Agape Love – The Highest Form of Love

In an interesting discussion on Twitter about the various forms of Love – a friend mentioned “Agape Love”...

This reminded me of a blog post I had written long back on the topic of Agape Love – The Highest Form of Love 

So – Dear Reader – let me delve deep into my blog and pull out my piece on Agape Love – and repost it for you to read. 

Of course – the “person” who gave me “Agape Love” – my pet dog Sherry – she is no more in this world – my beloved pet Sherry passed away to her heavenly abode 3 years ago in December 2014 – and maybe – she is waiting for me at the Rainbow Bridge 

Now that I have told you the context – here is my piece on Agape Love...

AGAPE LOVE – THE HIGHEST FORM OF LOVE

Musings of a Veteran “Lover”

By

VIKRAM KARVE  

PART 1 - IF YOU NEED A FRIEND GET A DOG

I still remember the apt quote from Gordon Gekko (Michael Douglas) in the classic movie WALL STREET:   

“ If you need a friend – get a dog ”

It is true – if you need a genuine loving friend just get a dog.

Tell me – what is the highest form of love...?

I’ll tell you – it is called Agape Love – the totally pure and selfless love of one person for another.

Do you want to experience this highest form of love – Agape Love...?

Simple – just get yourself a pet dog – a nice cute little puppy – and make a commitment to look after it as your own child.

You will learn The Art of Friendship from your dog.

There is nothing to surpass the strong affection, warm attachment, unselfish loyalty, total trust and true friendship of a pet dog who will love you unconditionally for its entire life.

You will love to come home to the enthusiastic greeting and genuine welcome that your dog will give you each time you return home which will fill you with love and joy.

Your pet dog will give you loyal jovial companionship and unquestioning affection forever, fill you with buoyant happiness and your life will become bright and breezy.

Remember: 

your girlfriend or boyfriend may dump you 

your spouse may divorce you 

your children may abandon you 

your parents may disown you 

your relatives may distance themselves from you 

your colleagues may shun you 

your neighbours may ostracize you 

but – your dog will always love you, be loyal to you and never leave your side 

yes 

you may get rid of your dog – but your dog will always love you and never leave you of its own accord – and your dog will never forget you till his dying day...

In fact – investing your time and love in your dog is much more rewarding than wasting time, money and emotional effort indulging in unrequited romances and unfulfillingrelationships.

Once the dog joins your family, invest your love and time to build a special bond that only a dog can offer and see how your dog makes you learn and practice the Art of Loving and the Art of Friendship.

Just go ahead. Get a pet dog. You will be happy you did and your life will change forever.

There is plenty of choice – whether you live in the city or the mofussil, in an apartment or bungalow, whatever your lifestyle, age and state of health, there is always a type of dog which will suit your personality and lifestyle. 

You need not be too fussy about pure breeds etc - even a rough and tough well cared for mongrel is a delight and will shower you with love. 

In Part 2 of this article, I will give you a few tips on Pet Parenting once you get a dog in your life.

 

Here is a picture of my Doberman X Caravan Hound Girl Sherry (earlier the vets used to call her “Doberman X” but now they call her a more dignified Indian Hound).

Sherry says a loving Bow Wow to you.

PART 2 - PET DOG PARENTING TIPS

Now that you are thinking of getting a pet dog here are some pet parenting tips. 

Remember that it is going to be a genuine long-term commitment and your life will change forever.

The pet dog is going to be a new member of your family.

Before you bring the pet dog into your home and your life it would be worthwhile to read this:

TEN PET DOG PARENTING TIPS

(Your Pet Dog Speaks to You)

1. My life is likely to last ten to fifteen years. I want your company always. Any separation from you will be painful for me. You must spend plenty of time with me. Remember that when you get me to your home and into your life and family.

 

2. Give me time to understand what you want of me. Be patient. Tell me. Learn my language. Teach me your language. I will learn fast and obey you and try to please you always.

