Month: May 2011

Love Story 4

Today is a really happy day in Smita’s life. Today she’s going out for a movie with Shantanu for the first time. It’s almost 5 pm. The movie starts at 6. Smita kept looking at her watch as she waited in a bus-stop for Shantanu.

Smita and Shantanu’s story was the quintessential love-at-first-sight fairytale. They both joined college in the first week of June, and by the end of the month they were ‘officially together’. Both happily fell in love head over heels and didn’t mind being teased out of their mind for getting together so quickly by friends.

Love storyPhoto by Celine.Q

“Hey! Here! Here!” Smita shouted as she saw Shantanu in the distance, getting off a bus. And then that smile! The smile that adorned both their faces is not born in this planet, it’s born in heaven.

But soon Smita conscientiously assumed the role of the typical more-disciplined-than-you female part of the family.
“Why are you so late? It’s past 5: 15!” She creased her brows like an angry school teacher.
“Sorry honey, I had to run an errand for my mother just as I was leaving home. You know, didn’t want to give her any suspicion by showing her that I was in a hurry. I told them I was meeting a friend.”

They took a cab to the movie theater, chitchatting all the way.

Smita was saying, “I hate holidays. Holidays mean no college and no meeting you. You know I missed you so much yesterday. And talking to you over the phone at night was the best thing that happened yesterday.”
Shantanu said, “But we met yesterday. We went to The Plaza in the evening, had panipuris, I told you a joke and you were laughing your head out…Don’t you remember?”

Smita suddenly felt like she couldn’t breathe. She’d never been to The Plaza in her life.

Complete/continue the above story by commenting.

14 Signs: Is My Boyfriend Cheating on Me?

Are you of late wondering if something has changed in your relationship? Does it seem to you that your boyfriend doesn’t love you anymore? Is it possible that he’s cheating on you? This article brings to you fourteen powerful signs to tell if he’s cheating.


Love in IndiaPhoto by starush

1.Use your woman’s intuition

You have a gut feeling that something is wrong. The old spark that used to spring up into his eyes and smile on seeing you, is missing. Never ignore your woman’s 6th sense when it comes to the fidelity of your boyfriend.

2.Too many gifts

He never bought you so many gifts in your entire relationship as he did last month! This is his guilty mind trying to compensate you for what he’s doing to you.

3.Criticizing the lover

There’s someone you both know who you’re boyfriend is continually criticizing of late. Of course no affair could be going on between him and her, for God’s sake, right? Wrong. He’s just trying to make you come to that conclusion by criticizing her, who’s actually his secret lover.

4.No missing you

He doesn’t seem to miss you at all when you’re not with him. Earlier he used to call you five times a day. You used to meet almost every day. Nowadays he almost never calls you.

5.Missed calls

Sometimes when you call him, he lets the phone ring or rejects your call. Later gives unconvincing explanations.

6.Irritability, rudeness

He seems irritated all the time-anything and everything you do seems to make him angry. He’s rude with you all the time regarding trivial matters.

7.Mood swings

He’s of late earned the title of “Mr. Mood Swing”. Today he’s showing you so much affection and buying you gifts. Yesterday he made you cry with his rude words regarding something totally inconsequential. While you may be surprised by his mood swings, it’s a common effect of cheating. On the one had he’s feeling guilty about cheating you, and so trying to make it up to you. On the other he basically just can’t stand to spend time with you, because he’s not in love with you anymore, but he has to, because you’re still a couple, and this makes him very irritated inside.

8.No compliments

Earlier he would just look at you with mesmerized eyes for 10 seconds and comment that he was luckiest man alive as he has the most beautiful woman in the world as his girlfriend. But of late he’s just stopped complimenting you on your looks.

9.Email privacy

You never bothered keeping secrets from each other. You would check your emails in front of each other and leave the email account open, because you had nothing to hide from each other. Nowadays however, if you chance upon his open email account he rushes to close it and lectures you about individual privacy.

10.Password change

Some couples share email passwords. If you’re one of them, he’ll invariably change his password at this point of time. You’ll notice maybe many days after he’s actually changed it. If you ask him about it it’ll be the old “Privacy” lecture again.

11.Cell phone privacy

Same applies to his cell phone. You remember frequently teasing him saying, “Now I’m going to blow the lid off your other affairs,” and then taking his cell phone and going through all messages, only to find messages from his friends and mum. Then both of you would laugh and hug and kiss. These days his cell phone is apparently another fortress of his privacy, not to be touched by you.

