Happy Endings

I met an old friend the other day who had an interesting story to tell. She had gone for a friend's wedding where she played the role of the "maid of honour" or some such, and sometime during the sangeet, all of a sudden, she found herself looking deep into the teary eyes of the bride's brother. Now, my friend is sassy, attractive and has a decent head on her shoulders, but even she admits to getting carried away by the scenario. You know what I mean? The guy was attractive enough and had all the general prerequisites, and he was actually, in the spirit of "He's Just Not That Into You", doing the chasing. He was looking for random excuses to talk to her, kept calling her out for a little rendezvous in the middle of the night, there were flickers of meaningful conversation, even. It had all of the makings of a great 2008 romance - a good looking guy well qualified guy with a high paying job to match my super-successful friend's qualifications, a single guy, a guy who was caught up in so much emotion at his own sister's happiness that it was evident that he was "ready", and what's more, it had the best "story" amongst all the relationships in our friends circles. All great relationships have a great story, well, almost all of them. (Let me tell you, some relationships which started off as "hooked up randomly after too many tequila shots", "we were bored" and even "I don't remember" are doing quite fine, thank you.) The story is the answer to how did you meet:

"Well, I had gone for abc's wedding, and then.... "

You think.

A day and a half later, on the pretext of going for a walk, our gal and her boy are out in a secluded area. In the spirit of potential relationship, Gal decides to "take it slow", and suddenly, the cute, sensitive brother of the bride is slobbering all over her. No conversation, no getting to know each other, well, not in the way my friend imagined it.

To me, this was just symptomatic of the death of the happy ending. The last time I saw anyone use the word happy ending convincingly was when Pizza Hut introduced a new garlicky crust. What do you do when even the most perfect Yash Chopra Sequence goes terribly wrong? Another friend met a guy, I confess that this guy was a friend of MINE, with whom she had wonderful chemistry which sizzled all through the Roger Waters concert last year, and he even had his arm on her shoulders all evening and patiently probed into her recent break up. Soon afterwards, he tells her that he's not in "that place". You know "that place", of course - the concentration camp called "commitment". Now she can't even listen to Pink Floyd without cringing.

One of your best friends tries to set you up with her "so ready to settle down" best guy pal, and guess what? He can't get involved with you at a 'conscious level'. You meet a guy in the oddest of circumstances leaving you with no belief other than that you were made for each other, and three years later when you cross paths in the Supreme Court, he actually runs as fast as one can in a full length gown past you to avoid even taking in the same air which you might have just exhaled.

Really now, people keep whining about how we are so damn cynical, but then do you really think its possible to look forward to anything which even suggests romance and happiness? The next time you're standing under a makeshift shelter from the rain and an attractive man also rushes in, I suggest you run as fast as your legs can carry you, because he's probably a serial killer. Find yourself warming upto a man you met on facebook in some common interest community? Guess what? He's a Woman. Face it, the happy ending is turning into an Urban Legend, right alongside waking up in a tub of ice with "CALL 911" scribbled on the mirror with lipstick. Come to think of it, the latter is more of a possibility.

Meg points out though, over dinner at Pot Pourri, that a Happy Ending is possible, It's called a Jack Daniels Chocolate Cup.

It takes my great friends for me to remember that we still have reasons to celebrate. :)