Not really the same...

It struck me recently that the same line means different things at different circumstances.

I miss you :) - This probably means that you miss the other person in a good way. It is kinda acknowledging the friendship that you two have. And you are happy that you feel this way about this person.

I miss you :( - This probably means that you are so much attached to the other person that you miss them terribly. It is almost like telling "Come back to me soon"

I miss you - This is when it is the most trickiest. You do not know whether you are happy that you are missing the person, or sad that you will probably miss them more than you thought you ever would.


Confusing ain't it?
I miss my old simple self :|

Problems being 24...

I am 24. This is the right age, they say. For what? Marriage.

Since I didn’t find my better half on my own, my parents had to take up the job of finding me one. I did not have a choice really. It was their way or no way.

They found a guy, with a decent job and good family background. Here, the good family background refers to common acquaintances and their alleged social status. My mom was pleased that her childhood friend was an acquaintance of the groom’s brother-in-law. And my dad was happy that the groom had a job with a well known IT company.

I was more concerned about his character. I am no angel, so I definitely am not looking for one. I was looking for someone who would be compatible with me. A few quirks would be okay, but there were few things that absolutely had be to ticked off my checklist.

1. He should definitely be taller than me. 3 inches would be good though
2. He should have a good sense of humor. To put up with my yapping of course, and make silly jokes out of it. Endearing, no?
3. He should be down-to-earth. No, I do not want cool dudes, and hot men. That is more of a turn off.

The guy was easily taller than me. I was hoping he would clear the other two of my expectations as well. All was well. He seemed down to earth, and at least tried to be funny. So, that almost takes care of my checklist. He was sweet with my parents. He wanted to be sweet with me. He even used “dear” when he addressed me. He texted every 5 minutes. I was anxious and hopeful. However, something kept telling me, this just was not right.

I have never felt so uncomfortable in my life. As much as I wanted to get to know him, I needed some space. And, he just wasn’t giving any. I tried to tell him that politely, but it only got worse. Being stalked is worse that being alone.

“Give him time and the benefit of the doubt,” a friend said. “Yeah, you are right. I am freaking out unnecessarily” I was still hoping.

But it just wasn’t bound to happen. I wasn’t my usual talkative self. I was always in a withdrawn mood. It wasn’t long until people started to notice. I was in a very bad place.

Then a friend asked me, “So, you are marrying because your parents want you to?” I nodded in agreement. “Wow! And here I thought you were an intelligent girl. Don’t marry for wrong reasons.”

After some crying, and some thinking I concluded –

• It does not matter whether he is tall or short
• It does not matter if he is funny/not funny/unintentionally funny
• It does not matter if he plain, cute, hot or handsome(I refrain from using ugly because however he might look he will be handsome to me!)

All that matters is that I should love him, despite his quirks. In fact, I should love him including his quirks. And vice-versa.

That evening I told my parents, that the marriage is not going to happen. They took it well. They were just worried about me – my future. Parents worry. But, they will be alright. Perhaps not right now, but later.

As for me, I am happy. I might get married; I might not. But, I am definitely not getting married for the wrong reason.

Hair Cut

One of my friends recently broke up with her boyfriend. She told me that she knew that he was the guy. Still she had to let him go for reasons she will not tell me. Even after the break-up she would not stop talking about him, “He’s funny… A bit weird…” For me it was all blah-blah! I wanted to scream, “You broke-up with the guy, so get over him and quit talking about him!”

After a few months, she realized that she still has not stopped talking about him! She rang me up, “Vithya. I really need to get over this guy. He is not coming back. Unless I get over him, I am going to ruin myself!”

I put on my thinking hat – okay, glasses! Happy? – and started to wonder what she could do. Being the creative and innovative mind that I am, I suggested, “I have a great idea! Do you have a photograph of him?”

Guessing where I am going, she reluctantly added, “Yeah, I do…”

“Great!” I smirked, and continued, “Burn his picture & flush it out the toilet, just like in `Jab We Met`”.

She retorted, “Don’t be a kid, Vithya. I can’t do that!”

“If you can’t; I will do it. You need not do it” I replied coolly.

Irritated by my reply, she added, “Do you even realize that you are talking about MY boyfriend, here?”

“Ex”, I corrected.

“Fine. My Ex! Not yours” she scoffed.

“But he could be My `Future`”, I teased.

She was getting increasingly frustrated with me, and screamed out, “I still like him. God damn it! And you… You do not have the rights to burn him!”

