Repect - like - love

Oftenly these three terms - respect, like, love - are misinterpreted interchangeably. A person respect you does not mean that he likes you. Neither a person likes you mean that he loves you.

Let me give you an example:
My South Indian friend asks me to have Dhosa as a breakfast. As being a Gujarati I have never taken Dhosa as a breakfast. I have actually never imagined it in my dream. Now see different type of responses :

If I have no respect for that person:
Friend : Hey, come. Will have a breakfast.
Me : What will be there in breakfast?
Friend : Dhosa.
Me : What ???? Dhosa??? How can you guys eat dhosa as a breakfast??? I am not coming for breakfast. You go.

If I respect that person:
Friend : Hey, come. Will have a breakfast.
Me : What will be there in breakfast?
Friend : Dhosa.
Me : Oh, no yaar, You go ahead. I am not comfortable eating dhosa in morning. May be because I am not habituated to it. You please proceed and have it.

If I like that person:
Friend : Hey, come. Will have a breakfast.
Me : What will be there in breakfast?
Friend : Dhosa.
Me : Ummm.... Ok lets go. Actually, I am not comfortable eating dhosa in morning. But as you have invited me, I can have it. Till now I have never eat dhosa in morning but as you are saying I will give it a try. Probably I will also become habituated to it after sometime.

If I love that person:
Friend : Hey, come. Will have a breakfast.
Me : What will be there in breakfast?
Friend : Dhosa.
Me :
(You will not say anything. You will just press CTRL+ALT+DEL and stand up to go.)


When you respect a person, you acknowledge the difference. But your decision will not be function of his liking or disliking. Your acts will not be dependent on of his likings or disliking. Your response will be something like, "I like behaving like this. I know he does not like my this behavior but I can not change. I will behave like this because I am comfortable doing that."

When you like a person, you will care for that person. Your decision will be function of his likings or disliking. Your acts will be dependent on his likings and disliking. Your response will be something like, "I like behaving like this. Actually he does not like my this behavior and so I will take care of it. I will try not to behave like this from next time"

When you love a person, differences will disappear. His likings is your likings. His dislikes are your dislikes. Nothing is yours. Nothing is mine. Its all ours.

In love, differences disappears. Your likings are my likings. Your disliking are my disliking. Nothing remains yours. Nothing remains mine. Everything becomes ours.

I believe, most of our communication falls in i-respect-you category in personnel as well as professional life. And people are out there who misinterpreates it as either i-like-u or i-love-u category.