All about love!

Everyone is talking about love and romance lately. I recently read an article about how different people perceive love differently. An Indian housewife claimed in an article that her version of romance has outgrown M&Bs and she finds more resonance in stories like "rab ne bana di jodi" (an indian movie in which the wife falls in love with a hippie young dancer and fails to recognize that he is her own husband!!!duh!!) Really?!!??

I believe I am a fairly liberal and broad-minded person and am open to new ideas. To each his/her own! But this whole Valentine day mania that caught on to everyone kinda just got to me. I was on a weekend trip home and hubby darling had office that day (14 feb this year was sunday). I've had numerous people give me a scornful look of disapproval. Given I enjoy my weekends alone (A has couple of saturdays a month working) quite well and infact claim that they are the best days of the month since they allow me a lot of 'me-time', I am now quite used to being considered the bossy and dominating party in the marriage and obviously the one who ensured she got a good catch (well to the latter - I am guilty as charged). In fact, I am sure most people find the relationship we share quite weird and unhealthy. How could my life have more to it than what A wants to eat, wear, visit?! How can I not want to spend V day with him? Don't we love each other?

There are so many TV shows on the indian/hindi tv channels about young adults in college falling in love and dating and dumping. Lots of reality shows about dynamics of love and relationships. What strikes me as odd in most of these is the kinda of free time and carefree lives the female characters have. It seems like the only thing they have in life is their love lives. And the male characters - well they seem to do some job. We aren't really bothered about what they do. If they are high class businessmen they obviously have enough money and enough spare time.If the male character is poor he still makes enough money to have spare time to think of the beautiful damsel. Amazing! How uncomplicated their lives are? Think about dating and mating and if time permits think about all the traditional values and customs and your life's deed is done. All the woman has on her mind is her bf/husband and all the husband has on his mind is his gf/wife and well sometimes his drab job (probably when the director needs to change where the huband-wife meet).

I strongly believe that television and cinema are an important medium of influence. So, when SRK goes stalking Divya Bharti even when she clearly indicates to him that she is not interested but finally in the end falls in love with him youngsters who worship SRK take to stalking women. A girl's life is so incomplete till she finds her groom and if she is married the couple so need a few kids to really be happy and settled. A girl with a good job and good looks and no bf/fiance/husband has to be so distraught and lost in life.

Can we please have TV shows that  have a little more independent women? Women who can think, women who don't necessarily need a man to survive this cruel cruel world, women who don't need a man to buy her expensive clothes? Can we please have women who know what they want, women who have interests in things other than dating and mating? Sure dating is important but then there is so much more to life. So much more to do and see, to explore, to find out, to read, to watch, to play, to visit. I think I know a handful of women (at least, if not more) who have more to their lives than just their love lives.

Please, people, there is so much more to love. One of the many factors is loving your own self. Loving Life! Living life!
Here's wishing all of you a happy love life!