12.Overreacting to inquiries

If you make perfectly normal and everyday inquiries like, “Hey honey! Where are you now?” or “We couldn’t meet last weekend because you were busy at work. So how’s the current project coming along?”, he becomes very defensive and accuses you for being over-suspicious, leaving you dumbfounded and wondering, “Suspicions about his fidelity weren’t even there at the darkest cranny of my mind…”

13.Talks of break-up

When you quarrel he frequently talks about ending the relationship, unlike before. The other day when you had a tiny tiff he said, “If you do that again don’t expect me to be with you anymore.” It was a horrible shock to you. That night you spent an hour crying into your pillow. If he’s cheating then this is an outcome of him not being in love with you anymore, and secondly of him having a fallback option.

14.Doesn’t say “I love you”

Do you remember when was the last time he said “I love you” to you? Yeah, it was around the same time that you last felt that spark in his eyes, that radiance in his smile, that eagerness in his kisses. Of late it seems that he’s there, but not really there. Emotionally he seems miles away from you.
A rule of thumb could be checking if about five or more of the above symptoms are there in your relationship. If so, don’t be too devastated to talk to your boyfriend about it, ‘cause there’s always a chance that the reason is something else. And what if you find out that he’s actually cheating? That’s the topic of another post. Meanwhile, leave a reply to tell me your thoughts.

8 Signs: Is my Boyfriend/Girlfriend Serious About Our Relationship?

Is my boyfriend/girlfriend serious about our relationship?
You’ve been sad for months. You have given your heart and soul to your boyfriend/girlfriend, you’re convinced they’re the man/woman of your dreams but they don’t quite seem to reciprocate your feelings. Do they feel the same about you as you feel about them? Read on to find out.

1.Meet my friend Neha!

Does your boyfriend/girlfriend refer to you as a “friend” instead of their “girlfriend (boyfriend)”/ “fiancé” to most outsiders? It’s true that in India some people are embarrassed to admit that they’re in a relationship. But you can make out whether the real reason behind your boyfriend/girlfriend’s denial of your relationship is shyness or something else. Especially if you’ve brought this up with them already and they’re still insisting on trying to deny your existence as their boyfriend/girlfriend, it may be time to be alert.

2.Take your hands off me or get killed!

They’re uneasy being seen in public with you. They’re seriously offended if you even hold their hand while you’re outside. They once quarreled with you for kissing them on the cheek in front of others. Their attitude hurts you a lot. But you’re trying to “understand them”, to “adjust”. You’re telling yourself, “We just happen to have been born with different levels of shyness.” But what you’re choosing to overlook is that if someone’s really in love with you they’ll certainly not cause your suffering knowingly. Another telltale sign.

3.Relationship status: Single!

They refuse to mention their relationship with you under “relationship status” in Facebook/Orkut. When you enquire about it they give insubstantial excuses like they don’t want other people to know everything about their life, they have their relatives/parents on their friend-list who they don’t want to know about their relationship, etc. There’s something that you should know here. One of the litmus tests of being in love is feeling proud of it and wanting to tell everyone about it. (It’s just this instinct of people in love which the social networks have harnessed with their “relationship status” feature!)

4.Meeting parents? Not yet.

You’ve never met or talked to anyone from their family even though you’ve been in relationship for quite some time now. If you express interest in meeting them your partner says, “Ok we’ll do it next weekend,” but that weekend never comes. They might try many variations of excuses-“My family is rather conservative”, “It’s better to tell them just before marriage,” “We’re from different castes/sub-castes/races, I need some time before I can bring it up with my parents,” etc.

5.Your friends & family who?

They never ask you about your family, how you grew up, who are your friends etc. Even if they’ve met your friends they’ve not seemed too interested in them. And if you’ve gotten a chance to find out-they’ve not remembered the names of most of them. Lack of interest in things closely associated with your whole being-your childhood, your family and your friends-indicates lack of interest in the person that’s YOU! If they’re not interested in understanding you, they probably don’t have too many plans regarding your relationship.

6.You dance Odissi? Or Salsa?

Along the same lines as point #5, they’re not interested at all in your passions and hobbies. Do you find yourself reminding them to read your blog again and again? Are you sad about the fact that they’ve never asked you about your favorite genre of music? Do they often fail to even remember what your hobby is? Doesn’t sound like your potential life-partner to me.

7.Boom! Watch out for the splinters of our plans!

You’ve planned for months and weeks for a nice little beach getaway during the Diwali holidays which you’d decided on together. All this while you’ve been telling them of your plans with great enthusiasm and joy and anticipation. Come Diwali and boom! They just blow up your plans (and you, in the process). They’ve just decided not to go away from their family during this auspicious period. They’ve just decided to use this break for getting up to speed on their studies. You’re of course devastated. But who cares?

8.Did I tell you I was moving to New York?

