Help! I’m in love with my best friend! (Part 2)

In my last post I talked about the three key questions to consider if you start feeling like you’re in love with your best friend. So if you’re sure about your feelings, have asked yourself these questions and have also mustered up the courage to propose to your girl, here are the top three mistakes to avoid before you blurt it out.

#1. Flirt, but don’t overdo it

I love my best friendPhoto by motoed

Don’t be afraid to get a bit flirty in your daily conversations with you best friend. However, knowing where to draw the line is key. “You’re looking ravishing today!” is ok, whereas “You’re looking hot! I wish I could lay you.” is crude and will cause you to lose her trust fast.
Text her just a tad more often than earlier. “Missing you…” / “waiting to see you in college tomorrow…”/ “Can’t wait to see you this weekend…” is cool.
Above all – whenever you meet her let your eyes speak. ;)

#2. Don’t be her dog

The worst (and most common) mistake guys make after their eureka moment of “I’m in love with my best friend” is to become her dog. You know what I mean. He’ll become an overly supportive wherever-you-go-I-follow obsequious servant of hers. Believe me guys, that’s the best and fastest way to lose a girl’s respect.

I love my best friendPhoto by ☆Mi☺Λmor☆

You’re thinking “She’ll realize I’m so caring.”
She’s thinking, “Jeez! This guy has no personality of his own!”
Show her that you care for her. But all with a healthy dose of manly confidence & personality.

#3. Avoid possessiveness like plague

Another very common mistake while hinting at the fact that you’re in love with your best friend is to become possessive of her.

Where is she going?

Who is she spending her time with?

She didn’t turn up at school/college/work today…could she be spending the day with some guy???

STOP those thoughts the moment they occur. You’re in love with your best friend (or anybody) doesn’t mean you own them. Be grateful for having a special place in her life already. Stop the urges to know more and control more of her life than she willingly invites you to do.
Don’t ask the obvious questions. Wait for her to answer you before you ask. Let’s say she didn’t turn up at school/college/work one day. When she turns up the next day, causally ask, “How’re you? Everything alright?” Don’t add, “Why didn’t you turn up yesterday?”. This will show her that you care for her and yet respect her privacy. That goes a long way in gaining the trust of most girls. If you can do that, it’ll draw her closer. Most likely she’ll spontaneously explain the reason of her absence to you sometime.

Any other cardinal step to take before you propose to your best friend who you’re in love with? Please share through the comments section.

Relationship troubles? Avail of our FREE unlimited one-to-one counselling to help you work your way to a happy & fulfilling love life!

Help! I’m in love with my best friend! (Part 1)

Recently one of my readers-Babblu- asked me – what if I’m starting to feel like I love my best friend? How should you deal with it? Should I go ahead and let them know how I feel, or keep my feelings to myself? Even if I let her know about my feelings, what’s the best way to do it?
So I thought I’d post a series on how to propose a girl who’s your friend. Today let’s take a look at the three key questions to ask yourself when you start feeling like you’re in love with your best friend.

Q #1. Is it real?

Love is a big word. First ask yourself – am I really in love with my best friend, or I’m just liking her more as a result of spending more and more/less time with her than earlier? It’s a fact of nature, that if we spend more time with people we already like, our bond with them tends to grow stronger. On the other hand, if you’re used to spending a lot of time with your best friend, and suddenly she gets into a new relationship/job etc. causing her to spend less time with you, you might start missing her and have the feeling that you’re in love with your best friend.

I love my best friendPhoto by silje/vanilje

Q #2. Can it hurt your friendship?

Ok, so you’re decided. You’ve asked yourself all the right questions and now you’re sure you really are in love with your best friend. But before you go ahead and blurt it out there are still more questions you need to ask yourself.
Are you picking up her cues correctly? Does she seem to share your feelings too, or she really hasn’t ever thought of you as anything other than her friend? Try to be as objective with yourself as you can be. Yes I know-it’s very, very difficult, ‘cause love makes you blind and forces you to ignore all evidence tell yourself that the person you’re mad about is mad about you too. But do yourself a favour and before you proceed any further, look for clues of her real feelings towards you.