3. Place your trust in me – it is crucial for my well-being. I will always be steadfastly loyal to you.

4. Please don't be angry at me for long, and please don't lock me up as punishment. You have your work, your entertainment, your family members and your friends. I have only you.

5. Talk to me sometimes. Even if I don't understand your words, I understand your voice when it's speaking to me. I will quickly learn and understand all your emotions and body language too.

6. Always treat me with care and love. I will never forget it.

7. Remember before you hit me that I have teeth that could easily crush the bones in your hands, but that I choose not to bite you. Even if I am naughty never hit me. I will be contrite even if bring a serious look on your face.

8. Before you scold me for being uncooperative, obstinate or lazy, ask yourself if something might be bothering me. Perhaps I am not getting the right food, or I have been out in the sun or in the cold too long, or my heart is getting old and weak.

9. Take care of me when I get old. You too, will grow old.

10. Go with me on difficult journeys, especially my last journey. Never say: 'I can't bear to watch it', 'let it happen in my absence' or 'I am tired of you'. Everything is easier for me if you are there. Remember, I Love You.

If you are thinking of getting a dog into your home, remember that your dog will be a family member like your own children and you are you are making a commitment to that dog for its lifetime, and will have to look after your dog probably even more than your own children.

Dogs are incredibly loyal and are simply happy just being around you and give you unconditional joy, love and friendship. 

Your dog is your best friend and confidante. 

Remember that – while you can hide your emotions from another human – you cannot hide your emotions from your dog. 

I will like to reiterate once more:

your girlfriend or boyfriend may dump you, 

your spouse may divorce you, 

your children may abandon you, 

your parents may disown you, 

your relatives may distance themselves from you, 

your colleagues may shun you, 

your neighbours may ostracize you, 

but – your dog will always love you – be loyal to you and never leave your side 

(yes – you may try to get rid of your dog – but your dog will always love you and never leave you of its own accord – and your dog will never forget you till his dying day).

So, once the dog joins your family, invest your love and time to build a special bond that only a dog can offer. 

Build a long-term permanent and unique relationship with your dog. 

You will experience Agape Love, unconditional love of the highest order, and enjoy a loyal friendship which you have never experienced with human beings.

You don't have to go in for a fashionable expensive breed. 

You can adopt a stray dog or a mongrel or a mixed breed - they are more hardy and tough than pure breeds. Groom your pet properly, take it to a vet, inoculate it and make it healthy, give a mongrel puppy a home. 

Yes, get a dog. You will be happy you did. 

VIKRAM KARVE

Copyright © Vikram Karve 
1. If you share this post, please give due credit to the author Vikram Karve
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© vikram karve., all rights reserved.

Disclaimer:

1. This story is a spoof, satire, pure fiction, just for fun and humor, no offence is meant to anyone, so take it with a pinch of salt and have a laugh.

2. All Stories in this Blog are a work of fiction. Events, Places, Settings and Incidents narrated in the stories are a figment of my imagination. The characters do not exist and are purely imaginary. Any resemblance to persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.

Copyright Notice:

No part of this Blog may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical including photocopying or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the Blog Author Vikram Karve who holds the copyright.

Copyright © Vikram Karve (all rights reserved)

© vikram karve., all rights reserved.

Extract from my article AGAPE LOVE earlier posted first online by me Vikram Karve more than 9 years ago in 2008 and reposted a number of times inlcuding at urls: http://karvediat.blogspot.in/2010/11/if-you-need-friend-get-dog-and.html and http://karvediat.blogspot.in/2011/12/why-you-must-adopt-pet-dog.html and https://www.speakingtree.in/blog/agape-love-the-highest-form-of-love and http://karvediat.blogspot.in/2012/07/pet-dog.html and http://karvediat.blogspot.in/2012/08/happy-friendship-day.html and http://karvediat.blogspot.in/2015/04/rip-sherry-karve-09-april-2006-17.html and http://karvediat.blogspot.in/2016/04/remembering-sherry.html etc

27 MAY 2013 - THE MISSING ENGAGEMENT RING

Blog Fiction Story No. 45

27 MAY 2013

THE MISSING ENGAGEMENT RING

Short Fiction - A Love Story

By

VIKRAM KARVE

I found the envelope hidden at the bottom of her jewellery box, below her ornaments, when I was clearing her private cupboard.