They never consult you on major decisions-decisions which you’d ideally like to take together. They inform you after making the decisions, when you’re left gaping, thinking, “I never had wind of it!” If it’s something you don’t agree with, they reason it’s too late to change their decision now.
If your partner displays any of the above symptoms it’s time you brought it up with them and talked about it openly. If they show four or more of the eight behaviors mentioned above, they’re probably not thinking of a future with you. If you’ve become emotionally involved with them bring it up with them NOW. Tell them openly that you’re convinced that they’re not serious about the relationship and you are. Suggest taking some time off from each other for re-assessing what each of you want from the relationship.
Don’t agree with me? Why don’t you leave a reply to let me know?

How to Impress Your Girlfriend

Are you in a relationship and want to understand her better? Do you want to know what she wants from you? Do you sometimes wish someone gave you a magic window into her world? Here are the top 10 ways to impress her and have a fulfilling relationship.

1.Make her laugh.

Yes the old saying is true. Girls do adore men with a sense of humour.

2.Compliment her on her looks.

It makes us feel feminine. A romantic relationship with a man is first of all a celebration of a girl’s femininity, which is pampered when you appreciate her beauty. But don’t fake it. Praise her looks only at those moments when she looks particularly attractive to you (we all have them).

3.Surprises.

Give her small surprises every once in a while. A simple “I’m thinking of you” e-card or a short handwritten love-letter can do the trick. We love romantic surprises because they make us feel special. A small gesture will make her feel that she’s always on your mind, that she is not lost somewhere among your mental layers.

4.Give her due attention.

Make it a point to spend sufficient time together every day. If you don’t meet every day, call. If you’re one of those men who need space, who don’t enjoy talking to their girlfriends for hours over the phone or if you’re just plain busy, make the calls shorter but don’t forget to call every day. When you’re hanging up apologize for not being able to spend more time with her. Failing to give each other due attention can become the first nail in the coffin of your relationship, especially if there’s expectation mismatch with regard to this on a continued basis. If you genuinely are too busy to find much leisure any time in the near future, this is probably not the right time for you to start a relationship.

5.Too many gifts?

Do you often find yourself presenting her with material gifts? Do you find her sullen if you haven’t gifted her anything in a while? In that case be warned-she certainly doesn’t love you. In fact even if your girlfriend never asks for gifts and really is in love with you, it’s not wise to make expensive gifts a regular part of your relationship. You know why? Because you want her to be with you only as long as she’s in love with you. If you create other incentives for being with you, chances are she’ll hang around (read make a fool of you by cheating you into believing that she loves you) even if she’s not in love with you at some future point of time.

6.Don’t play too hard to get.

If you think you can get more attention from her by playing hard to get, think again. Certainly a relationship is not the only thing in anyone’s life or mind, and neither should it be, for it to remain healthy. But if you resort to deliberate cheap tactics like not taking her calls most of the time, trying to show her that she doesn’t deserve your attention etc., then there’s a problem. Sure, these will work for a while since it’s human nature to think what’s hard to get is more valuable. But eventually she’ll leave you. That’s certain. And that’s because everything wilts, wanes and dies if it’s not nurtured, and her love for you would, too. (Unless, of course, she’s with you for any other reason than being in love with you, e.g. your money or social status! And in that case you want her to leave you as soon as possible!)

7.Don’t be too easy to get.

Unfortunately the other side of the principle I mentioned above is that it’s also human nature to be unable to value something that comes easily to us. When I was a child I used to take out all my anger on my mother, who literally is the best mum in the world and made innumerable sacrifices for me, like all mothers. Thus becoming the carpet beneath her feet (not protesting even if she’s rude to you or even physically violent with you, trying to protect her from the outside world, doing her work etc.) is not a good strategy either.

8.Parents matter.

Be respectful to her parents. This is a must, because family is something very close to our hearts. So showing disrespect to her parents is showing disrespect to her. If you disagree with them on certain points or you don’t want to accept some of their attitudes then bring it up with her in a mature, respectful, objective way. Don’t even think about making rude or insulting comments about them. Even when you’re quarrelling.

9.Don’t be controlling.

Are you dying to know the password of her email account? Do you feel a bit tensed when she’s not with you, wondering what she’s doing, who she’s meeting and who she’s spending her time with? Do you find yourself clenching your fists and gritting your teeth when you see her photos with her male friends on Facebook? If you choke her like this she’ll soon need breathing space. And that’ll give rise to lies, suspicions and eventually a grossly unhealthy relationship. The modern woman has to go out, work, meet people and have a world of her own. If you can’t accept that you’d better start working on your own attitude.

10.Male chauvinist?

