Think beyond sex. Think beyond love... at least human love. Love, much misunderstood and over exposed though it is, exists.

Love is a connection, a bond that transcends the sexual, the materialistic and the calculations of practical logic to translate into relationships that defy conventional norms. This Valentine's Day, Femina celebrates these unusual passions of the mind

"MEETING HER WAS LIKE FALLING IN LOVE FOREVER."
I have never met The Mother. She died long before I was born. However, the first time I 'really' got a glimpse, both of her character and of an abstract vision we call 'love', was during a windy evening on the promenade at Pondicherry.

At dusk, we were sitting against the backdrop of the Bay of Bengal as the sun entertained us with a spectacular display of defiant colours before it reluctantly beat a retreat.

As the burnt caramels and purples merged with the horizon, I asked Veenapani Chawla what The Mother was like; what made her decide to stay on in Pondicherry?

And she said, "Meeting her was like falling in love forever."

The simplicity of this answer contrasted with the cascade of emotions that ran through her face in that single moment - from passion, to devotion, to delight, to affection, to caring, to infatuation, and finally, to a sense of the sublime. That evening, she spoke into the night about this 'love' affair that has rooted her in Pondicherry ever since. It is still so pure and real in her mind... none of the passions that arise today from commerce, political issues, rights being fought or religion. This love she spoke about had no agenda.

The Mother has both humbled and intrigued me since that evening. It is rare to find people who are still so loved long after they have died, and who continue to be so deeply unique that they cannot be replaced or duplicated. I can only suppose it's because their 'love' lives on timelessly as their real legacy and in the spirit and human examples of people who are all in some way similarly unique and special because of this love they have 'seen' with or through The Mother.

And the greatest tribute to her memory is that people like Veenapani, and Jhumurdi, (a teacher at the Pondicherry Ashram School who was brought up as a young girl by The Mother), are able to reflect the soul of The Mother and pass this extraordinary sense of love to complete strangers who may never have known or cared otherwise... like me.
By Meenakshi Doctor

EVERY MAN SHOULD HAVE A FATHER-IN-LAW LIKE THAT
When Mark Twain wanted to marry the well-bred Olivia Langdon, her father asked for references. Twain asked a few friends, all of whom obliged. All of them also attacked his reputation, saying he was likely to end in a drunkard's grave and suchlike. Mr Langdon asked Twain, "Don't you have any friends?"
"Apparently not," Twain replied.
"I shall be your friend then," said Langdon and gave his consent. He did not regret it. Samuel Clemens proved a good and faithful husband to Olivia.

SHE SAID WHAT?
This is actor Dennis Hopper's version and we haven't heard his wife Michelle Phillips' side of things. But apparently, she left him and marched off to cohabit with Leonard Cohen. She called him only eight days later. He told her: "I love you. I need you. "She said: "Have you ever considered suicide?"

SHORT STUFF
The actress Katharine Hepburn married a socialite called Ludlow Ogden Smith on December12, 1928. By January 2, 1929, it was all over and she had returned to the theatre.

WILL YOU, HOW?
Actress and singer Lillian Russell ran around with multimillionaire salesman Diamond Jim Brady for years. Then one day, he poured a million dollars in cash into her lap and asked her to marry him. She turned him down because it would ruin their beautiful friendship.

A PROPOSAL
Queen Victoria was nothing if not direct. Faced with the need to produce an heir and unmarried, she summoned her cousin Prince Albert and announced that she wanted to marry him and would be "too happy" if he consented. Later, she wrote in a letter to her aunt, the Duchess of Gloucester, that she had to take the initiative because Albert would "never have presumed to take such a liberty as to propose to the Queen of England."