Love & People

A celebration ritual is a communal hypnosis where participants repeat the same actions or songs to escape the banality of everyday life. It sometimes dons religious garb and other times serves as a tool of commerce. Participants unwittingly indulge in the group trance called 'unity,' only to sober up to reality on their way home. Behind the sacred ambiance, organizers' logistics and ad revenues quietly grip the reins. Once the event ends, everyone chants the incantation 'next year will be bigger and better.'

A charity date is a social ritual where goodwill and vanity waltz under the mask of philanthropy. Participants pay for a date and revel in the illusion of heroism while igniting envy on social media. It is a microcosm of capitalist altruism, hiding ambition to earn the title of 'good person' behind the guise of generosity. Far from pure love, it acts as a barometer measuring the thickness of one's wallet.

A chat is a digital ballroom where countless voiceless beings mingle, satisfying or wounding the egos of self-centered users. Truths hide behind the mask of emojis, and character limits twist meaning into clever distortions. Press Send and you unleash a carnival of self-exposure and peer surveillance, where a silent reply plunges you into the abyss of anxiety. At times, the innocuous “read receipt” wields more power than any word, and conversations become a symphony of keystrokes and notification pings. Ultimately, chat, meant to connect us, has devolved into a ritual to confirm our own existence.

A check-in message masquerades as genuine concern while secretly verifying the sender's own relevance. The more the recipient struggles to answer, the more reassurance the sender harvests, while burdening the recipient with unnecessary disclosures. The simple 'How have you been?' hides a probe into personal life and a craving for self-esteem. Recipients find themselves coerced into performing a curated version of daily tranquility. Thus, a check-in thrives as a social dance balancing affection and anxiety, eroding privacy step by step.

A checklist is a ritual of enumerating tasks on paper to procure a sense of security before any action is taken. Once a box is checked, it grants the perfect excuse to postpone the actual work. Its infinitely expandable list prolongs the illusion of achievement while camouflaging the true essence of action. Revered in meeting rooms yet abandoned at the execution stage, it is the modern object of faith embodying both hope and negligence.

Chemistry is the romantic con artists’ label for the supposed magic that makes two people ignore each other’s flaws. It masquerades as destiny’s stamp, selling the illusion that random interactions are predestined. There is zero scientific evidence, yet mere mention summons nods and smiles. In reality, it is the time-honored psychological trick most easily deployed to recruit an accomplice in human connection.

A chemistry test is the modern love alchemy that blends fragments of names and birthdates on a smartphone screen to irresponsibly spit out a percentage. It’s a digital version of glass ball divination, with scientific validity no better than outdated software. Yet users worship the resulting number like an oracle, amplifying their echo of self-satisfaction. Sharing the result is cleverly designed to stoke peer approval desires. Ultimately, it’s merely a love Geiger counter, spinning the consumption cycle of the romance market.

Child custody is the official permit to manage and dispose of a child's life as a personal project. Parents speak of love and responsibility while often exercising their rights at their own convenience. In court, a strange ritual unfolds where parental logic outweighs the child's well-being. What is ultimately decided is not the child’s voice but the victor of adult negotiation.

Childbirth is a ceremony that can be called both miracle and torture. It is a grand opera of pressure and pain performed on the stage of the mother’s body. Accompanied by countless nurse calls and doctors’ chants of encouragement, it delivers both a fleeting moment of joy and an unending battle. At the first cry, the world is rebooted, and participants receive the proud badges of accomplishment and exhaustion.

Childcare is the sacred volunteer work of absorbing infinite demands while gradually eroding one’s sleep and dignity. Crying is euphemistically called communication, but in reality it is an endless war of defense. Parents, beset by the trap called diapers and at the mercy of the milk schedule, transform into half-baked warriors in a holy crusade of nurturing. Though armed with the noble ideals of education and affection, one emerges from the daily mudfight only with priceless memories and formidable endurance.

A childfree couple is a heroic duo who, amid whispers that they ought to bear children, dare to choose an empty cradle. They avoid the self-sacrificial ritual called parenting and seize the spoils of free time, only to be showered with puzzled sympathy at every family gathering. Their household quietly prospers, and their calendars overflow with blank spaces. Yet this choice burdens them with society's unspoken curse: the eternal murmur of 'aren't they missing something?'