Do you in any way feel that there are ways in which women are lesser than men (apart from physical strength)? In that case don’t hope to be in relationship with any self-respecting adult woman until you’re able to change your beliefs. We can feel even 0.1% of female-condescending attitude. If it’s a serious relationship and you’re planning on a life with your girlfriend, she’s going to be your life-partner. You’ll each be a parent of your children. If you’re unable to give each other exactly as much importance as you’d give yourself, then it’s detrimental to your relationship and future family.
Do you think I missed out any point? Leave a comment to let me know. :)

Top 50 Inspirational Love Quotes

Do you often wonder-what is love? Do you suspect that you’re in love and want to find out what other people have said about love? Are you in love for the first time and want to use a new love quote everyday as a status message-just to announce to the world that you’re one of the very lucky people-you’ve found love? Did you have a quarrel with your significant other and want to send him/her an sms which would surely bring a tear to his/her eyes?

If any of the above is true-read on. Here are 50 love quotes for you-I’ve included only those which have moved me inside.

  1. If you want to be happy for a while and cry for the rest of your life play this game known as “love”. –Unknown
  2. Love is an irresistible desire to be irresistibly desired.-Robert Frost
  3. Find a guy who calls you beautiful instead of hot, who calls you back when you hang up on him, who will lie under the stars and listen to your heartbeat, or will stay awake just to watch you sleep… wait for the boy who kisses your forehead, who wants to show you off to the world when you are in sweats, who holds your hand in front of his friends, who thinks you’re just as pretty without makeup on. One who is constantly reminding you of how much he cares and how lucky he is to have you…. The one who turns to his friends and says, ‘that’s her.’-Unknown.
  4. I love you – those three words have my life in them. – Alexandrea to Nicholas III
  5. My heart to you is given/Oh, do give yours to me/We’ll lock them up together/And throw away the key. – Frederick Saunders
  6. When you smiled you had my undivided attention. When you laughed you had my urge to laugh with you. When you cried you had my urge to hold you. When you said you loved me, you had my heart forever.-Unknown.
  7. Do not love me because i love you, love me for loving me.-Unknown
  8. Love is always open arms. If you close your arms about love you will find that you are left holding only yourself.-Leo Buscaglia
  9. A kiss is a lovely trick designed by nature to stop speech when words become superfluous.-Ingrid Bergman
  10. A baby is born with a need to be loved – and never outgrows it.-Frank A. Clark
  11. To love for the sake of being loved is human, but to love for the sake of loving is angelic.-Alphonse de Lamartine
  12. One should always be in love. That is the reason one should never marry.-Oscar Wilde
  13. I seem to have loved you in numberless forms, numberless times, in life after life, in age after age forever.-Rabindranath Tagore
  14. I was nauseous and tingly all over. I was either in love or I had smallpox.-Woody Allen
  15. Someday, after mastering the winds, the waves, the tides and gravity, we shall harness for God the energies of love, and then, for a second time in the history of the world, man will have discovered fire.-Pierre Teilhard de Chardin
  16. Eventually you will come to understand that love heals everything, and love is all there is.-Gary Zukav
  17. This one brought a tear to my eyes: Infatuation is when you think that he’s as sexy as Robert Redford, as smart as Henry Kissinger, as noble as Ralph Nader, as funny as Woody Allen, and as athletic as Jimmy Connors. Love is when you realize that he’s as sexy as Woody Allen, as smart as Jimmy Connors, as funny as Ralph Nader, as athletic as Henry Kissinger, and nothing like Robert Redford–but you’ll take him anyway.-Judith Viorst
  18. Love is of all passions the strongest, for it attacks simultaneously the head, the heart and the senses.-Lao Tzu
  19. Love takes up where knowledge leaves off.-Saint Thomas Aquinas
  20. If only you could love enough, you would be the happiest and most powerful being in the world . . .-Emmet Fox
  21. Love’s like the measles – all the worse when it comes late in life.-Douglas Jerrold
  22. Some people care too much, I think it’s called love.-Winnie the Pooh
  23. Take away love and our earth is a tomb.-Robert Browning
  24. To the world you may be one person, but to one person you may be the world.-Bill Wilson
  25. Once in a while, right in the middle of an ordinary life, love gives us a fairy tale.-Anonymous
  26. Love is an act of endless forgiving – a tender look which becomes a habit.-Peter Ustinov
  27. Love is not finding someone to live with; it’s finding someone you can’t live without.-Rafael Ortiz.
  28. The best proof of love is trust.-Dr. Joyce Brothers
  29. ‘Tis better to have loved and lost, than never to have loved at all.-Alfred Lord Tennyson
  30. I love you, not only for what you are, but for what I am when I am with you.-Roy Croft
  31. Love is just a word until you find someone to give it definition.-Unknown
  32. Love makes your soul crawl out from its hiding place.-Zora Neale Hurston
  33. Love cures people – both the ones who give it and the ones who receive it.-Dr. Karl Menninger
  34. The sweetest joy, the wildest woe is love.-Pearl Bailey
  35. The heart has reasons that reason does not understand.-Jacques Benigne Bossuel
  36. Love is not a matter of counting the years –it’s making the years-Unknown
  37. The love we give away is the only love we keep.-Elbert Hubbard
  38. Love comforteth like sunshine after rain.-William Shakespeare
  39. Love is a game that two can play and both win.-Eva Gabor
  40. Our souls were split in two in heaven in order that we should find each other in this world and become whole.-Rabbi Avroham Czapnik
  41. To love is to receive a glimpse of heaven.-Karen Sunde
  42. Love is being stupid together.-Paul Valery
  43. Love is composed of a single soul inhabiting two bodies.-Aristotle
  44. Immature love says: ‘I love you because I need you.’ Mature love says ‘I need you because I love you.’-Erich Fromm
  45. If you live to be a hundred, I want to live to be a hundred minus one day so I never have to live without you.-A. A. Milne
  46. To love a person is to learn the song that is in their heart, and to sing it to them when they have forgotten. -Anonymous
  47. Seduce my mind and you can have my body. Find my soul and I’m yours forever.-Anonymous
  48. My love for you is a journey; starting at forever, and ending at never. – Anonymous
  49. True Love burns the brightest, but the brightest flames leave the deepest scars.-Unknown.
  50. Signing off with my all time favourite love quote: Have you ever been in love? Horrible isn’t it? It makes you so vulnerable. It opens your chest and it opens up your heart and it means that someone can get inside you and mess you up. You build up all these defenses, you build up a whole suit of armor, so that nothing can hurt you, then one stupid person, no different from any other stupid person, wanders into your stupid life…You give them a piece of you. They didn’t ask for it. They did something dumb one day, like smile at you, and then your life isn’t your own anymore. Love takes hostages. It gets inside you. It eats you out and leaves you crying in the darkness, so simple a phrase like ‘maybe we should be just friends’ turns into a glass splinter working its way into your heart. It hurts. Not just in the imagination. Not just in the mind. It’s a soul-hurt, a real gets-inside-you-and-rips-you-apart pain. I hate love. – Neil Gaiman