The envelope was open. There was a letter inside:

Dear Anita,

Since you frankly told me everything about you and George last evening I could not sleep all night.

I thought over the matter. I also talked to my parents.

I have decided to break my engagement with George.

I think this will be best for all of us.

I am enclosing inside this envelope the engagement ring that George gave me.

This engagement ring now rightfully belongs to you.

I wish you a happy married life with George.

I have decided to go abroad to my aunt’s place in London for a few months to cool off and get over this sudden disappointment.

My parents will inform George and his parents about the broken engagement.

Yours sincerely,

Rita

27 May 1963

Yes, it was Rita’s handwriting – no doubt about it.

How can I ever forget her typical cursive handwriting style?

And below her signature, as was her typical habit, Rita had meticulously written the date: 27 May 1963

Dear Reader: You guessed right – I am George.

Today is the 27^th of May 2013.

50 years have passed since Rita wrote this letter which I am seeing for the first time in my life now.

Till this day, I did not know that Anita had met Rita on the 27^th of May 1963, just one week after my engagement with Rita.

I don’t know what terrible lies Anita told Rita.

Anita must have told Rita such devious and vicious lies about me that it made Rita take the extreme step of breaking our engagement and dumping me so cruelly.

I can never forget how stunned, emotionally wrecked and vulnerable I was when Rita broke our engagement and dumped me brutally.

I almost had a nervous breakdown.

Yes, I was so emotionally devastated and vulnerable that I naively walked into Anita’s compassionate and welcoming arms.

And just imagine – all these years I thought that it was my wife Anita who was such a caring and kind-hearted woman that she had rescued me from my heart-breaking depression and pulled me out of the abyss and given me a new life.

Yes, every day of all these 50 years I was deeply grateful to Anita for her act of kindness.

I thought that Anita had done me a big favour by marrying me.

But now I know that Anita was the devious woman who had intentionally torpedoed and sabotaged my engagement with Rita.

Anita had made me emotionally vulnerable and trapped me into marriage.

I hate Anita – bloody scheming bitch …

My blood boils …

But I control the train of my thoughts – there is no point thinking ill of the dead.

But what exactly did Anita tell Rita?

I will never know.

Anita is dead.

And Rita – she disappeared from my life forever.

50 years have passed.

Maybe Rita is dead too.

And even if I do meet Rita, what is the point of asking her now.

Will she believe what I have to say?

It is all over. 

I will never know. 

I will have to live with this burden for the few remaining years of my life.

But hey, where is the engagement ring I had given Rita?

It was an exclusive diamond-studded solid-gold engagement ring which had cost me a fortune. 

Rita’s letter says that the ring is in the envelope.

I look inside the envelope.

There is no ring in the envelope.

I search Anita’s jewellery box, her cupboard, everywhere – but I cannot find the ring anywhere.

Anita must have sold it – yes, that cheap woman must have sold the expensive engagement ring.

What a terrible woman?

Not content with breaking my engagement, Anita even sells the engagement ring.

How wicked can a woman get?

And just imagine – all these 50 years I thought Anita was such a loving and caring wife.

VIKRAM KARVE
Copyright © Vikram Karve 
Vikram Karve has asserted his right under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 to be identified as the author of this work. 
© vikram karve., all rights reserved. 

