An ode to she-s

Before I start my blog, here are some personal preferences

1. If ever there's a question of life and death in my life, I would rather go to a guy than a girl.
2. If we are planning for a trip and if the group's strength is greater than 2, I would love it if it's just guys so that everything becomes much more simpler and ad hoc.
3. I spent one and a quarter of an year in france in the company of only guys (almost). Life has never been more uncomplicated and laidback than that. I am only 23 but I don't think I would ever be able to spend such a time again.

Having stated that, let's come to my blog. After having been around for sometime and having spent time with a variety of people, I have realized that it's futile to try compare men and women. I have a hundred and one complaints against women - But I do understand that they probably have the same number of complaints against men and as every human, I underestimate my deficiences. We are two very different species, apart from certain physical similarities and it's wise to handle a specimen at a time without making sweeping generalizations and contrasts.

I, personally, am very happy to be a guy. I feel that the sense of adventure, the laidback attitude, the emotional simplicity and the lack of choices suit me quite well (I do realize that the cause and effect equation is the other way round). At the sametime, I am really glad that there are women in this world. Not only because of what they do to the world but also, as most evolutionary research and practical experience suggest, for what they make out of mere men.

Here are some oft-quoted yet very heart-felt reasons why I love the presence of girls in my life

• How they made a civilized man out of an animal that I once was. Right from my mom to Praveena (my friend since the age of 4), I know how each one of them have taken pains to refine me and everytime habit of mine - right from the way I eat to how I dress - and add the wee bit of sophistication that's now part of me.
• How - however pessimistic they are about their own future - they still believe in my utopian dreams about a perfect tomorrow and listen to me, with such faith in their eyes, as I go on and on about how I will make it happen and how I would change the world.
• How they taught me to empathize with pain and suffering, see someone else's misfortune as my own and instill whatever faith I carry in believing that good begets good.
• How they can play mothers to the hilt - prescribing medicines for every illness under the sun, chiding me for missing lunch or dinner, worry while I go do all antics like bungee jumping, scuba diving and complain when I get drenched in the rain and end up with a headache - and do it all so sweetly.
• How they add that special something to an evening - the smile, the feeling of total and complete satisfaction in their eyes - that when I walk back singing the lovliest of songs at the skies in the most horrible ways possible, I feel like the king of the world. I can NEVER ever experience that feeling of high in the company of a fellow-man!
• How they say - enunciate how they feel about you, in words, gifts and sometimes in colors down to the the very fibre and subatomic quark of every emotion and its variations - a whole layered verbal canvas I so deeply admire but seldom understand and yet feel special about.
• How they manage to do those trivial gestures - holding my hand while crossing a busy road, resting their head on my shoulder after those long days, or just calling out my name instinctively when caught in a crisis - and make me feel like a comic strip superhero with a swollen chest of pride and responsibility.
• How they turn a wayward teenager into a responsible guy, just by being themselves, listening to every crap I dish out and trusting me on any issue under the sun.

This should do for another 2000 years! It's quite an effort writing the whole thing without, for once, being sarcastic because it's quite out of character to speak such mushy stuff without turning cynical. What the heck - this is the last week I am blogging before Valentine's day (next week, i am off to kerala) - So, let's paint in red mademoiselle!