Love story 3

Hemant’s mouth dried. He drank the water in front of him and wiped his mouth. Dr. Sen was one of the most well-known psychologists in the city. Besides what has happened was already embarrassing to him. Would he believe after all?

“So. Hemant. What do you want to tell me?” Dr. Sen smiled.

“Well, I’m originally from Faridabad. I’ve been working in Hyderabad for the last 2 years as a software engineer.” Hemant paused.

“Yes?”

“Actually, something happened a few days ago. I’m, well, a bit worried.” Hemant’s jitters were obvious.

“Look Hemant, first of all congratulations for taking the bold step of consulting a professional about your concerns. Do you know how many people in your condition would’ve delayed this decision for years, often decades, till the time it wrought havoc on their lives? Don’t worry, Hemant. We’re here to solve your problems, and the first step is talking about it.”

“Yes doctor.” Hemant took a deep breath and started.

“I live in a rented room on the roof of my landlord’s home. A few days back I when I was sitting on a chair after dinner watching TV, something happened. I kind of went into a trance, as if I was not in control of myself anymore, it was like…” Hemant couldn’t find the words to describe.

“Soon I was somewhere else. It seemed like I was in Faridabad, somewhere near my home. I was on my way to college. Soon I reached college and I was attending classes. But it didn’t seem like the lectures were on the same subject which I had studied in college. It seemed more like literature or something similar.”

“I continued in this life for a few days. Going to college, attending classes, coming back home…business as usual-just like I was, when I was actually there. There was just one difference. There was Nisha. Actually Nisha was a classmate of mine in college. I was never close friends with her. But I had started to like her the moment I’d seen her. She had these thick black eyelashes…” Hemant’s cheeks reddened. He didn’t intend to start a discussion about Nisha’s eyelashes with Dr. Sen.

“Well this time, I mean in this trance that I mentioned, I was friends with Nisha. We used to study together, have fun together and all of that. And I felt that not only I was falling in love with Nisha, but perhaps also she was falling in love with me. Then one day after classes she smiled a shy smile and gave me a folded piece of paper. It was at this point that I came out of the trance into reality and found myself sitting in front of the TV like before. I looked at the clock on the wall and saw that only 10 minutes had passed.”

“But you know that there’s a very simple explanation to all this, don’t you?” Dr. Sen said.

