What girls expect??

There really are too many questions out there that leave us stumped and bgllleerruubbiinhiing for answers. When my colleague friend, recently, out of sheer desperation, asked me while we were discussing 'relationships'... "Ashika, what do girls expect????????".. for once, quite surprisingly, I went 'virtually' quiet on the IM. Infact, I was in a complex thinking process and I could feel those folds of my brain squirm and groan in pain. Lack of practice, I assume.

When a little more than 5 minutes had passed, my fateful friend's "..errr, U are a girl, aren't you..." sparked me into thinking...what do I expect from my partner? What do girls expect from people they are in a relationship with? And thats when I started my - Project Endless Quests!! The response to my queries -> wonderful! The looking-forward-to-your-posting comments-> remarkable!

So, with the Quest in mind and armed with a network of some really intelligent and expressive women, I began the process of putting forth the question to all of them. The answers I got were quite...err...varied! "Jobless creature", "Is this what you get paid for?!", "@#$#@$%$#%$#%" were accompanied with some really interesting insights and pointers. So, I have tried, to the best of my skills, to consolidate the plethora of womanly wisdom and introspection of "what girls expect". Arranged in the order of popularity among the pillars of life and the hands that rock the cradle and rule the world (couldn't resist that! But am not entirely wrong either ;))

1. Unconditional love

Yes, cliched, heard-it-a-thousand-times, so obvious...'unconditional love'. Girls expect you to love them just the way they are..just the way they love you. Really, there is no point in elaborating, because if you love someone, you would understand this anyways. Being aware of her shortcomings and her coming-short-of-killing-you habits, yet, accepting them and knowing that life is long and there is a lot of avenues for her to change or for you to simply (sigh!) get used to them...its as simple as that. Because, believe me, when a girl loves you truly...she'll even kiss your bald patch and won't even notice that paunch you've been wanting to turn into a six pack for quite a few years now!

2. Respect

It is quite a 'but, obvious' expectation, but hey! Thats what the ladies told me (!) and yes, I personally feel too (KK, yes, its official...I am a girl!). Aaah..Respect..the one word that can rid the world of all evil and malice. Respect, for a woman (actually for anyone else) does not end with 'pleases'and 'thank you's', respecting her feelings, her likes, her dislikes...respecting her enough to be honest with her..respecting her beliefs, her principles. Its all about treating her the way you would want her to treat you. With respect.

3. Be yourself

Not everyone is 'king of comedy' or 'action star' and we know it! Sit for a moment and think...what is it that you are, the real you..just be that, please. Girls expect you to be yourself. When a girl truly loves you, she wants to get beneath that composed demeanor and know what you really are made of and accept you just that way. Imagine being the coolest kid on the block all the time when she is around, and what a rude shock it would be for the poor sould when she realises that you throw tantrums and break the vases at home. Be yourself. Wouldn't you rather have a woman love you with all your shortcomings?? And anyways, thats what she expects too.

4. Learn an instrument, draw,paint, do something

The guitar, the mouth organ, the keyboard, the clarinet, the trumpet, the saxophone,sketch, paint, carpentry...just something Learn to play a song (London bridge is falling down, in any mood, is alright!), draw a few masterpieces (they will be master pieces for her anyways!), write a poem...its not about entertaining her and being her 'colour tv', its more about the ability to be in touch with your artistic side. Girls expect that. Have a special interest. Oh yeah, making her something special out of that special interest....helps big time!

5. Own mind and own tongue

Girls appreciate men who can speak their mind ... AT THE RIGHT TIME. She has just been unnecessarily rude to the waiter, and this is not the first time. Your mind says, "that was mean..thats not usually like her" but then, if you tell her that now, you might end up in a soup yourself. Tell her. Maybe in a while, in a day..but tell her. She'll be enraged at first (quite a dangerous sight) but if she is a mature girl and understands you, she'll see the point. Have the guts to open up and speak. For if she loves you, your opinion would matter.
Yeaap! They expect it! oopss...'we' expect it!!

6.Guts

Stand up for the underdog. Be kind to older people and women. Do not, DO NOT abuse while driving. Takes guts to do all this, especially when there is a woman beside you, your probably, subconsciously trying to impress. Its all about the 3 Rs;

• Respect for self
• Respect for others
• Responsibility for all your actions

Go, muster up those guts. She'll respect you more. And yes, she expects this from you too.

Phew! Its been quite a few days of balancing presentations, reports , a runny nose and hoards and hoards of times of save as drafts! But at last, I have done it! Tried to lessen the burden of my fellow beings (read: male species)! I know that this is not really an exhaustive list, will try to add in more as and when they come!

Till then! Go go go! Get your acts together! You know what girls expect now!!

So long!

Ash