Did you like reading this story?
I am sure you will like all the 27 stories in my book  COCKTAIL an anthology of Short Fiction.
To order your COCKTAIL please click any of the links below:
http://www.flipkart.com/cocktail-vikram-karve-short-stories-book-8191091844?affid=nme
http://www.indiaplaza.in/cocktail-vikram-karve/books/9788191091847.htm
http://www.apkpublishers.com/books/short-stories/cocktail-by-vikram-karve.html
COCKTAIL ebook
If you prefer reading ebooks on Kindle or your ebook reader, please order Cocktail E-book by clicking the links below:
AMAZON
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B005MGERZ6
SMASHWORDS
http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/87925

Foodie Book:  Appetite for a Stroll
If your are a Foodie you will like my book of Food Adventures APPETITE FOR A STROLL. Do order a copy from FLIPKART:
http://www.flipkart.com/appetite-stroll-vikram-karve/8190690094-gw23f9mr2o

About Vikram Karve

A creative person with a zest for life, Vikram Karve is a retired Naval Officer turned full time writer and blogger. Educated at IIT Delhi, IIT (BHU) Varanasi, The Lawrence School Lovedale and Bishops School Pune, Vikram has published two books: COCKTAIL a collection of fiction short stories about relationships (2011) and APPETITE FOR A STROLL a book of Foodie Adventures (2008) and is currently working on his novel and a book of vignettes and an anthology of short fiction. An avid blogger, he has written a number of fiction short stories and creative non-fiction articles on a variety of topics including food, travel, philosophy, academics, technology, management, health, pet parenting, teaching stories and self help in magazines and published a large number of professional  and academic research papers in journals and edited in-house journals and magazines for many years, before the advent of blogging. Vikram has taught at a University as a Professor for 15 years and now teaches as a visiting faculty and devotes most of his time to creative writing and blogging. Vikram Karve lives in Pune India with his family and muse - his pet dog Sherry with whom he takes long walks thinking creative thoughts.

Vikram Karve Academic and Creative Writing Journal: http://karvediat.blogspot.com
Professional Profile Vikram Karve: http://www.linkedin.com/in/karve
Vikram Karve Facebook Page:  https://www.facebook.com/vikramkarve
Vikram Karve Creative Writing Blog: http://vikramkarve.sulekha.com/blog/posts.htm
Email: vikramwamankarve@gmail.com

      

© vikram karve., all rights reserved.

 

I AM MARRIED TO THE NAVY

I AM MARRIED TO THE NAVY

A Naval Yarn

By

VIKRAM KARVE

I once knew a very ambitious naval officer.

He was a total careerist and had no other interests.

His favourite line was: “I am married to the navy”.

He would have been happy to remain a bachelor all his life and focus all his attention totally on his naval career and achieve his sole aim of becoming an Admiral.

But his parents insisted that he get married so he agreed to see a girl.

He honestly told the girl about his career ambitions.

He clearly told her that his career would come first above everything else and emphatically quoted his favourite dialogue: “I am married to the navy”.

The girl liked this career-conscious officer mainly since he did not have any vices - he was a strict teetotaller and non-smoker - he did not touch alcohol or tobacco - a rarity in the navy those days.

Yes, as far as other major and minor vices were concerned too, he was quite unlike most other sailors.  

She thought he would change after marriage.

She was sure he would “accommodate” her in his “marriage” with the navy even if he treated her as the “other woman”.

She was wrong.

This devoted sailor was strictly a “one woman man”.

He was so loyally and devotedly “married to the navy” that he had no time for “other women” like his lawfully wedded human wife.

Fed up of being neglected, she (the “other woman”) walked out of the marriage so that her husband could devote himself to his “first wife” (Navy).

(By the way, in contrast to the above story, I have seen some navy wives who actively help their naval husbands achieve success in their naval careers by willingly playing second fiddle and such ambitious naval wives are ready to go to any extent to promote the careers of their husbands)

Well, that was the Naval Yarn.

Now I am facing a similar predicament.

Till I was in the navy I had only one woman in my marriage and that was my lawfully wedded wife

(Unlike the careerist naval officer, I was not desperately “married” to the navy).

But ever since I retired from the navy and became a writer I am in a quandary.

Sometimes I feel the same way as the famous writer Anton Chekhov (a doctor by profession) who so aptly expressed his dilemma in a letter to a friend:

“Medicine is my lawful wife, and literature is my mistress. 

When I get fed up with one, I spend the night with the other. 

