Men seem to have moved to Venus while Women are heading to Mars!

Am I reading too much between the lines or is it really happening? It looks as women are shying away from marriage, men have no two-minds about exchanging vows and say 'I do' these days. On Monday, I was witness to nth instance of a human male whose age is <= 26 sharing news of his soon-to-be marriage.

Was the popular perception that men are commitment-phobic soon going to be a myth? From when on, the nightmare that was associated with the word 'altar' turn into sweet dreams for men? Gosh - are they going to start blushing too? :- Or is it some kind of side-effect of emergence of women as the gender that does no shy away from one night stands any longer and thus instilling a sense of insecurity among the males? Or is any mutation in natural drives of men in progress?

Even after those quite unnerving questions, I can quite understand and rationalize why these men want to marry and settle down (hopefully). After all, marriage has been considered for eternity a quintessential element in establishing the fact that the male involved is a successful primate who has reached a stage where he can afford to maintain a mate and contribute to the propagation of human species. With the advent of IT industry that got the wallets to bloat, there are quite a lot of men out there who think a marriage shall seal their quest to prove they have settled in life. A decade back, how many men could have boasted having a own house, a vehicle and a zillion girlfriends before turning 25?

But what seems quite fishy is - why would the women (who would obviously be <= 26 , in other words - in prime of their independent life), who are going to join these young men in matrimony, decided to do so?

If the way the women return a blank stare when inquired about how long their profile will have the status as 'Single' be used as indicator, it may seem that women thru ages have perceived marriage as a stepping stone to a convenient and risk-free existence ( I think emotional security was just a veil women used to hide behind lest their self-centered motives reveal themselves ;-) ). With the objective being fulfilled these days without help of men, there seems to be hardly any incentive in getting into any sort of long term deal which quite often ends up in one party having an upper hand when it was supposed to be a mutual deal. And then, typically Indian marriages come as package deal - Marry the guy and his entire family to deal with comes for free! When the current rage is about being 'flab free' these days, its quite hard to believe why would anyone fall for such mass deals! And for those moments of weakness, when a lady feels a need for company (This is again a manifestation of vanity - how many ever girl friends a woman might have, she still feels lonely without a man to admire and woo her :)), this is the age of 'instant' things where social networking sites are always there for some instant companionship. Mind it - I'm not even talking about physical gratification here (Just mentioning it so that I can use it as disclaimer lest any social networking site wants to sue me). And lets not even talk about kids here - that deserves a whole new post. Look around and see those couples who belong to DINK* category and ask them why no kids - they give you that threatening stare from Chloromint ad and reply "By choice". In short, if you are an advocate of marriage and you see you have a women-only audience, its better to take a bow and leave the stage coz probably you ain't gonna sell anything here!

So why those young women would want to marry? Doesn't it feel like a contradiction? Dr. Akston says in Atlas Shrugged "By the essence and nature of existence, contradictions cannot exist. If you find one, check your premises and you will find that one of them is wrong.” So what premises of marriage should we be looking at to identify if there are any ulterior motives involved? :)

So my dear guy friends who are ready to jump into the fire, think before you leap! Do you really want to wake up with a member of that species that have given you no clue whatsoever about what constitutes them? Why this mass hara-kiri?

* DINK - Double Income No Kids.

My new BF at work

My new best friend at work!

http://www.bosey.co.in/

Why? I've been to Mylapore but not to New Orleans :)

To my friend

My best friend at work

http://notalwaysright.com !

Would love if I get introduced to more such friends :D