How important is your friendship? Are you prepared to forgo your friendship in case she’s not comfortable in the new situation? In the unfortunate case that she doesn’t want to get romantically involved with you, your friendship might suffer a setback because of the new developments.

I love my best friendPhoto by arthur+martha

Q #3. Can it hurt your other relationships?

What is her relationship status – official or unofficial? Is she seeing someone? Is she in a steady relationship? In either of these cases, think seriously before declaring your love to your best friend. Try to gauge the depth of her other relationship, if any. If you know her boyfriend/date or you’re friends with him, be extra careful.

In the next part we’ll look at how to propose to a girl who’s your best friend, in case you have answered all the above three questions in the positive.

Relationship troubles? Avail of our FREE unlimited one-to-one counselling to help you work your way to a happy & fulfilling love life!

In Search of True Love…

Hey there! A big Hello to all of you. More than a year (and a whole marriage-read on for more about that!) later, I’m finally back to the blogosphere again!

It’s surely a special feeling to be talking to you after such a long time! I’m sure you’ve missed me, and you have no idea how much I’ve missed you. :(

So what should I start with? Yes I know, it doesn’t need telling – surely you want to know what I have been up to.

I have been up to finding love. Cheesy? Not. And that’s what I want to share with you today.

What is love?

I was striving hard to put my feelings about love into word, when I found this great post, which felt a bit like the transcript of my heart speaking –

“Love is a force of nature. However much we may want to, we can not command, demand, or disappear love, any more than we can command the moon and the stars and the wind and the rain to come and go according to our whims. We may have some limited ability to change the weather, but we do so at the risk of upsetting an ecological balance we don’t fully understand. Similarly, we can stage a seduction or mount a courtship, but the result is more likely to be infatuation, or two illusions dancing together, than love.”


Shubho & Sulagna in MauritiusThat’s me and him. (Ok. Dumb.)

That pretty much sums up what I always believed-love happens. (Oh yes I’m an incurable romantic!) I had promised myself never to get hitched until I felt “this is the best thing in the world that could happen to me”. For me, that was the litmus test of true love.

Introducing Mr…

So here I was, napping my days away happily at home after finishing business school, when Mr. Cool pinged me. Now I know you’re not gonna believe this, but that very moment I knew. I knew that the guy I have secretly fancied for two years but never managed to talk to, was finally mine forever. ;)
I drowned, headfirst.

For the uninitiated-the first days of love is like a full-time job. Once hired, you just aren’t allowed to concentrate on anything else. So I stopped functioning.(Really!!) It was a sweep-you-off-your-feet-and-end-your-thought-process all-encompassing obsession. Naturally. ;) So your favourite web destination took a backseat. (I’m sorry. I mean it.)

To cut long story short, here we were, about a year later….


Shubho & Sulagna weddingThe Wedding!

And now that’s 6 months old too. Armed with the experience of a nerve-racking ecstatic-devastating courtship & an even more colourful 6 months of marriage, I thought it’s time to get back to my half-forgotten love-child, Love in India.

I’m sure you can imagine how excited I am to be back. I hope you are, too!

To being back & meeting my friends (you) again. See you tomorrow.

10 Tips for Writing a Love Letter

I don’t know if it’s a good thing or a bad thing, but Indians are crazily romantic. Did you know that a whopping 37% of the people who’re Googling the phrase “love letters” every month are Indians? Thirty seven percent (165K out of 450K)! I know-‘whopping’ doesn’t even begin to describe that. Anyway, let me share a few points that I feel you should keep in mind while writing your next love letter.


Love in IndiaPhoto by markhillary

1.Get in the mood

Nothing affects our mood as much as music. Put on some really romantic music when you sit down to write a love letter. (I have some on even now, as I write this post!)

