"It is all about sex! The primitive desire to mate compounded by the basal lust of man to seek pleasure." I looked at the toad like face peering at me from behind the thick glasses and who threatened to overthrow Vatsyayan from his hallowed throne as the ultimate authority on such matters in my mind.I retorted ,"but surely that does not apply to those who are in love.My father and mother fell in love after they were married.What about those who go in for love marriages and for the live in relations so popular in the modern times? All those odes and symphonies for love both lost and won , don't they mean anything? What about those Bills and Moore romances , those movies of Shahrukh and Kajol? Hell what about pretty woman and My 50 first dates?" The toad lowered his glasses and peered at me intently, it was like a metal detector probing into my very gizzards. I shifted uneasily in my seat under his stare which burnt me more than the glare of the midday sun. He reclined back in his seat and took the cigarette from the hand of Ganesh, who was evidently enjoying this attack by the Gargoyle he had brought upon our head. The philospher exhaled thick smoky circles which gave him an even more intimidating persona, before continuing with his revelation ," it is nothing but plain hypocricy. We are all animals distorted even more by that fake sense of social conscience. We cannot accept the inherent lust and therefore wrap in one in the wrappings of either divine duty, social contract or love. If biological affinity and natural attraction count as love then why distinguish it at all?"There he spit on the greasy dirty mat of our hostel room with a distrust and disrespect akin to that new savior of the nation, before continuing," even a cow feels bonded to her calf and even sheep that stay in a herd bother about each other,but it is we who feel the need to devise terms such as friendship because we want to prove the point that we are not like other animals.All human emotions are either cloaked primitive instincts or forced social anomalies. The print media as well as the other forms cash in upon our this illusion.As for love what happens when a partner leaves the other one.Off course we fret but that is because we want to reassure ourselves that it was love and not just plain necessity or habit.Some even indulge in rash practices like cutting their nerves or attempting to commit suicide but that is either because they are too much absorbed into the mirage of love or because they are mentally weak."He stopped here to look around at our faces and what he saw written on our faces obviously pleased him as he took another long puff of the cigarette and continued,"why do you think people practice adultery ?They do that when they are no longer able to keep the truth buried under the weight of conscience. Men fall for the scent of any woman ,her gait, her gaze or even a waving of her hair because that is natural.Women on the other hand are complex , they tend to exhibit their need for support ,their tenderness and the confusion in their benelovent hearts.They can never accept that all they want is a bun in their oven and somebody to whom they can relate all their petty squabbles.If your better half is far from you then don't be sure about the fact that your partner will sleep alone!"He signed off with a warning that left a distinctive unease in all our hearts specially me whose girl friend was separated by a distance of no less than two oceans.The relentless smoking was not a solace at all.