The Last Romance

Let me tell you about jab we met! Our first heady—or steamy, if I may—encounter: 'Unstoppable Double-Fudge Chocolate Avalanche'… yeah, that's his name, came calling. My first bite. A small but audible moan escapes my lips. My eyes, previously perfectly aligned, first cross slightly, and then glaze completely, pupils dilating into pure chocolate pleasure… just before my eyelids close in ecstasy. Sigh! I could live in that transcendental sphere forever!

Chocolate does something beyond description for me. The gooey brown swirls (or sometimes slabs!) of unadulterated happiness elevate me from the see-saw that life is and introduce me to this whole other realm of choco-nsciousness! I am not saying that chocolate is a substitute for love.Aû contraîre, love is a substitute for chocolate. Call it therapeutic, cathartic, aphrodisiacal, what you will. I have been told that if there was rehab or Chocoholics Anonymous for those of us who OD on it, I should be the first to enroll. But here's the thing. I don't want to quit… loving chocolates!

You see, as a certified chocoholic, I am entitled to compassion and understanding from the human race if I do not share my ambrosial delight with any one, an extra helping of chocolate in all its godly variety whenever and wherever, chocolate-flavored food including condiments, chocolate syrup, frosting, sprinkles, or any other form yet to be invented; and the indisputable right to use chocolate as a source of solace, placation, or bribery for personal and professional purposes of any kind. Wow! If this isn't unconditional love, then what is…?

I think the best a man (a presumed partner in all things ecstatic!) can do is supply the chocolates and hope that he will be considered somewhere between the Mmmmmmmm (yeah, there is a sinful chocolate by that sound!) and Hershey's kisses! Clarifying further… ambling along the beaches of Temptation Islands; a man finds a bottle that has been washed ashore. Curious of course, he opens it… and out pops a genie. She grants him three wishes. He first wishes for gazillion dollars,et voila! There were the gazillion dollars! Second wish… yeah, the Rolls Royce Phantom Drophead Coupe… and voila! There it was... finally, the third one… to be irresistible to all womankind, and whadayaknow! He turned into a box of chocolates! Need I say more…?

-Shruti Kothari, Director, Bespoken Words