I was waiting for her to admit that she still likes him, and pounced on her, “God damn you! That guy dumped you. Didn’t tell you why he dumped you. He hasn’t called you in over a year. And you still like him? You’re insane.”

I heard her sob at the other end. Realizing she needed to cry and be done with him, I continued, “You know what? Call him. Call him, and call him names. Abuse him; Blame him; Hate him & be done with him. Yes, ‘Jab We Met’ is my inspiration again. But I am not kidding this time!”

“You really think it’ll work?” her voice was coarse, and incoherent.

“Oh Honey! I’m sure it’ll work. Besides, there is nothing a girls’ day-out can’t fix!” I winked.

She laughed too. Nevertheless, I knew it would take time for her to laugh like she always did.

It was not until a week that she dropped by. I do not know whether she abused him or not, but we went shopping the next day and splurged on ourselves. She did a bit of a ramp-walk in one of the stores. We took pictures; went for a picture; somehow landed in a beauty salon.

We both signed up for a facial and pedicure. I kept making stupid jokes throughout. And even informed her about my monkey crush (I am definitely not explaining). She actually opened her eyes and asked, “Really? You did that?”

“Oh, yeah!” I said.

“Unbelievable”, she said and continued her beauty sleep. She was all happy and rosy after the makeover session. In a moment of inspiration, she said, “Cut my hair!”

Ok, remove the quotation marks. She asked the beautician to cut MY hair. “You wanted to burn that hair? Now, I want to cut your hair! Won’t you do it for me?”

And that is how I ended up with this!

Match-Making

How many times have we - okay, me- wondered whether two people would make a perfect pair just on seeing them?
I've done it many a time :D
Not only do I decide that these would would match each other, but also how they should go about each other. I was lucky to guess some three years back, that two of my best friends would be the perfect pair.

Once I'd joked about this prospect to 'him', and he immediately reprimanded me asking, how could I come up with such baseless and outrageous questions. The angst in his tone and words caught on to me, and I'd felt as though I'd just spoiled a beautiful web of friendship. In a flurry, thoughts started to cloud in my mind. Had I done a serious mistake by jeopardizing so pure a friendship? Would I be happy if someone goes about making assumptions about me and my best friend like this? To what extent would he have been hurt? In a moment I was almost on my knees begging for pardon. "Please *****, I'm very sorry. I shouldn't have said all that. You know, the woman intuition is not always right!"

He always has this sarcastic touch to all his dialogues. Note that I'm using the word dialogue. He likes to exaggerate, and does full justice to it. And as though Jesus Christ is forgiving a sinner he says, "Its OK. I can understand that your still an immature brat. Just don't go opening your big bad mouth about this to her. She might get offended" And myself, with a puppy-dog look and a few tears at the corner of my eye, could only nod. I was relieved to know that he hadn't taken it too bad. And then I decided to keep my mouth eternally shut regarding this!

Every now and then one of our mutual friends comes up to me and says, " Hey, is there anything going on between 'him' and 'her'?" I remember my lesson from the other day. and so with a disgusting look I dutifully say, "Are you mad? They are the best of friends. Don't you dare say things like that" Just as I word all this, something keeps telling me, 'Are you so sure of what you are talking? Do you really believe they are just the best of friends?' My mind is in quandary as I keep arguing with myself. "No, they are not. Yes, they are!"

An eventful two years pass by, with my still wondering what they are! One fine day, this girl, my best friend calls me up and says, "Vithya, I've to tell you something" I assume its one of her routine calls, where in she is having some problem at home, and give the go ahead. I can sense hesitation in her voice, and so I reassure her that I'm her friend and she need not think twice to tell anything to me. I could hear her sigh, and ask for a promise. I become restless and think to myself, "What is all this hype about? " Wearily I give her my word, "I promise dearie. Tell me, what's bothering you?"

Now I could sense the change in her tone. Her voice almost acquires a musical ring to it, as she says, "Its *****. We're in love with each other". And I'm like, "What the hell?" Too many thoughts conjure up in my mind, but the most prominent of them all was IF I EVER GET MY HANDS ON HIM,HE'S DEAD MEAT. I was at a loss for a few moments, and she was going on and on, about how everything happened, little realizing that none of this was registering in my mind. After a while she came to a stop saying, "We have decided to marry!". Now I say, "Ahaa.. so now you're telling me!"

Wild are the ways of life. One can never tell what each turn beholds. It's best to live and leave life to take its own turn. For now, I'm done with match-making. Or at least that's what I'm saying to myself... ;)