Conditional love is not love at all

"I can't go to Singapore to work and leave my parents in Kolkata," Mohini revealed over her vegetarian dinner. "I want to, but wouldn't that be irresponsible, even though I have other siblings who can look after them? They expect to match make me in marriage but I hope I can marry for love."

Speaking about Kolkata, when Mother Teresa began her work, she stated that her mission was to have those to whom she administered live the last moments of their lives with dignity. For her, it is never, ever too late to discover who we are.

For some of us, we have to be good to be loved - was the message of our childhood. We have to live under the delusion that love was the reward for the things we did. This was the result of receiving a considerable amount of conditional love (praise for specific behaviours) during my early years.

Conditional love is not love at all, I discovered, but merely approval for meeting someone else's standards.