2.Greeting

Don’t be shy to start the letter with “my sweet sweetheart”. Or some special name that you use for him/her. It makes the letter immensely personal and special-not just another love letter, something particular to you two as a couple.

3.Their signs

Why are you writing this love letter today? Did anything happen today that reminded you of them? Any tiniest of tiny things-a familiar fragrance, a phrase someone used in casual conversation? Put it down. It’s bound to bring a hint of that crease on their lips.

4.Mementos

Spray his/her favorite perfume on the letter, put petals of a flower they’d given you long back, stick the wrapper of a candy they might’ve given you in the past/you might’ve shared…Putting mementos inside the letter is another way to make the letter unique.


Love in IndiaPhoto by RonAlmog

5.The first moment

Describe what had first attracted you to them, how simple words spoken by them had created tornados in your heart, how you used to feel restless waiting for them…Nothing makes us feel more romantic than reminiscences of the heady days of first love.

6.Special moments

Was there a moment when you experienced intense emotional and physical feelings to see him/her or to hear their voice for the first time over the phone? Or when they said something special/intimate to you? Describe those feelings. It takes you closer to their heart.

7.Signing off

Put all your heart in the ending too. “With all the love of my heart.-Nisha”, while might sound mushy to you, will surely go close to the other person’s heart.

8.Use mother tongue

If you both speak the same language. I know it’ll probably be excruciatingly embarrassing sometimes. But if you want to really touch their heart, try it.

9.Dates!

Don’t forget to date the letter. Imagine what a treasured memento it’s going to become should you end up in a permanent relationship!

10.Paper and stationery

Don’t forget to use special paper and envelope for your special letter. Download them here for free.
Any particular tiny little thing you did in your love letter which was dearly appreciated by your loved one? Let us know by leaving a comment.
 
 

The First Kiss

Ah the first kiss. Kissing for the first time in your life is always wrapped in anticipation, excitement, embarrassment and maybe even a bit of anxiety. The first kiss is something you’ll never forget-the first-kiss day, the first-kiss location, your first-kiss clothes, the first-kiss time of the day and even the first-kiss weather (hopefully also the first kiss partner) are things that you’ll preserve with great care in your memories.
However the first kiss can be downright awkward. And hilarious. Here’s what Hollywood has got to say on it.

“The first kiss I had was the most disgusting thing in my life. The girl injected about a pound of saliva, into my mouth, and when I walked away I had to spit it all out.”-Leonardo diCaprio


Love in IndiaPhoto by Piez

“This girl said “Yes” when I wasn’t ready. I kissed her lightly and got so dizzy I had to sit down.” –Antonio Banderas, speaking of his first kiss.

I can imagine. After all, practice makes perfect, and kissing is no exception to that. Yes, if you were thinking (like many do) that kissing talent is like green eyes-either you’re born with it or you’re not, then I have to tell you-you couldn’t be more wrong.

I remember I was thirteen (like most girls) when I kissed (or was kissed) for the first time. The guy was 2 years older than me (he recently got married). It was during the lunch break in school on a hot summer afternoon. If you ask me how it went…well let’s just say my experience was not too dissimilar to that of Leonardo diCaprio. I hated the poor boy for that and avoided kissing him as much as possible thereafter. (A recent poll throws up “too much saliva” as the main turn-off in kissing. How embarrassing!)


Love in IndiaPhoto by Playingwithbrushes

Here are some quick facts about first kiss.

1. There’s no such thing as “kissing by instinct”.
2. Your first kiss is NOT going to be your best kiss.
3. The best way to ruin your first kiss is to try something complicated like a French kiss.
4. Another good way to do that is to plan too much for the event.
5. If you are a (shy) man/boy: The first kiss will not fall on your head. You have to make the move.
6. A third excellent way to ruin the first kiss is to go crazy thinking, “What do I do with my hands?”

The last battle of kisses (like all other battles of the Universe) is a men vs. women battle, as reflected in the following (juicy) quotes.

