Relationship Insights and why they don't apply to me

One of the relationship insights I've uncovered, thanks mostly to St. Jeetu, is that the fundamental reason girls fight is that they are looking for attention.

A guy who truly understands this will give his girl the attention she needs than fighting back. 

But as much I try to understand this, I've got to add some caveats:

• If the fights are targeted insults than generic rants
• If they happen too often 
• If the signs of alleviation are feeble 

Under these conditions, continuing to be the guy who truly understands is a daunting task. If any of the guys have mastered this, I'm all ears. 

Prashant's Bandra Pad

Ashwin is usually asking me to catch up over smoke and I'm usually declining (which is almost always because of Geet) and this time too she's angry with my catching up with the guys, but this is happening after about 2 months, and its certainly silly to have issues with such frequency levels. But then again, what's ever rational here :)

Anyway, getting back to the party proceedings. It was first of all awesome to visit Prashant's place as it felt exactly what Geet and my life could have been if we chose to stay in Bandra rather than Malad. Prashant's place was bang in the middle of a happening part of town, with a cozy little house that may have given us a completely different experience of Bombay. 

But in hindsight, SanGeet gave us an incredible number of awesome parties, weekends filled with trips either outside Bombay or to parents place for great food. So I guess it had its benefits.

Some of the things we discussed during the course of the evening, that surprisingly began at 8:00 and went beyond midnight, something that happens rarely when you smoke. It was clearly good stuff and even better company.

Age - Prashant 84, Ashwin and Narayan 87. Made me feel so old hanging with them. Feels like my brain is deformed to enjoy company of only those younger than me. I find people older staid. Nobody believed I was older than Prashant. Made me feel good about how I looked. But not very good about how I acted. Actually dont have a single older friend. Either my age with NM crowd (even they may be younger btw) or people much younger. 

Chunky face - Ashwin got a pipe in which we smoked and I was taking photos of him looking cool doing that and he said I look better smoking as I have a better face while his is just chunky. That was a really funny thing to hear. 

Weed - Ashwin narrated an incident of how his mom caught him with roaches and when his dad accosted him, he tried making up some random lab excuse and his dad patiently said as long as it's just weed it's fine, but he should still read up about it before considering to get into it. That's some top level parenting!

Mozart Theory - Kids today if serious about piano should be able to play Mozart by time they are teens. If they can't, they should just give up as they don't have the talent to pull it off. Things just keep getting tougher. 3:30 which was a marathon record 10 years back is just the qualifying time at the Boston Marathon. Things just keep getting tougher and people keep scaling new boundaries as time passes. 

DriveU drivers are either really young or really old and the reason for that may be that driving is an easy skill to learn, and therefore the low entry barrier to quick money is driving aspiring youth and senior citizens looking to still earn for a living. 

Ratings - Narayan was talking of a friend who owned a restaurant where a reviewer gave a poor rating just because there were beggars outside the place that he didn't have any control over. And just now the cabbie who dropped us apologies profusely for an incorrect turn he made, which wasn't even his fault as he was just following the GPS and didn't pay attention to what Aanchal was saying, and begged for a good rating on the app. It's crazy how lives of so many people are being governed by ratings. It's like the "nosedive" episode of Black Mirror happening for real, where things can only nosedive from here. 

LS/Worn - Words used in Bombay colleges to refer to people who have come from lower rung schools and largely speak in Hindi only. Ashwin said LS is a manner of speaking and not the way you look. There could be a girl who looks really hot, but if she speaks in, and more importantly, thinks in Hindi, she's LS, or a more racist for of the word, Worn.

3 stages of love

First: Religion
Lots of people arranged marry early in life, as they just can't think of anything else to do, or more simplistically, very horny.
And when they make that decision to marry, religion becomes the most important element as we have centuries of scripts aligning stars and planets which offer far more information that what you can pick about the prospective spouse in that little time.
So religion becomes the first reason to marry.

Second: Love
The wiser lot, the older lot, the ones mature enough to realise that religion and centuries old text cannot be completely trusted to provide you a long and satisfying life, seek out the one they are infatuated with, physically attracted to, and all those weird butterfly feelings in the stomach when in their company that seem to suggest that this is what "love" may be, and then get married to that person.
Thus making love the next reason to marry.

Third: Success
The even smarter ones, the ones smart enough to know they are not smart enough to make it on their own, but need someone else who can do it either on their own, or can bring complimentary skills to the table in order to ensure the partnership is one that provides a richer, fulfilling life.
Think about Melania Trump, Hilary Clinton, and one could even argue, Barack Obama! They all married to reach higher, to get some place they couldn't have on their own, to fundamentally experience "success" above all else, with their partner.
Thus making success the third level of love.

Eat, Pray, Love may have been an attempt in this area, if only they though a little harder, and figured that eat is much too simplistic, but to eat and eat well, one needs to be successful.