Romance - Rittu, Sarath


Romance in its essence of literature encompasses accounts of chivalry and adventure. The youthful saga embracing bravery and courage, simultaneously combined in lyric and love has always been the 'go to' for most of us. From the adventurous mishaps of Gulliver and David Crusoe to the blooming romance between Romeo and Juliet, tarts of the masculine hero rescuing the princess locked in a tower guarded by a blood thirsty dragon- everything  collectively becomes the genre of romance. However, the romantic period brought in all notions embracing the individual 'I'- emotions and feelings and psyche mattered more than ever.

An evening surrounded the Book Club with this quota of love. Love and romance from the borders of man and woman hunching a walk by the Eiffel Tower, the arena of self-love and acceptance, the affectionate crush among the school sweethearts to the modern assembling of the homosexual romance. We discussed a number of works in the broader genre of romance.

John Green’s fictional works 'Fault in our stars', 'Looking for Alaska' and 'Paper Towns' ; Robert James Waller expands on the story of a middle-aged woman meeting the love of her life outside of her marriage, in his novel 'The Bridges of Madison County' started the way of our discussion. However, this work was adopted by Clint Eastwood for the film known under the same name.
Neruda’s poems becomes an essential ingredient for any discussion about romance in literature. Some of his poems were mentioned in the session, followed by the recital of a few lines.
A mention of Khalil Gibran’s works are inevitable considering the topic and some lyrics from ‘The Prophet’ where the prophet speaks about love, were also read out.

Onto the Indian writers of the South, Vaikom Muhammed Basheer’s novel ‘Baalyakalasakhi’ and Kamal’s movie ‘Meghamalhar’ were some of the works among the rest that tied romance to the ground in the Malayalam movie industry were also mentioned in the session.


Distinguishing terms and stereotypes of 'who' could love and 'whom' to love ,were the two works 'Call me by your Name' and 'Lolita'. ‘Call me by your name’, written by André Aciman beautifully portrays a homosexual romantic relationship, later made into an award winning movie. 'Lolita' by Vladimir Nabokov was even more awakening to the then audience and readers. A college professor falling in love with a teenager expanded the boundaries of age and ponders on discussions such as pedophilia and others such as 'what age is the right age to love?'.

Love is eternal. It is like an endless river. It flows through time. One needs to love and to be loved. And you cannot keep it away from yourself. As Neruda said, “You can cut all the flowers but you cannot keep Spring from coming.”

To follow a list of reads on love and life, we have the selected good reads. Till next Sunday:) .

'Sun is not the only star' - Nicola Yoon
'Fault in our stars', 'Looking for Alaska', ' Paper Towns' - John Green
'The Bridges of Madison County' - Robert James Waller
'Balya kaala sakhi' - Basheer
'Sons and lovers' - Lawrence
'The unbearable likeness of being' - Milan Kundera
'Lolita' - Vladimir Nabokov
'Eleonor and Park' - Rainbow Rowell
'All the ugly and wonderful things' - Bryn Greenwood
Pablo Neruda’s collection of love poems
‘Prophet’, ‘Broken Wings’ - Khahlil Gibran
‘Call me by your name’ - André Aciman

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