Saturday - A Close Shave

It was Saturday. Five days had gone by since the draconian Monday but not much had changed. Not a penny of the targeted sponsorship had been achieved; Mayank's confusion over life partner issues still prevailed; heat conditions remained unabated.

To think of it, the whole issue of Mayank, being forced into engagement with someone he didn't deem to be the 'right girl' was actually ironic, especially as he had been used to surfing the matrimonial site almost daily in the past one year. It was not as if proposals had not come for him or that he hadn't proposed to other girls; he had done lots of all that. In fact, reasonable headway had also been made in certain cases. The problem arose when Mayank would unfailingly look for every single virtue in one girl; when he would start looking for his Shweta.

Mayank went about the task of dating girls with a lot of planning. For example, he evaluated them on five different parameters— looks, intellect, nature, outlook and education/job. Needless to say, he would look for the very best in all these aspects; his expectations often exceeded the rational, thus causing disappointment.

Mayank's first brush with a wannabe bride from indianmatchmaker.com was with a girl called Prerna, almost a year ago. The profile was brief and the girl looked pretty in the photograph. Besides, the mention of her being an airhostess did excite him. Physical beauty, after all, was an important prerequisite in his search. Without wasting time, he approached the girl. And luckily for him the girl responded favorably.

Prerna was quite a contrast to Mayank. She was chirpy, fun-loving, uncomplicated, spontaneous and above all a 'natural'. She did not plan things the way Mayank did. She would laugh freely. They got along quite well for a while; perhaps it was a case of opposites attracting each other. They even met on Valentines' Day, though both shied away from being the first to “propose”. Both were perhaps strategically harping on the friendship plank, hoping that the other would tread the extra mile of making a formal proposal. This constant, pregnant expectation of “you do it first” eventually started getting on Mayank's nerves. Somewhere, in his heart, he had made up his mind that Prerna was not wife material; instead she was just “time pass”. This categorization had to do with the intellectual incompatibility issue; he realized somewhere that an airhostess would charm him, no doubt, but perhaps won't have the intellect to engage him in the kind of absorbing interactions that he liked.

It is strange that Mayank, like many other males had come to categorize women in two broad categories: one, the “time pass” variety, who were the girlfriend sort, the sort one could date and have fun with; and the other, the wife material, in whom they saw the virtues of being mother to their children. Prerna, obviously, by his perception, belonged to the former. However, girls being girls, Prerna was taken in by the good-natured flirting of Mayank and instinctively got closer to him. But, Mayank, like most men might have, interpreted this friendliness as a gesture of the girl wanting something “more”. Encouraged by Vishal, Mayank, made a pass at her... and that was the end of their “friendship”.

"Bloody hell!" he cursed, "Why do these women suddenly start behaving like prudes?" Mayank had complained impulsively, only to be reminded that unlike him, other aspirants on the website were more serious about its rightful usage.

After that Mayank met a string of girls. With one, a fashion designer, whom he quite liked, things didn't work out because she was a “manglik”. Mayank was quite cheesed on discovering this new horoscopic impediment. He even tried to align with his astrologer to see if things could be worked around to make the match possible; but in vain.

In yet another instance, the girl in question, a business analyst with a multinational, was candid enough to tell him about a past relationship of hers in the first meeting. While Mayank appreciated her honesty, he could make out for sure that the girl was yet to get over her past. And he surely didn't want to be another Anil; well, more on that later.

Finally another girl, a Research Scholar whom he liked, was rejected by his parents on the flimsy ground that she was about half a year elder to him. They couldn't accept a “bahu” who was older to their son.

These misses had left Mayank where he was — high and dry, at level zero of his search; till his parents, doubting his sincerity of purpose, had emotionally blackmailed him into getting engaged to Rewa.

*****

Like Mayank, Vishal too was involved in a “search”, though of a different kind. Vishal was perpetually on the lookout for women who wouldn't mind a passing affair. A senior journalist with the website, Vishal quite relished dealing with women who were difficult; they imbued him with a feeling of being challenged. He would in particular be on the lookout for stories where glamorous women could be featured and later work his way into their personal lives. Thanks to his expertise on the issue, Vishal had, in fact, come to be known for some of his “legendary” quotes:

"Journalism is surely the best profession to be in, if you have to invade the close circles of celebrity females. They pamper you because they know how much positive publicity can do for them. And then, it's entirely up to men like me to see how I can manipulate the situation and screw around."

“There is only one way to deal with a female – charm (read seduce) her and you will have your way.”

Vishal was a married man, though by his words and actions, no one presumed him to be so simply because of his tall, athletic physique, infectious, charming smile and ever-ready flirtatious comments. In his early thirties and married for the last three years now, he was still “extremely accommodating” towards women. The sight of a curvaceous female would evoke a strange, mischievous spark in his behavior, so typical of a college Romeo. He never let go of an opportunity for dalliance and was pretty open about it. He was a master in the art of brazen ogling and as Anil would often remark- yeh bhaisaab to aakhon hi aakhon mein rape kar dete hai ladkiyon ki (Our brother virtually rapes women with his eyes).

On his part, Vishal professed that the “power” of the eye was infallible. He maintained that “if you get the right eye contact that evokes the desired response from the girl, getting her to bed is no more than a practical detail”. He asserted his views with such confidence that all those who heard him wondered whether they were blind or their eye “power” was not normal.

Indeed, there were some days when his confidence levels soared so high that he told people that there was no girl in this world who would not succumb to temptation; “One simply had to be at it constantly,” he said. His opinion obviously gave the impression that he had scant regard for women, beyond seeing them as objects of carnal desire.

Few would have disagreed that Vishal could aptly be called a male chauvinist in the truest sense of the word. He often justified his weakness for women by confiding in close friends that it was due to his inability to get the “right girl” in his wife. But if somebody even vaguely insinuated a probe as to whether he had been the “right guy” for his wife, it would offend him. For all that he did, Vishal staunchly believed that his wife was not entitled to the same liberties as him.

Mayank quite despised this hypocrisy and made no attempt to hide it from Vishal. But for all these vices, few in the office would have disagreed that Vishal was “otherwise” a great guy. He was ever helpful and his weird sense of humor would lead to ripples of laughter even in grim situations.

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