The fairytale ending we all crave for — and they lived happily ever after — must entail a dab of unadulterated love, right? But what does such strong, unwavering dedication and love look like in real life? Let’s try and understand just what unadulterated love means and what it looks like in the real world.
What Does Unadulterated Love Mean?
The meaning of the word unadulterated is “something that is not mixed or added with other substances, in turn making it pure, complete and absolute. ” In the language of love, unadulterated love means the absence of ego in your relationship. The absence of any ulterior motives, the absence of anything but pure, considerate, thoughtful love. When two people experience unadulterated love, meaning they experience a holistic, fulfilling love towards each other, it is the kind of love that makes the relationship seem pure. Looking at them, it seems like it was always that easy to achieve. One might even call it the ‘Pragma’ type of love — one which lasts despite the many obstacles life eventually throws your way. Unadulterated love does not experience anger that causes rifts and changes the levels of affection, which you may have experienced in the past. It is the kind of love that will not let the petty issues get in the way of something so astoundingly beautiful and fulfilling, a soulmate with whom you can spend the rest of your life. Does pure, unadulterated love exist in real life? Although the “unadulterated love” meaning can vary from couple to couple, there’s no doubt it really does exist. Through the following story, I’ll tell you of the time I witnessed pure unadulterated love, but was too young to understand its importance. Read on to see how in times of despair, love prevailed.
What unadulterated love looks like
The sparse hair – meager remnants of ravaging chemotherapy – were brushed back neatly from her forehead. The lines of pain on her face were smoothed over with Yardley’s lilac face powder. The dull eyes showed up brighter against the kohl outlines extended outwards from the corners, in an approximation of the ‘fish-shaped’ eye makeup so popular years ago. The thick gold mangalsutra weighed down the weak neck. A red scarf was wound around her face, camouflaging the papery skin stretched over the sunken cheeks. Wafts of perfume masked the ripe smell of disease permeating from her skin. The bindi on her forehead was a scarlet dot between the thin eyebrows. Raj slowly underlined it with a small white dash of ‘udi’ – sacred ash – carefully brought back from the temple, with the hope of infusing the power of prayers into a fast ebbing life. This happened over twenty years ago. Kala died a couple of days after, slipping into a coma brought on by the metastasis of cancer. Raj died four years later, of what was suspected to be a heart attack, but in reality, was probably a broken heart. And this scene has long since been forgotten, except by the fifteen-year-old who happened to witness it. It didn’t impress me much then – older romances never do, when seen through younger eyes. Back then, it just seemed cheesy and embarrassing. Now, however, I can see the beauty and pathos behind this little byplay. My grandfather did not say those words because he was sorry for my grandmother, or because he wanted to make her feel better…he truly did feel she was beautiful. I realize now, that there was no trace of sorrow, pity, or commiseration in his statement – it was simply unadulterated love. Now, I am old enough to realize that a love that can see beauty in a face emaciated by sickness…a love that stands unaltered by the passage of time, disease and death, must have been the rarest and strongest kind of love, indeed. That was the day when I truly understood what unadulterated love’s meaning really is.
