Love is.....

They say ‘love is a many splendoured thing’, it is even said that ‘love makes the world go round’. But, I say love and its various participants who are called to play a part in it are nothing but the life and times of a piece of news on television.  

First of all lets breakdown the modern day news as seen on television to its key constituents. There is the news maker or event, then there is the journalist who reports on it and the journalist in the studio who is more of a moderator than an anchor for news shows, the experts whose knowledge, emotions and urge to speak are harnessed and moderated and finally the audience who watch the news.

The two lovebirds and their love are the main news event. However, the life cycle of this piece of news is such that the duo play many roles. In the beginning, like investigative journalists, they dig into the past of their lovers directly questioning the other or sussing out information from others on the sly as a means of understanding the other and also wishing to find new nuances to this person. Undeniably, these efforts are also to check for skeletons a positive fall out of which is the reinforcing and validating of the commitment made to the relationship. As experts, they share their life experiences/lessons to support and bolster the other and to find other streams of confluence. This sharing becomes an opportunity for each to enact the role of a moderator encouraging the other to explore and dissect what is shared while suggesting different angles from which things can be looked at. Interestingly, both are also the audience, avidly consuming what is shared.

With the freshness of the story comes the desire for social approval. The lovers individually report this moment with closest friends and family. These people provide expert opinion and dissect snippets of conversation and incidents that one half of the loving pair share with them. On account of their experience-lived or otherwise, they suggest the next steps that need to be taken to their friend without actually meeting the other half of the duo. These discussions and viewpoints add to the excitement in the stories and to the enthusiasm of the pair.

Soon, the story enters the next phase when these experts become the audience. The lovers go public and introduce themselves as a couple to the world. In other words - ‘ the word becomes flesh and blood and dwells amongst them’. The audience plays the role of a fact-checker corroborating the information about the other given to them by one part of the loving duo. The freshness of this news event is enhanced by the lovers PDAs, quick surreptitious snogs, each telling the others story and so on. All are surprised, including the couple, when they inadvertently complete each others sentences or share a thought simultaneously. This is taken as unassailable proof of the deep love that the lovebirds share.

This is the time when the experts turned audience inadvertently become closer by imbibing in the common delight of watching this pair. Consequently they begin discussing the love birds amongst themselves in private. They generate and consume news of the lovebirds away from the lovebirds. Rumours and gossip float around as all wonder about the credibility, worthiness of each individual of this pair and their viability together. When the grapevine brings such talk to the ears of the pair it is vehemently denied and doubts are cast on the source of such tattle even as motives are questioned.

The transformation includes a chosen few becoming moderators. Their role involves everything from being a sounding board to mediating a tiff between the lovers to stemming the flow of gossip.

In time the lovebirds find that there are no new angles to be found. The kind of response that their first holiday together or the first cake one baked for the other elicited is not matched for similar events. The freshness of the love, the thrill which the lovers felt and which was shared with the audience cum experts is long past. Even as this love gets relegated to ‘less important’, the lovers still generate news between themselves which is consumed by all. Such events are piecemeal, far and few between and does not sustain the main news which is now declining in novelty and news worthiness.

The audience disengages and disinterest sets in as the lovebirds have nothing more to offer.  The moderators and experts whittle down to a few with the lovebirds  having nothing more to delve into. Regular news of increments, examinations, office politics etc regain lost space in the lives of everyone. The lives of the new couple also get consumed with the everyday. Eventually, in the natural course of things the couple become the newest members of the audience waiting for the next piece of news to surprise, enthrall and engage them.