“Yes, I know. The explanation is that I had fallen asleep and I was dreaming. But there’s just one problem with that.”

“And what’s that?”

“I had the piece of paper still in my hands when I woke up, ‘I love you’ clearly written on it, in Nisha’s hand.”

Complete/continue the above story by commenting.
 

Love story 2

Swati felt relieved. Finally, some freedom.
She’s fifteen after all, not five. What sense does it make for her mother to accompany her everywhere she goes, at this age? An argument between Swati and her mother regarding this is a routine affair in this household.
Today is that special day when for the first time Swati’s persistence brought her victory against her mother. She finally (grudgingly though) allowed Swati to go to her coaching centre alone. And she was washed over by a sense of relief. Who wouldn’t want to avoid being taunted by friends for once, for a change?
Swati was still relishing the taste of freedom from her seat in a bus, when she saw him. He was one of the not-so-lucky passengers, who had to stand with the support of overhead rods. As she watched him her eyes became roundish and a whisper escaped her lips, “Yuvvy!” He was tall, with a brawny built and yes, he did resemble Yuvraj Singh-someone Swati could die for. It was not until their eyes met that Swati was able to look away from him. And then it happened.
“Screeech!” And the bus avoided a deadly accident. Everyone in the bus fell on each other. (Swati didn’t fail to notice that Mr. Yuvvy almost fell on a girl beside him) The traffic police sprung into action and stopped the bus. Inside the bus a competition ensued among the passengers for reaching the nearest exit. Swati jumped off the bus, while she valiantly refused to admit to herself that the tiniest twinge of disappointment that she was feeling had anything to do with the young man on the bus.
The hint of a smile still curling her lips, Swati boarded the next bus. This one was very crowded. Swati was sweating as she stood jostling with the guy just beside her. The bus braked at a traffic signal and the guy almost fell on her. Swati turned to let out an angry rebuke and stopped. Mr. Yuvvy was right there, looking at her, smiling. Swati felt her cheeks redden (“Why on earth??”) as she quickly looked away.
Swati was running late for her coaching class. She almost started running as she hopped off the bus. So she only half-heard the first “Excuse me madam” and didn’t realized it was she who was being address. She slogged along until she heard it again, and this time she looked back. Yuvvy was there, smiling a tentative smile.

Complete/continue the above story by commenting.

Top 10 creative ways to “propose a girl”

Do you know that I discovered a very interesting fact today? That a total of close to 4 lac Indian men and boys are searching (just on Google) for ways of, what is known (in India) as “proposing a girl”.* Now that’s quite some number.

How to propose a girlPhoto by P@ttu

So are you in love? Are you planning to propose to the girl of your dreams? For your benefit, in this post I’ve decided to share the most creative 10 ways of “proposing a girl”, i.e. letting a girl know of your romantic feelings for her.

But remember, before you propose a girl, you need to work through your inhibition, and also choose the best possible time to propose her.

That said, on with the list…

  1. The t-shirt proposal

    Get a plain white round-neck t-shirt printed with “Sheetal (or whoever), I love you. J” It’s even better to get creative with the t-shirt message. Wear it inside a jacket or shirt and go to work/college or wherever it is that you regularly meet your love-interest. Try to catch her alone and reveal your gift to her with a smile.

  2. The YouTube proposal

    Propose to her on video and post it on YouTube. Then send her a very serious sounding mail with the link, and it make it look as though it contains some work related information. You can imagine her reaction when she opens it! Here it’s important to be creative with the message on the video.

  3. The alarm proposal

    Get your hands on her cell phone. Set a reminder for 2 a.m. (i.e. sometime in the middle of the night when she’s sure to be asleep) which says, “Wake up Sheetal! Rahul loves you!”

  4. The super-dramatic alarm proposal

    If you want to be the drama king, don’t stop there. Set the reminder as, “Look inside your bag!” Put a piece of paper inside her bag saying, “Open you diary/biology classnotes copy.” Write your romantic message inside this diary/copy. (As you understand you can make this chain of actions as long as you want. Just don’t bore her enough to earn a rejection!)

  5. They key proposal

    Send a key to her home/dormitory by courier. Don’t give any explanation. After a few days send her a note saying, “Did you receive a key?” Then again after a few days send the final note saying, “The key you received is the key to my heart. I give it to you.-Rahul.” I bet she’ll be in tears! (Assuming you didn’t make a mistake choosing the girl!)

  6. The “boxed” proposal

    Send a gift-wrapped box to her home. Put another box inside the first one, and another inside the second one. This is the classic box-inside-box-inside-box proposal. Include as many boxes as you like (but again, like point #4, you know when to stop!), and inside the final one put a key, with a note saying, “I give you the key to my heart.” (Alert: Don’t forget to sign your name at the end!!)

