To have or not to have?

Commenting on the same, rather naively, my author friend Arvind of Sinhagad Institute of Technology (SIT) said, “I did have a girlfriend but unfortunately I lost her because I do not possess a motorbike.” We roared with laughter, but later thought that maybe the `girlfriend’ wanted to be the nice pillion rider, hence parted with this guy. Who knows? And indeed interestingly, it can be seen that many of the boys are not quite interested in having one girlfriend. They would rather have many!

On this, another friend Jogendra lamented, “You know it’s very expensive to keep a girlfriend.” I was shocked and amused, because it seemed he was talking of keeping an Opel Astra or a Maruti Zen! He added that most of the girls tends to expect the boys to spend the major part of the expenditure right from ice-cream to Thunderbolt! “It’s somewhat,” he adds, “in alignment with our patriarchal society.” Although this sounds very amusing, but he sure has given me some food for thought!

In the course of our discussion it thus became clear that the boys are somehow perturbed about the assumed behaviour taken up by their girlfriends. In the process Sanjay again revealed that many boys want to have a girlfriend but due to peer pressure cannot surge ahead. Instead when they change the city of their dwelling, they tend to attain one girlfriend by hook or by crook, in order to get the idea of what it really means! A point to be noted.

“Thus, in this century of increased individual freedom girlfriends are becoming quite uninteresting as an option. Rather the choice of many girlfriends with healthy interactive behaviour is more welcome,” says Sanjay. Commitment to a particular girl is becoming increasingly difficult for them. Thus the boys are opting for more freedom and want to be friends to everybody, with a committed enjoyment of every minute. They do not opt to `go around’ with a single individual. “By this way, `freedom’ is perceived as a superior instinct rather than losing it to a girlfriend,” says Sanjay.

Another aspect which is rather intricate is touched by another friend from a different corner who admits of having a girlfriend who was working and elder to him. She was beautiful and mature. Later this year the relationship discontinued. According to him, the girl was becoming too possessive of him. Thus, it reiterates the idea that individual freedom, especially at this age, is a factor to be reckoned with.

Later, I discovered that one of my friends is having three so-called girlfriends simultaneously. Curiously when I referred to that fact, he stated in a satirical way that it is not safe to keep only one. My friend was earlier duped by his `serious’ girlfriend and from then on, in despair, he is now keeping three simultaneously so that if one is trying to act smart, others are there to fall back on. Very nice fall of logic, I suppose! Another reason for keeping three of them simultaneously is that if one is not in town, the other two are there. Certainly a very bold and cool-headed thought of action.

The pros and cons are unending. Be it or be it not, the happiness is worth remembering and the memories will be rich ones.