Simply Single!!!

Being single in a metro can be a very easy thing and can be the most difficult task as well. You have the freedom of being your own person and not have to be someone’s arm-candy, as the Dilliwalas prefer it. But on the other hand, you cannot have late night outs if you are not in a huge group of friends. And I am not a crowd person, so invariably I have become a home bird by compulsion. One such very boring Sunday, a friend invited me to be a part of her brunch party. I am a very brunch person, considering I wake up at around 11am every day. So I made a bit of an effort for this one and went for this brunch party, where accept for my friend, who happens to be this high society Madame, I knew no one. The party was at the rooftop of her plush bungalow, and I love her house because her house is done up in the white theme. Yes when you have a lot of money you can have a theme for your house, but I hope you are not the kind of person who like florescent colours. I entered her rooftop just to find that this was no different than any other page 3 party. Stilettos, people marinated in perfumes and the cheek-to-cheek kisses. I quickly met my friend in the page 3 ceremonious way and made my way toward the bar for a glass of wine. I loved the slight breeze, the winter sun and wine. Just couldn’t have gotten better, when my friend walked up to me and said, “Hey darling I want you to meet my very dear friend from Canada. He is in Delhi for a bit and I thought you guys could hit it off really well.” This is the most difficult part of being single, the fact that most of your married friend try and fix you up with their other single friends. I mean when did the married community suddenly become cupid’s army? I obviously did not want to spoil my friendship with her and went with her to meet Mr Canada. As luck would have it, I was not the only one who was in line to meet Mr Canada. Women in the entire party had noticed him and took turns to meet him. I on the other hand was glad that the fella would not be disappointed if he did not me one lady in the party as he was being attended to by the rest. “And my dear handsome, this is a very dear friend of mine here in Delhi and she is a writer. She is my cutest girlfriend,” and this is how I was introduced to Mr Canada. Wow, was the compliment cute the last thing you get when someone runs out of compliments for you? Anyways, Mr Canada and I tried to make futile attempts at starting a conversation and suddenly he said, “I know what is happening here!” with a line like that, who wouldn’t be confused. “I know why I am getting so much importance here. It is because of the company I own and the money that I have in the bank, otherwise no one from this crowd would even turn and take notice of me,” he said. I was speechless. Here I was thinking that he was one of them and was also arrogant about that the fact that he was the most wanted one in this brunch party. But he proved me wrong all the way. “Oh ok, you got me there. I thought you liked all the attention you were getting,” I said. “You know I should be used to it now, but I don’t like It.” fair enough! And all of a sudden my friend’s friend from Canada became an interesting guy who I wanted to know more about. We sat closer to the bar and spoke about my work, his work, family and friends and lots more. “I am glad I met you here, otherwise I would have been on my way to the hotel a long time back,” he said. “Oh you can thank me later,” I said in a very non-chalant way. “So are you single?” he asked. Somehow after a great conversation, this seemed like the lamest question. “Yes I am. And in fact I am very happy being one,” I said, just to make it clear that I am single and not ready to mingle. Gee how cliché is that! “Woo… ok don’t worry I am not asking you to marry me or something. Will you be ok if I ask you out on let’s say a non-date date? Something like this that we did today, lots of funs talks and good food, what say?” he asked me. Generally when I am in situations like this, I usually say, “NO”. But this was a different case. This guy is intelligent, fun and I have to admit good looking. “Ummm… ok. Provided I am not bunking office for it,” I replied. And just like that my next weekend was booked and I don’t even remember what I ate at that brunch, but I am doing to still love brunches.
The date with Mr Canada was simple and sweet. A sumptuous dinner in Bukhara, a debate on homosexuality and a confession. No he did not confession that he is in love with me or something. In fact, he told me that he was in love, but with another guy. And that he has hidden the fact about his sexuality for almost 10 years from his family and friends. “I am the first one you are telling this to?” I asked him. “Yes, I somehow am tired of hiding it and you seems like a person who can keep a secret,” he said. I did not choke on the bread I was eating or run away from there, in fact, I was happy because I went this non-date date without any expectations. I have made great friends with Mr Canada, but just one question – why are most good looking and intelligent men taken or gay?

‘What you look like when you have a hangover’

I won’t be an unconventional girl and say that I am not into Chiclets, or chick flicks or even manicures. But like many other gurls, as a friend of mine likes to call us with a Brit accent, I don’t understand why all of us are just supposed to talk about the ‘EX’?
As a girl I can tell you one thing that we women never really know what we want at one point in time. So it can be a cute looking spikey-hair-gelled guy in a club, or a pup on the road in front of your office. The choice is always easy to make, but we make it difficult as if Obama’s life depended on it.
It is a very ‘Sex-In-The-City’ syndrome to talk about what went wrong with your ex-boyfriend. ‘He was cheating on me, he used to snore, he was dirty, even the fact that he did not gel well with my family… blah… blah… blah!’ Even I as a woman get annoyed with all this cribbing. Like this one afternoon when I was summoned by one of my very favourite girlfriends to Khan Market for lunch to sort out the self created battle in her head. Now before I go any further, me and my friends have always preferred Khan Market as opposed to any other market in delhi because that is the only place we all can spend an entire day doing nothing. There are very few shops and thankfully this limits my friends from shopping, and I HATE SHOPPING.
So this one winter afternoon, after taking a noisy auto ride, I reached Khan Market to see a chic, 5ft 7 inches tall, head turner, turned into a perfect example of a ‘What you look like when you have a hangover’. My girlfriend here has obviously taken this breakup with her first ever boyfriend on 25 years very seriously. “Look I am a wreck!” she said. The brash person that I am, I really wanted to say, “What’s the point announcing it, it is so in your face that you are a wreck.” But instead I let the friend in me talk. “Oh sweetheart, you will be better in no time,” how fake I sounded, but thank god that she didn’t notice this in her absent-minded state. We went to our favourite Thai restaurant – KITCHEN. We ordered the regular and then she started off. “I can’t believe it! Everything was just perfect till last week. I met his parents also, and he even went shopping with me for my new pup’s toys. He was also planning to shift base to Delhi from Mumbai and wanted to buy the car that I like. And now all of a sudden everything is over. I am here… all shattered and emotionally drained. And he is in Mumbai with a new girl. What the hell!” well you might take about 30 seconds to two minutes to read this bit, but my dear darling friend took flat 15 seconds to spit it all out. I feel like a genius for remembering it word-to-word. “Move on, what’s the point spoiling your Thai red curry over that arse? I mean listen you are a smart 25-years-old, earning well, good looking and lots of other stuff I am sure men will figure out. Why are you crying for someone who is not even there?” I asked her. See the difference here between men and women becomes very apparent. If a guy had a break-up and was sad about it, he would meet up his friends in a club or some place, have a few drinks, play pool, tak about it a little and then laugh it off. But with women, they just keep asking the question ‘WHY’ so many times that anyone can get exhausted… phew. “All I wanted to him to do was to marry me. And just because of that he flipped. After which I told him that if he can’t marry me now then why are we together. And he said, ‘ok we should part ways then’. And so we parted way!” wow she knows why it happened, asked for it in fact in so many words and is still stuck on ‘WHY’.
We finished our lunch; I so wanted to take a time out from this whining and made a bad suggestion. “Let’s go to Ambassador and have beer.” The words came out of my mouth as it someone did Voodoo on me. I guess after that what happened is a bit too obvious. We went to the hotel, drank… and drank… and drank. My friend passed out, I was dizzy in the head, but still left her home. By the time I reached home, I was looking like a wreck. And next day I woke up look ‘What you look like when you have a hangover’.
All of this because of that stupid EX!