  7. The “meal in a box” proposal

    Take the man in the college/office canteen into confidence. The next time she orders something at the canteen she’ll receive a piece of paper on her plate saying “Today you have just Rahul’s (replace with your name!) love for a meal.”

  8. The maze proposal

    Get a friend to tell her that Prof. XYZ (if you’re a student)/her boss (if you’re working) is calling her. Make sure you do this during lunch hours, i.e. at a time when the professor/her boss is not in his/her office. Now stick an arrow on the wall just beside the closed door of the office of this person, so that she notices it when she comes to meet him/her. (Don’t stick it on the door under any circumstances!) We humans are curious at the core of our selves, so chances are she’ll follow the sign. Put another arrow on the wall and another one. You can put as many arrows as you like. But, again…remember…Well, you know. :D Lead her to some empty room or any place which is likely to be empty of people. Put a cardboard sign there saying, “You’ve reached Rahul’s heart.” You can get creative with the message here.

  9. The picture-perfect proposal

    Get hold of a photo of hers (from Facebook maybe). Combine it with a photo of yours using Photoshop (or get a friend to do it) to show the two of you together. Send it to her by snail-mail with something romatic written on it. Put the name of the sender as “GOD”. Obviously the meaning is that God wants you to be together.

  10. The time-bomb proposal

    Send her an email saying, “The 10th day from today will be the most important day of your life.” (Naturally from a fake email address)  Keep sending her an email everyday from that day onwards, saying, “9 more days to go…”, “8 more days to go…” etc. until the last day. On the 10th day leave a note on her desk with your romantic message.

Now go ahead, pick the one most suitable to you and get to work changing your dreams into reality.

But wait! If you’re planning to propose a classmate of yours, I have some special tips, just for you.

And those of you who’re online lurkers – there are a lot more tips for you here.
For Facebook dating tips and hacks:
How to Propose a Girl on Facebook Part 1
How to Propose a Girl on Facebook Part 2
And finally, for some whacky funny romantic over-the-top ways of saying it on The Social Network:
How to Propose a Girl on Facebook: Top 10 Ways

Got better recipes for wacky romantic proposals? Do us all a favor by sharing them through the “Post a reply” option!

*Source: Google AdWords

 

Love story 1

“I am just so lucky,” Sheetal thought to herself as she sipped her coffee, cuddled up on a sofa one rainy June afternoon. A faint smile played on her tiny lips as dimples dug deep in her cheeks.

Life really had been too good to Sheetal. The only child of doting parents and the only girl child in the family in a century, Sheetal had been spoilt rotten by parents, grandparents, relatives …sometimes even friends! This was compounded by the impeccable academic record she’d maintained throughout school. Everyone was just proud of her.

It’s her stellar performance in 12th that won her a ticket to her dream college, one of the best in the country and certainly the best in her city. Today was the tenth day of Sheetal’s first year and her teenage heart was still excited and exhilarated by the amazing new world called “college”- where you could not only wear what you liked but also bunk classes sometimes, and get ragged (she secretly admitted she liked all that attention the senior guys were paying her)!

And then there was “chilling out”-something Sheetal dearly missed in school. Neha, Sheetal’s best friend since the age of three, had joined the same college in the same department (“God! How could I be so lucky?”). Sheetal, Neha and Rahul had already formed a gang and were inseparable from one another. Sheetal was amazed herself by the way the three of them had bonded so quickly and so deeply.

There was something else too. There was Rahul. Sheetal had secretly fallen in love with him the moment she laid her eyes on him. Fantasizing about that moment had become one of her favourite pastimes of late. There he was-in his most ordinary striped t-shirt, sea-blue jeans and rimless glasses. And Sheetal just totally lost herself. All she could manage was a faint smile and a tentative “hi!”… And they had become instant friends. Neha had naturally joined almost immediately.

Sheetal was reliving her first day in college for the thousandth time when she was forced back to reality by the sound of “Raat Kali Ek Khwaab Mein Aayi”. Neha was calling. Sheetal’s smile broadened as she picked up the phone.

“Hi! What’s up?”

“Nothing. Just checking up on my sweet little best friend.”

“Excellent idea…if it were true! But knowing you-it isn’t.”, Sheetal was laughing as she pulled Neha’s leg, “There’s surely something that you’re itching to tell me.”

“Cummon! Don’t be so mean! Can’t I call you just like that?”

“Chalo cut the bakhwaas and come to the point.” Growing up together does that to you-you can’t but know what’s there on the other person’s mind.

