In the dark of one winter night, he sat waiting to be
rescued from the shadows of the past. The unhappiness spread from childhood to
his recent past. The knight has fallen well manicured to the ground. His cowl
top under the shield has a tear giving way to his hairless chest. He looks up
toward the only light in the street showing his Greek god gorgeous face and
flaunting his well shaped eye brows and glossy lips. He is waiting with baited
breath for the damsel on the white horse to rescue him. And…
This doesn’t sound like your usual fairytale right! I know,
and neither does the usual man these days. When I speak about men today, it is
completely out of experience that they have decided to change places with the
women. And somehow women have again given in to the modern day man’s whims.
From the time of the women have decided to wear the pants, men have somehow
lost their sheen a little (I am understating it, I know). You might wonder why
I am ranting here. Well, as a kid I was told in the fairytales about the man
who was all macho, brave, didn’t cry, was the one in-charge, took care of
everything and everyone, didn’t wear his emotions on his sleeves and much more,
which now seem to be the qualities of the medieval age.
Men now are like Mr D, who even post 30 seem lost for an
urge to have an ambition and seem to think that the first strongly oriented
woman who comes his way is the woman he is going to cry on the shoulders of.
Earlier I used to find the sensitivity of a man a refreshing change. Oh how
sweet he can confess to his weaknesses, how nice he can cry and crib easily
like men were never really human in every woman’s mind.
Mr D is a modern day man. Well manicured, good pedigree,
suave, and the kind you will feel automatically attracted to when you meet him
for the first time. He has the ability to keep you hooked on to him with his
charming smile and knowledge. That’s when you thank god for small mercies and
ignore the fact that he is a narcissist. “Being a narcissist is good business sense!”
he had explained to me. So here I was, basking in the glory of what God had
kept wrapped for me and away from the rest of the world – Mr D. And yet,
there’s this bloody nudging conscious of mine sitting in a hammock in my head
and looking at me as if I have missed the obvious.
A few days of knowing and a couple of dinners later, I was
finally ready to snarl back at my conscious when he started talking. Before I
go ahead, here’s the thing. When women say, we got to talk… it is generally a
piece of gossip or a tragedy stricken story. When men say we got to talk… it
generally means business. But here I had forgotten that this man knew his
GUCCIs from GAPs.
“It is strange but I feel I can talk to you about anything,
it is like I have known you for so long!” Oh that line gives me the creeps, but
in Mr D’s case, I let it pass. “You know you make me realise that not
everything can be bad all the time. Light does shine on you someday or the
other.” I was officially lost by this time (read – not mesmerised but lost). “I
had a horrid childhood, a not so good teen and I have never been able to
sustain a relationship. But with you, it all seems possible. You can change
things for my life, I can see it.” And I couldn’t! While my conscious
constantly kept giving me a I-told-you-so smirk, I had to spin my head around
the fact that this man was actually asking me to take care of him. So I am the
nanny now? And here I was looking for someone equal and this one was offering
me the pants with tassels attached. “I have been an unhappy man for a very long
time. I know we might seem like a mismatch, but I know we can work it out
wonderfully. “Hang on, mismatch for sure, he is needy and I am not ready to
indulge that. I still asked him what he meant by the oh-so-obvious mismatch.
“Not to offend you or anything, but I know I am a good looking guy. I know this
because I am very critical about my looks. And you… well you are cute. And
while I know when we walk into a restaurant, like today, a lot of head turn
around and wonder why I am not with the sexy model. But for me, looks don’t
matter!” My conscious fell from her hammock in shock and I couldn’t suppress my
smirk. I had to tell him, to break this needy modern day man’s bubble and so I
do.
“Well Mr D, you are right… and you are so observant. I like the fact that
you are honest and forthcoming. I am glad that you are comfortable talking to
me. So sweet of you and yet… I still feel that you missed two major points.” Mr
D kept smiling and asked me what the points that were missed are. “Oh Mr D, the
two most important things I look for in a man, are compassion and intelligence.
And you lack both. Just because you are good looking doesn’t mean that I will
compromise on these two important qualities and adjust. While my dear Mr D, you
are a modern day man, I am absolutely the modern day woman!”
And they lived happily ever after… separately… the END
