Mumbai Diaries... Borderline 30, Single and Happy?

There are no reasons to silly giggles when girls are complimented by guys and then the blush. Somehow I was never the blush-on-compliments kinda girl. In fact, when complimented I look for catch words in the conversations to change the topic. Maybe that’s the way I blush. Hopeless indeed!

But I have seen some very unusual ways in which women react to them (compliments by men) and their cheesy lines said in all good humour to either get a great night or a beginning to a great life. At least I would like to think so! A very dear friend of mine, who generally has a verbal diarrhea, is always lost for words and red in the face when complimented by a guy. She is your very typical girlie girl who loves her hair falling perfectly on her shoulders, dress not creased, hands manicured, feet pedicured and face always ready to blush with a fixed smile. She is the type guys take for movies, hold hands, watch concerts, make-out but never reach the third base and eventually get married out of curiosity. I really like to observe this type as they are the most animated in conversations, entertaining with details and rest assured the dominant part of their brain focuses on shopping and men. In all humbleness I am not mocking them, I like them a lot because they are the friends who listen to your listless cribbing about work and then become very optimistic and tell you that the solution to everything is, “You need to make space for a man in your life!”

So here I am sipping my cappuccino with an extra shot and no sugar when he comes tottering on her skyscrapers that makes me feels giddy thinking about the vertigo I might have if I was wearing those. “I need your help!” OK, about this part… this type only needs help when they are either having a bad hair, nail or dress day or trouble with men in their lives. I generally don’t feel very indulgent in such scenarios, but this one has a special ability to make a needy puppy face every time she needs my unsolicited advice.

“This guy I have been dating for a month is too dominating. He even wants me to dictate what I wear!” her exasperation was nothing close to mine. It was as if she had used the magic words to trigger my button of anger. A bit about my type! Partial feminist, generally logical, hate shopping and have zilch patience for stupidity… not the mix men like these days, and yet for some weird reason we don’t lack the attention. We generally get attention from the needy, greedy and loony loners who think that we are the kind to mother them by being their partner. So while we don’t get enchanted by a dominating Fifty Shades of Grey, we also don’t give in to the black sheep either. We are very much straight and secretly hopeful!

I told my friend how she is a beautiful independent woman who can always choose what she wants to do and what not to do. That she needs to fix him a little by telling him that he can’t go all out being “I am your daddy” on her. While she agreed with me, she also said something that made me wonder and write this all. “M… I don’t want to be with the single tag when I turn 30. I don’t want to be the woman who has been around, tested men and then ended up single because she could never compromise. As amazing as it is to be single, one always needs a partner to go home to beyond a point. And I am at that point!” Lost for words all I could do is order for more coffee.

Is this how most borderline 30 year old women think? How come I haven’t thought about it? Or have I not had time in my piles of work to think about it? Or have I thought about it from time to time and brushed off the issue? My friend left announcing that she will talk to her guy, but compromise and work it out as well. While she did find a solution to her choking heart, I was left with too many questions of my own for my choking brain. This was the very Carrie Bradshaw 'Single And Fabulous?' moment of mine.