in the world upon her return to India and Iqbal's death.
Charlotte Bronte's acclaimed work 'Jane Eyre' puts forward a love story amidst social status tensions and financial differences. Jane is a young, orphaned governess from a low social status while Rochester is an older, affluent, and well-established man.
What begins as a narrative of power imbalance soon transpires into a moment when Rochester proposes to Jane by saying "I ask you to pass through life at my side." Leaving all class differences behind, love emerges victorious in the end.
Across histories, geographies and times, there exist many a thousand tales of a Romeo and a Juliet who defied some odds to celebrate love, "love that cannot be explained, yet it explains all."
East, West, North or South, it all doesn't make any difference. Because love knows no sides. It thrives, quite beyond the barricades of physical diversions, societal pressures and cultural constraints.
Unlike borders, it doesn't really force one to either conform or transgress, it liberates and celebrates the union of two hearts without one having to pick any side
This is a tale of all sides for love exists beyond borders in its quiet yet resolute promise.
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