When it comes to describe the arresting looks of both divine characters and mortals, poets as well as writers of prose in our times pale into nothingness. Creating eye-catching frescoes as well as irresistible sculptures by the land’s people who lived in times long past, which have endured the fury of nature and marauders over centuries, alongside scholarly writers owe in no small measure to the patronage of royalty, known for their immaculate style of governing as opposed to ruling. The portrayal of divinity through paintings and in the form of figurines, attracting the devout in all nooks and corners of the land even to this day mirrors the high order of appreciating handsomeness of male forms and lissome beauty of the female forms. We only witness glimpses of that refined culture in public domain nowadays.

The land’s epics traced to a past of as many centuries as the scholars are agreed upon as well as the fables as narrated to the children are replete with episodes centred around the factor of physical attraction to trigger the process of starting and enjoying a romantic relation with unbounded delight. The importance of sustaining that factor seems to take a back seat as the romance acquires more heat than meaning.

Old-timers in Mysuru can recollect their school days with the low-paid Kannada and Sanskrit Pandits effortlessly interpreting the similes and metaphors scripted by poets of both near and distant past almost launching the young minds on life’s romantic platform, although a  tad early ahead of reaching adulthood. With those humble lot of teachers not to be had nowadays, the youth are drawing inspiration from the film world, which is saying the obvious. Thanks to the extensive use of electronic devices, anybody can be presented on the big screen with angelic looks and vivacious physical features.

Physiologists have been adding to the knowledge on the part played by hormones in mutually tickling males and females of the human species. There is no gainsaying that attractive looks, although an integral component of one’s personality, as brought out in a recently conducted study by a University team of researchers, sow the seeds of any romantic relation. That is ‘Love at first sight’ for you.