“Umm…well…in a way you’re right. There is something. Nothing important though. It’s a little secret of mine, and like always, I can’t keep secrets from you. You’re right-I was actually itching to tell someone, and that’s because I’m happy, and when you’re happy you want to share your happiness with others…” Neha was speaking too fast. Her obvious embarrassment dug another dimple in Sheetal’s cheek.

“It’s about Rahul,” Neha continued. “He is just amazing isn’t he? …You know what?” Neha seemed to be blushing, “I think I’m starting to like him.”

Complete/continue the above story by commenting.
 

 

Am I in love? For beginners

Ah yes I know. You’re either laughing or rolling your eyes at the title: I’m probably falling in love, not learning Excel, what do you mean beginners??

But hey! What would call the fall in love disaster: the almost-adolescent just-starting-to­-sprout-facial-hairs college freshman who’s right now feeling ready to write off his young life for this sassy little female batch-mate of his who, fortunately or unfortunately for him, had given him that honey-dripping, heart-rending, impossible-to-put-in-words smile on the first day of college?

What would you call the fall in love catastrophe: your twelve year old daughter/niece/cousin who’s saving her virginity (both physically and mentally) for this tall dark handsome (and fifteen year old) super sports hero (the captain of the school cricket team)?

Or maybe it’s different. Maybe you’ve been in and out of about ten relationships already. Maybe, unfortunately for you, you’ve been married for the last seventeen years and have two kids but never “felt” in love. And then one day your luckless, Luckless eyes fell on this completely ordinary person with two extraordinary eyes and you felt exhilaration, sorrow, regret, pain, fear, epiphany all together and… That’s the fall in love tragedy.

And now all of you are wondering, “Am I in love?”

By this time you’ve already taken some of the zillions of “Am I in love” quizzes available on the Net and read the “Top 50 signs that I am in love” articles. And while you’re a little embarrassed to admit, maybe you’ve used some sort of a love calculator too. But you’re even more confused now than earlier. And that’s because while some of the symptoms you’re reading about matches with your own, others don’t.

And hence this post. I’ve decided to save you all the confusion and information overload by sieving out only the three surefire signs of being in love. I can guarantee that if you’re in love you’ll have each of these.

So what is love? Each of us can write entire encyclopedias-not blogs-on this topic and yet not be able to solve this eternal riddle. And then fall in love again.

The “Love fall”

Wait. Did you say “fall in love again”? I’m sorry, I think I missed the last definition of love that we agreed on-could you repeat?

No. We didn’t agree on “love”, we agreed on “fall”. No two love stories are the same. The only thing that’s same across love stories is the “fall”. Isn’t it funny that almost in every language of the world, two people getting together is described as “falling” in love?

Eureka! We’ve got the first one! Of the “symptoms” of being in love, I mean. The fall. You’re surely in love if you’ve felt the whoosh (mind you, not the thud, but more about this in later posts). A general feeling of exhilaration to wake up every morning, thinking, “Oh! I’m in love!” The feeling of being swept off your feet the moment you see him/her. A happy blush every time you speak of him/her to others. Being literally incapable to thinking anything else for the first one week…Did you say all of this is happening to you? Congratulations-You’re in love!

Missing you

Sheetal was telling me how much she loves Rahul-how she loves going out with him and spending time with him, how they have almost all interests in common, how she even likes his parents and they like her…But she gets mad at him only in one occasion-when he calls her and irritates her while she’s spending time with her family or friends. Or when he calls her more than once a day. It’s already been three months that they’re seeing each other and Sheetal’s getting weary of Rahul’s continued “lovestruckness”…

I think you get the point. If you’re in love, you can’t be enjoying other people’s company more than his/her. It’s not possible. Well, after all, you marry someone because you want to spend most of the time of your life with this particular person over anyone else in the world! It’s not about having common interests, it’s not about believing in similar ideologies (though these can certainly help). It’s about wanting to come back into the same arms at the end of every day. It’s about seeking out the same embrace every time in order to feel protected from the entire world…

Congratulations…and celebrations…

This point, I guess, doesn’t require any exposition. If you woke up one morning to discover you’ve magically become the owner of Microsoft, my bet is that you’ll not be “embarrassed” or “shy” about the news. True love is the billion dollar jackpot that each of us has the possibility of landing. And if you find yourself “embarrassed” of declaring it on Facebook, or of telling your friends about it, I’m sorry to break it to you buddy, but this probably isn’t “it”. Yes, you can save the “I prefer my privacy” excuses you’ve been giving yourself.

So what did you discover? Are you in love?

If you’re in love, my heartiest congratulations and best wishes.

If you’re not in love yet, I wish you luck the same. Finding true love is an exciting and enriching quest. Just make sure you don’t miss out the rainbow in your eagerness for the pot of gold at the end of it!