“A man snatches the first kiss, pleads for the second, demands the third, takes the fourth, accepts the fifth – and endures all the rest.”-Helen Rowland

The first kiss is stolen by the man; the last is begged by the woman.-Henry Louis Mencken

Women still remember the first kiss after men have forgotten the last.-Remy de Gourmont

What’s the story of your first kiss? Do leave a comment to let us know.

And have fun with this cute video while you ponder.


 
 

Proposing a Girl-Tips for Overcoming Shyness

A few days ago I was chatting with a (guy) friend of mine when he ruefully mentioned his mundane (non-existent) love-life. There are many girls he knows and likes but he hasn’t been able to muster the courage to actually “propose” them, i.e. go up to them and tell them how he feels. Let down by himself, he’s finally checking out the matchmaking sites, in search of a match for an arranged marriage.


Love in IndiaPhoto by Megyarsh

Shyness can be a real hindrance when it comes to dating and kick-starting your love-life. What can be a greater regret than liking someone for a long time, then seeing them taken away just because you could never voice your feelings? No, you don’t want that.

What is shyness?

Dr. Bernardo J. Carducci of the Shyness Research Institute (yes it exists) sees shyness as a sum of three components:

1.Excessive Self-Consciousness

– You’re conscious of what you’re doing, what you’re saying, how you’re behaving and especially what people are making of you, particularly when around people.

2.Excessive Negative Self-Evaluation

–You have a negative view of yourself.

3.Excessive Negative Self-Preoccupation

– You’re too hard on yourself. Of all the things that you do, the ones which you’re doing wrong catch your attention immediately, but the ones you’re doing right don’t. Especially when you’re around people.

Handling self-consciousness

Where does self-consciousness come from? The first advice you’ll get when you ask anyone (including Google) about overcoming self-consciousness is that, “You’re far less important than you think you are,” or “People really don’t have so much time to think about you.” When I was in college, I came to know, through a friend, that some guys (guys, not girls) were making fun of me among themselves saying, “Why on earth does she wear strap shoes when she’s wearing a skirt?” Yeah right-I was thinking all along that they were giving me even more attention than this. The moral of this story is that no, you don’t have to believe that “you’re not so important” bu*****t. People enjoy talking about (and criticizing) others. Often more, not less, than you think. (Where did the word ‘gossip’ come from??)
BUT, not everyone is gossiping about the same person all the time. While you’ll be shocked at the levels of attention some people have paid you (the skirt-shoe thing) at some point of time, you’ll be equally surprised (pleasantly) to know how soon they forgot about you and moved on to dissect some other hopeless victim’s life. So learn to believe that you’re getting just about 50% of the attention you think you’re getting, at an aggregate level.

Negative self-evaluation

The first and foremost reason for people feeling shy around the opposite sex (particularly men feeling shy around women) is fear of rejection. Why is the possibility of rejection becoming so enormous in your mind? Because you often judge yourself negatively. You’re imagining you don’t have enough positive in you to offer to your love interest, and so the probability of rejection is higher.


Love in IndiaPhoto by Meddygarnet

Wake up!! We all have talents and shortcomings, including those gossipmongers who’re looking at you and judging you. The way to break free of overly negative self-images is treating social interactions like math-something that has to be practiced on a regular basis. Make it a point to initiate conversation with at least 1 person-preferably someone new-every day. Think of it as purely an exercise, with zero emotional involvement from your side in the conversation. Many a times the people you approach will not pay you any attention (yes for some mysterious reason people often forget that being nice is FREE). But equally often they will. Through this process you’ll realize you’re just another normal person-who’s not disliked in general more than any other person. And so the chances of rejection from your dream girl (or prince) are not abnormally high as you imagine. To reduce those chances even further approach her at the right moment.