Though it is irregular, it is less boring this way, and besides, neither of them loses anything through my infidelity”.

In my case, since I have retired from the navy, my wife is my lawful wife and writing is my mistress.

Or is the other way round?

I really don’t know.

It is difficult to live a dual life.

I never had a mistress before so I really don’t know how to simultaneously handle a “wife” and a “mistress”.

Ever since I acquired this “mistress” of writing, my wife has started cribbing. She hates my “mistress”.

But now that I am bitten by the “writing bug” I like my “mistress” deeply and I cannot get rid of her.

I don’t want to get rid of my much married wife too.

Maybe my wife may dump me as she hates my writing.

She may give me an ultimatum to get rid of my “writing mistress” saying that there can be only one “woman” in a marriage.

I love my wife and I love my “mistress” too.

Now I am soon going to start writing my ambitious novel so I will have to devote a lot of attention to my “mistress”.

How will my wife react?

It going to be a difficult life.

Will I be able to “handle” both my wife and my “mistress”?

Can they both co-exist?

Or will I have to get rid of one.

I don’t know what to do.

I seek your advice, especially if you are one of those lucky ones who have the dexterity to simultaneously handle a wife and a mistress.

Please tell me what to do.

VIKRAM KARVE
Copyright © Vikram Karve 2013
Vikram Karve has asserted his right under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 to be identified as the author of this work. 
© vikram karve., all rights reserved. 

NB:

No part of this Blog may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical including photocopying or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the Blog Author Vikram Karve who holds the copyright.

Copyright © Vikram Karve 2013. All Rights Reserved

Did you like reading this story?
I am sure you will like all the 27 stories in my book  COCKTAIL an anthology of Short Fiction.
To order your COCKTAIL please click any of the links below:
http://www.flipkart.com/cocktail-vikram-karve-short-stories-book-8191091844?affid=nme
http://www.indiaplaza.in/cocktail-vikram-karve/books/9788191091847.htm
http://www.apkpublishers.com/books/short-stories/cocktail-by-vikram-karve.html
COCKTAIL ebook
If you prefer reading ebooks on Kindle or your ebook reader, please order Cocktail E-book by clicking the links below:
AMAZON
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B005MGERZ6
SMASHWORDS
http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/87925

Foodie Book:  Appetite for a Stroll
If your are a Foodie you will like my book of Food Adventures APPETITE FOR A STROLL. Do order a copy from FLIPKART:
http://www.flipkart.com/appetite-stroll-vikram-karve/8190690094-gw23f9mr2o

About Vikram Karve

A creative person with a zest for life, Vikram Karve is a retired Naval Officer turned full time writer and blogger. Educated at IIT Delhi, IIT (BHU) Varanasi, The Lawrence School Lovedale and Bishops School Pune, Vikram has published two books: COCKTAIL a collection of fiction short stories about relationships (2011) and APPETITE FOR A STROLL a book of Foodie Adventures (2008) and is currently working on his novel and a book of vignettes and an anthology of short fiction. An avid blogger, he has written a number of fiction short stories and creative non-fiction articles on a variety of topics including food, travel, philosophy, academics, technology, management, health, pet parenting, teaching stories and self help in magazines and published a large number of professional  and academic research papers in journals and edited in-house journals and magazines for many years, before the advent of blogging. Vikram has taught at a University as a Professor for 15 years and now teaches as a visiting faculty and devotes most of his time to creative writing and blogging. Vikram Karve lives in Pune India with his family and muse - his pet dog Sherry with whom he takes long walks thinking creative thoughts.

Vikram Karve Academic and Creative Writing Journal: http://karvediat.blogspot.com
Professional Profile Vikram Karve: http://www.linkedin.com/in/karve
Vikram Karve Facebook Page:  https://www.facebook.com/vikramkarve
Vikram Karve Creative Writing Blog: http://vikramkarve.sulekha.com/blog/posts.htm
Email: vikramwamankarve@gmail.com

Twitter: @vikramkarve

      

© vikram karve., all rights reserved.