Love in time of War

Growing up we used to frequently visit to the neighborhood supermarket just in front of our building, I had a friend around 3 years older than I was ,the supermarket had a nice greeting card section that also stocked posters, my friend was always on the lookout for war time love posters ..at the time I preferred posters with the comic character Garfield on them ,and didn’t really get what the fuss was over black and white posters with the people doing nothing more exciting than running behind a departing train ( possibly an American lady saying goodbye to her love ,who was off to fight a war)…

But thinking back ..there was something to those stories ..imagine loved ones parting not sure if they’ll ever see each other again( when ‘I’ll never ever see you again’ meant just that… pre VOIP, Instant messaging , improved international travel ,and Orkut accounts.)…now when journeys around the world seem like no big deal;imagine the long sea journeys from one continent to the other to meet your loved one ….. love in the South Pacific, survivors of the Holocaust falling in love ;reuniting with their loved ones, or others who fell in love with their saviors;
The case where Anne Frank and Peter Van Daan could not explore their relationship further because a they passed away before their time , when in times of so much strife and tragedy people found time for love, when one of the sisters from fiddler in the roof (Jewish) fell in love with a Russian Non-Jew around the time of the Russian Revolution .. in the Sound of Music.. love happens at the time of impending Nazi occupation.


I know we have wars happening in the present age as well….but I feel right now it isn’t as encompassing and the effects are not felt directly by as many people as it was then…not that I’m asking folks to go to Iraq. I’m just thinking how lucky we are that right now when we are lucky enough to find true love ( which should probably should be in abundance given the war and relative tragedy free times we live in ), the reason we have for love not reaching fruition is “our parents will object”.. amongst others . I know the stories above are exceptions… and a lot more arranged marriages were happening at the time…..but even then…………………….

On a seperate note, as a child I used to imagine how it would be if I were born at another time in the past and in another place than I actually was…some of these time periods include… Prince Edward Island ,Canada at the beginning of the 20th century …just because my favorite books growing up.. Anne of Green Gables and the Avonlea series were based there………….. maybe as a cowgirl in the American Wild West….before the turn of the past century … I guess the United Kingdom fit in in my imaginings somewhere as well( more fictional though, based on my Enid Blytons’).
As you can see I was rather influenced by the books and TV programs I watched at the time .I have to confess I never wanted to be born a 100 years ago in my native place in India …some how the thought of child/baby marriage doesn’t particularly appeal to me…I’m quite happy being an Indian woman born the time I was…