Love IRL: It's All In The Peels
Love, they say, is an action verb. Not a grand declaration, but a quiet, consistent effort. In the search of love, we often overlook the simple acts of affection. Peeling a pomegranate, an orange, or sugarcane isn’t just about providing sustenance; it’s about offering a piece of yourself, a moment of dedicated care. It’s a reminder that love resides in the details, in the choices we make for those we cherish.
I will peel a thousand pomegranates, oranges and sugarcanes for I love to see your face light up everytime the sweetness brings a smile on it.
We all have a different love language. For some it’s receiving a silly gift about an inside joke, for some it’s quality time and sometimes something as simple as words of affirmation from their loved one’s are enough to warm people’s hearts. Now imagine going to college or work leaving your home messy, clothes unwashed and dishes undone and coming back to a clean home, folded laundry and spotless dishes. This is the epitome of love languages.
It’s often said that love isn’t about words, but actions. Acts of Service is wonderful, not just because You’re lazy but also because it shows love and care through actions. It shows love is not just spoken, but shown. Peeling pomegranates is a dreadful task and to think that someone would go through that gruelling process, just so you could taste the seeds is a feeling that gives you butterflies. It’s like sowing the seeds just so your loved one can reap the benefits. Taking out quality time of your life just so you can save and enhance the quality of your loved ones time is oh so noble, isn’t it?
Acts of service gives you countless ways to say ‘I love you’. It’s a feeling that does not necessarily have to be romantic. It covers everything from ‘your mom bringing you a plate of cut fruits after an intense fight’ to ‘cooking dinner for your roommate when it’s their turn to cook’. It’s a feeling you get when you come back to an organized closet after leaving your mom alone with a messy one. Every fold of the laundry, every bite of the cooked food and every peeled slice of an orange has the scent of love.
In a world where love has caused wars, built empires and demanded sacrifices, a plate of peeled orange slices is something that one prefers. Even though peeling pomegranates is a task that requires patience, the stains it leaves on one’s heart are permanent. Every peeled strand of a sugarcane is an expression of love. It is always the things as little as pomegranate seeds that matter the most. Little acts of love make your life beautiful. Grand gestures more often than not come once in a while but a plate of cut fruits waiting on the dining table or to your bed reveals simplicity’s hidden details.
You talk of bringing me the moon but the slice of an orange peeled by you is the only crescent my heart desires.
Through movies and TV shows the idea of big grand gestures fixing everything that has been implanted in our minds makes love materialistic. Grand gestures are wonderful but they, solely, cannot define love. A dinner in a Michelin star restaurant is just as beautiful as chai at a tapri. The only difference is that the restaurant will see the best version of you whereas the tapri has seen the unfiltered version. A forehead kiss, a helping hand and sweetness of sugarcane, ain’t it all a heart needs to survive?
Love expresses itself through thought.
Peeling fruits isn’t merely an act of service but rather, a silent statement, a statement that says ‘I love you more than the pores on the orange peels, more than the strands of a sugarcane as permanently and forever as pomegranate stains’. Little moments of smiles make life whole. In fact these little moments are what they call life. A cabinet always full of your favorite cereal, a vase full of your favorite flowers and a plate of your favorite fruit are things that hold inexpressible joy.
Doing the little things needs an enormous amount of thought and attentiveness. To know how much a loved one would appreciate an ironed shirt, one needs to understand their hate for creases. To know how much a loved one would appreciate a clean house, one needs to understand their hate for mess. The personalization of these acts is what makes the moments intimate.
Acts of service are what make your lips curl into a smile and for a split second they erase all the stress. They speak silently but the whisper forever echoes in the listener’s heart. It is a blessing to have someone to peel oranges, sugarcanes and pomegranates for and a blessing to have someone peel them for you. The sight of those fruits itself is enough to make you think of your loved one. We should always peel oranges, sugarcanes, or pomegranates for our loved ones as the sweetness of that moment might just overpower the sweetness of the fruit.
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