With Fathers' Day coming up tomorrow and the ongoing World Cup, guys seem to be getting some importance after all. So I decided to dedicate this article for my guy friends from the world over - everyone from the mischievous classmates from South Point to the fun co-workers in my professional life. They have been great, they have opened a whole new world which has enriched my life a lot.
Long before I got married and started living day in and day out with a guy, I was appalled at guys' manners. How they can comfortably wear one pair of jeans for a month, not wash their cooking utensils, drive nonchalantly seventeen miles over the speed limit and do many a weird thing that girls can't even think of. My jaw-drop moment was when a friend, on seeing his gym pants torn from the ankle to the knee immediately stapled three pins in there! Another one once told me that he used rubber bands to hold the sleeve of a torn shirt (which he tore during a school fight). Though I still have my "really??!!" moments after five years of marriage, I think my friends did help me in knowing guys well.
Not many people have siblings these days, so they might not get the chance to grow up with a brother. Those classmates were the boys I first interacted with in a regular basis. I saw what sports fanatics they were and how they tirelessly played cricket and football even if they got a ten minute break between classes. They did not spend time gossiping like the girls, they were busy. The college friends were into rock bands too besides sports. They would play the guitar, they introduced me to "the summer of '69" explaining that it has the best guitar played ever by any human. It was clearly apparent that they were budding engineers as well. During my birthday, I remember three friends crowded in front of the TV, trying to find out how to display recently captured pictures of the party on the TV, which cables to connect to which port. This comes effortlessly to boys, technical or not. I remember them as my team mates in the quiz club, my partner as the class monitor, my companions on the tram rides to and from school, my IT guy when I needed software, music or games, my competitor during NFS car races and in general people who would bug me, drive me nuts, call me at 11:30 in the evening to ask me if the grades are out but the ones I still enjoyed spending time with.
University introduced me to guy friends the world over. They differed in looks but not in behavior. I accompanied them to some "adventures" where I probably wouldn't have gone alone or with girls. They explained that scrambling over prickly bushes was fun, climbing walls to see what's inside a deserted home was "cool" and scaring people on narrow hiking trails, pushing them in swimming pools were all totally ok stuff to do to friends. Those are the friends who taught me to ride a bike, they were the ones I played badminton with on Saturdays. They were crazy but when it came to accompany us back to the dorm after evening or give a ride they were the ones who stepped up. There was a whole new responsibility that showed up in them during those times. They knew how to take care.
Co-workers can't really be friends, but when you spend more than eight hours everyday with some people, you are bound to get close. As it is common in our field to have very few girls we really have no other option but to be with a bunch of guys in our teams. Here, they are mostly not in the same age group as me, but that did never stop them from being my buddies. Talks of cars, beer, football, the latest smartphone crowd the team lunches. Activities like skate boarding competitions, gun ranges and dirt biking get talked about, Wikipedia articles on guns are read and discussed. If Sounders lose, there might be an ambiance of mourning around, weird jokes and out-of-the-world crazy things like Uni-baby (reference: http://axecop.com/characters/) are discussed with deep interest. That's a world very different from the one I grew up in, that's the world my guy friends have shown me.
These guys have made me laugh, come out of my comfort zone, look at things from a different perspective and have made me feel special. Guy friends are the ones who make us understand our future husbands in a better way and I wish more girls had the chance to grow up with fun boys like I did.
Long before I got married and started living day in and day out with a guy, I was appalled at guys' manners. How they can comfortably wear one pair of jeans for a month, not wash their cooking utensils, drive nonchalantly seventeen miles over the speed limit and do many a weird thing that girls can't even think of. My jaw-drop moment was when a friend, on seeing his gym pants torn from the ankle to the knee immediately stapled three pins in there! Another one once told me that he used rubber bands to hold the sleeve of a torn shirt (which he tore during a school fight). Though I still have my "really??!!" moments after five years of marriage, I think my friends did help me in knowing guys well.
Not many people have siblings these days, so they might not get the chance to grow up with a brother. Those classmates were the boys I first interacted with in a regular basis. I saw what sports fanatics they were and how they tirelessly played cricket and football even if they got a ten minute break between classes. They did not spend time gossiping like the girls, they were busy. The college friends were into rock bands too besides sports. They would play the guitar, they introduced me to "the summer of '69" explaining that it has the best guitar played ever by any human. It was clearly apparent that they were budding engineers as well. During my birthday, I remember three friends crowded in front of the TV, trying to find out how to display recently captured pictures of the party on the TV, which cables to connect to which port. This comes effortlessly to boys, technical or not. I remember them as my team mates in the quiz club, my partner as the class monitor, my companions on the tram rides to and from school, my IT guy when I needed software, music or games, my competitor during NFS car races and in general people who would bug me, drive me nuts, call me at 11:30 in the evening to ask me if the grades are out but the ones I still enjoyed spending time with.
University introduced me to guy friends the world over. They differed in looks but not in behavior. I accompanied them to some "adventures" where I probably wouldn't have gone alone or with girls. They explained that scrambling over prickly bushes was fun, climbing walls to see what's inside a deserted home was "cool" and scaring people on narrow hiking trails, pushing them in swimming pools were all totally ok stuff to do to friends. Those are the friends who taught me to ride a bike, they were the ones I played badminton with on Saturdays. They were crazy but when it came to accompany us back to the dorm after evening or give a ride they were the ones who stepped up. There was a whole new responsibility that showed up in them during those times. They knew how to take care.
Co-workers can't really be friends, but when you spend more than eight hours everyday with some people, you are bound to get close. As it is common in our field to have very few girls we really have no other option but to be with a bunch of guys in our teams. Here, they are mostly not in the same age group as me, but that did never stop them from being my buddies. Talks of cars, beer, football, the latest smartphone crowd the team lunches. Activities like skate boarding competitions, gun ranges and dirt biking get talked about, Wikipedia articles on guns are read and discussed. If Sounders lose, there might be an ambiance of mourning around, weird jokes and out-of-the-world crazy things like Uni-baby (reference: http://axecop.com/characters/) are discussed with deep interest. That's a world very different from the one I grew up in, that's the world my guy friends have shown me.
These guys have made me laugh, come out of my comfort zone, look at things from a different perspective and have made me feel special. Guy friends are the ones who make us understand our future husbands in a better way and I wish more girls had the chance to grow up with fun boys like I did.
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