.... And they lived happily thereafter.
Must have read this hundreds of times... This one thing becomes very awkward in Indian subcontinent. The reason is simple.... The end can be happy when the beginning was "normal". In this part of the world we don't really "Love", we "Shop". We buy something or someone and call it "Love".
It all begins when we begin to use our brain more than we use our heart. Our heart attracts us to one person but here in this part of the world, we have a long (In-fact way too long) list of criteria that a person must fulfill before we allow ourselves to open up to him/her. These unfulfillable criterias keep us away from that person.
Hey, she seems like a nice person but she's just 5'2, her looks are okay but her attitude scares me, she's a nice person all-around but as she's a nice person, either she must already be in a relationship or she must be having a thousand choices, she will never choose me or the best of all... Either my family won't like her or her family won't like me. Screw this....
On the other hand,
Hey, he seems to be a nice person but don't they all pretend to be nice, I must be wrong he must be a jerk in reality... He's so fat and ugly, eww.... He's okay overall, nice personality, good looking, well settled but why doesn't he approach me, if I approach him won't I look desperate. Screw this....
Time flies by.... Bye bye.... Now you know you're already in your thirties, still telling the whole world that you're career oriented (Knowing well that you no longer give a damn about your career, you're already fed up of 10-20% increase in your income from time to time and you want adventure, something new)
Now you begin to look around for people like yourself and thankfully you find that you're not alone. When you look at people of your age for relationship now, your expectations are even higher. I sacrificed all of these years for someone perfect, now I can't settle for anything less. Now the girl must be beautiful, now she must be a wonder-woman who knows everything.... She must have the beauty of an angel, cooking talent of a professional chef, she must be in a good job, a shy person outside but a demon in the bedroom....
On the other hand, the boy must be comparable with the richest people around (even if those richest people took 40 years to create that wealth and are 70 years old now), he must own at-least 2 houses, if one home is abroad, that's even better, he must have an SUV or maybe a luxury sedan class will be okay, He must cook and clean with me (Assuming I'll ever do that myself, if I don't, he should do all of that as well)....
Nothing said above ever comes true and finally our families understanding our pathetic situation, they decide to take matters in their own hands... Now scared that we might end up in an arranged marriage, we begin small compromises... Okay... Okay.... Less beautiful than an angel will be okay, 5'2 height is not bad, Atleast the person is nice.... Okay.... Okay... If he isn't the richest man around, that's okay, money isn't everything, cars are just a means of transport, Honda city will suffice...
We downgrade the criteria, still what we're doing is.... Trying to find a person who still fulfills most of the above-mentioned criterion ... Loving, caring, homemaker, the one who loves children was never a criteria.... So we end up with someone who is more beautiful than other, richer than others but as we never cared about compatibility, our lives become miserable. We were never In-fact "loving", we were "shopping".
We shopped for love and just like every item that's bought, it comes with an expiry date. Sooner or later, it no longer works... Being Asians, divorce is mostly not an option and so we tolerate for the rest of our lives... Love Shopping is only screwing us and still we are doing exactly that... This is even more true for the newly developed corporate world in this part of the world. If you're doing any of this, don't forget "Bought items never remain with you for the rest of your life, they wither away". Love Shopping is not any different. Use a little of your heart too, not just your brain, if only your brain is active....
Congratulations you're a "love shopper".... And the only thing that I can say is.... Happy Shopping.