Negative self-preoccupation

Keep a journal with you. List all the things you’ve done right in a day. If you want you can also make a parallel list of the things you’ve done wrong, but I don’t think you need to (since picking your own faults is something you’re good at anyway). Once again you’ll realize you’re doing about as much percentage of all the things right as is the normal average person. And what’s more, you’ll realize you were not only noticing every wrong, but looking at them with a magnifying glass.
Make small promises to yourself everyday and keep them-like talking to a new person everyday, which I just mentioned. When you’ll realize that you’re able to keep these promises you’ll feel much more capable and confident. Approaching your crush will become that much easier.
Any other strategy you used to overcome your shyness around the opposite sex? Let us know through the comment thingy.
 
 

Love At First Sight-Does it Really Happen?

Do you believe in love at first sight? Have you ever had that warm mushy feeling within the first few minutes that you had seen someone for the first time in your life?


Love in IndiaPhoto by *~Dawn~*

The practical ones among you are probably rolling your eyes but researchers say it can happen. In 2004 scientists at the Ohio State University conducted an experiment to explore the nature of the feelings between people who’ve just met each other. Even though the experiment was conducted on same-sex couples (no, seriously not what you think), i.e. with “friendship” as the basic relationship, the results can also be applied in case of romantic love.
164 students were divided into same-sex couples and allowed to spend three, six or ten minutes with each other. Then they were asked to fill a questionnaire describing what they had in common with their partner in the pair, whether they’d liked them and their predictions about the future of the relationship. Nine months later it turned out that the people who’d predicted a better connection between themselves and their partners actually ended up being in a closer relationship than those who didn’t.
This observation matches perfectly with the conclusion Earl Naumann makes in his book Love at First Sight: The Stories and Science Behind Instant Attraction. He says-on the basis of rigorous research, including 1500 in-depth interviews-that love at first sight happens only to those who believe in it. Well that’s a no-brainer given the belief-driven way in which the human mind works. What’s astounding though, are two other numbers:
1. 55% of the people who experienced love at first sight ended up marrying the same person.
2. 75% of those marriages worked, i.e. didn’t end in divorce-a whopping 25 percentage points more than the average US divorce rate of 50%.
So if you have felt that strong emotional connection with someone you’ve just met, you don’t need to be wary. Just go for it! This might just be ‘it’.


The Ideal Time to Propose to a Girl

You’ve probably heard of the famous love quote-“It hurts to love someone and not be loved in return, but what is the most painful is to love someone and never find the courage to let the person know how you feel.” Sure, if there’s a girl you’ve begun to like you should let her know. But when? Here are some telltale signs to look for before you propose her.

1.You’re not just another person in her life

Are you one of those guys who spend one month admiring their crush from a distance while she doesn’t even know you exist? If that is the case then now is certainly not the right moment to propose. You don’t think accepting a total stranger as your boyfriend/girlfriend is really cool, do you? Neither does she. So if she doesn’t know you right now, let her know you.


Love in IndiaPhoto by Darwin Bell

2. She’s friends with you

The best thing to do is to start with a ‘Hi!’ Ah you probably knew that one. Now all you have to do is to put it into action overcoming all your shyness. Start a conversation with her about trivial things. Your objective is to become friends with her-to create a situation where she’ll want to talk to you and she’ll crave your company.

3.She trusts you

Once again-forget about someone getting into a relationship with someone they don’t trust. If you propose to her before you’ve gained her trust chances are she’ll turn you down. So it’s not enough to be friends with her. You need to be in her inner circle-one of the top three. You must be the one she turns to when she needs help with something. You must be the one she likes to hang out with most often. In short, you need to ‘build it up’- cultivate a liking (not necessarily romantic) for you in her mind.

4. Something common

Find out about her interests and try to find something in common with her-something the two of you can talk about. If you really have nothing in common read up on her interests so that you can have a meaningful conversation about it. Of course, if you’ve met her at your school/college/workplace this point is irrelevant because you already have something in common which you can talk endlessly about. :D


Love in IndiaPhoto by noe**

5.You have the gut feeling

At the right time it’ll not be difficult for you to pick up the telltale signals. That smile that lights up her face when she sees you, that twinkle in her eyes…they’ll all tell you, “This is the right moment.” Go ahead and do it then. How? Check this out.
 
 

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

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