Marriage from a Man’s Point of View

Well Done Arif. I beautiful piece of work. It was very close to relity. You really spelt out the voice of hearts of all these married (marred...kidding) men. But still i honestly think you were very very close to reality, specially the romance part. I always thought sitting in the living room and watching TV after work was romantic...but not for the feminine gender.

What a wonderfully fun article. Clearly you are enjoying marriage.

From a woman`s side I`d say your woman is probably not representative of all women. Its really hard to be. Some points you make definitely seem to apply accross the board, like the difference in definitions of romance. In the case of clothes and dressing up however, I have to make the same complaint about my husband as you do about your wife.

Still in some years you`ll be surprised about how the independence stuff rubs off on each other and when you visit people you`ll be surprised how similar you look to each other, when you thought you and her were so very different. I don`t know if that sentence made sense, but when it happens you`ll know.

You`ve got a good sense of humor too! Hope to keep seeing your writings on Chowk

Arif:

Interesting observations.

I chuckled at the first parenthesis. In boxing parlance that was gurads-up.

To bake the matrimonial bread, the dough needs, in addition to ``companionship, romance and a fair degree of independence,`` good quality skirmishes, well ambushes --every so often, a fail-proof crisis resolution procedure, (try ``I`m sorry yaar``), and non-chalantly giving the impression of always giving in (have your way but give him/her the impression it is their way ---- yeah, this is Machiaveliian, but who said living with the OTHER interminably is fair?) AND letting the other half have the last word.

And speaking of words, (heck, the last time we interacted, I recall it was over words, too), your last words -- smile and nod -- won`t be the last words. They will, rightly, belong to one Shandy Dandy.

regards,

P.S. If you let me know your email address I will send you my version of the experience.

=== Interact Filtered ===
view this users filtered interacts

Hey Abrar,

``When in doubt, smile and nod`` doesn`t work. You have to SOUND intelligent too :) Smile and nod just means hubby isn`t listening - its unacceptable!

AZ

smile and take a plunge???? that`s all you have to say??? you`re kidding right? lol

``Marriage is a battle, a terrible journey, a season in hell, and a reason for living.``

-``Intimacy,`` Hanif Kureishi

:-)
that had to be cathartic.
hmmm....harmless, humourous, creative writing/ranting to improve relationships. I think you folks are on to something here.

Sounds like you guys go through a lot of turbulence and don`t hold much from eachother back, but it works for you and you don`t seem to have any regrets. I myself look at marriage as an option that one may or not avail oneself of. This makes the committment, responsibility, and psychological intensity of marriage a big gamble and sacrifice with very uncertain rewards.

Wasiq

A letter that was recently sent to Microsoft Tech Support and it`s reply.

Dear Microsoft:

Last year I upgraded Girlfriend Version 1.0 to Wife 1.0 and noticed that

the new program began unexpected child processing that took up a

lot of space and valuable resources. No mention of this phenomenon was

included in the product brochure. In addition, Wife 1.0 installs itself into all

ther programs and launches during system initialization where it monitors

all other system activity. Applications such as Golfday 10.3 and

Beerbash 2.5 no longer run, crashing the system whenever selected.

I cannot seem to purge Wife 1.0 from my system. I am thinking about going back to Girlfriend 1.0 but uninstall does not work on this program.

Can you help me?

Response

Dear Sir:

This is a very common problem men complain about but is mostly due to a

primary misconception. Many people upgrade from Girlfriend 1.0 to Wife 1.0 with the idea that Wife 1.0 is merely a ``UTILITIES & ENTERTAINMENT`` program.

Wife 1.0 is an OPERATING SYSTEM and designed by its creator to run

EVERYTHING. It is impossible to uninstall, delete, or purge the program from the system once installed. You cannot go back to Girlfriend 1.0 because Wife 1.0 is not designed to do this.

Some have tried to install Girlfriend 2.0 or Wife 2.0 but end up

with more problems than original system. Look in your manual under Warnings

- Alimony / Child Support. I recommend you keep Wife 1.0 and just deal with the situation.

Having Wife 1.0 installed I also suggest you read the entire section regarding General Protection Faults (GPFs). You must assume all responsibility for faults and problems that might occur. The best course of action will be to push the Apologize button and then the Reset button as soon as lockup occurs. System will run smooth as long as you take the blame for all GPFs.

Wife 1.0 is a great program but is very high maintenance. Wife 2.0 plus

Ex-wife 1.0 maintenance will most likely cause System to permanently crash.

Microsoft

``Marriage is a battle, a terrible journey, a season in hell, and a reason for living.``

The article should have been titled ``Marriage from another point of view``. Even though I agree with some of the observations Mr. Abrar makes, its just that his interpretation is slightly different from a million others, making him a ``one in a million exception``.

At times he comes across as the typical male chauvinist and then just as suddenly he changes his stance to the poor suffering husband.

I do like is easy style of writing and must congratulate him on a very good effort.

Re: Arif Abrar

``Those of you who might have read her writing will have noticed her mastery of the use of symbolism.``

Where would we have read her writing?

Re: Amber

``Tell me, is it education that makes you think so, or perhaps its just by some game of chance that you`re considerate? Or perhaps, all men are good at heart and we`re too prejudiced to see that....``

There are lots of considerate men around, Amber. In my experience, however, consideration and being-good-at-heart is the last thing desi women are looking for in potential suitors. They are interested in that all-too-intangible ``chemistry``...come to think of it, so are the men. The only rule then is that there are no rules. You know it when you feel it.

-!Kamran!-

Men have always wanted reliable nookie but god d-a-m-n this uppity madron idiot-ology kalled famine-ism! May a thousand curses of Allah and the Prophet of the Illiterates be upon it! All those famine-ists are too showkh and taez (sharp) I tell you. Hai, Rabba ! she cut her hair like a boy? Am I believing what my eyes are looking or am I not ? All ghareloo (domesticated) woeman should keep hair long enough to wipe their tutti-frutti-tush with when they run out of lotta / jug water ... Hain I am all scandalized!

Goes to show what happens when you marry out of the faith brother in Islam. Have you converted her yet or not not ? Aray, I remember the day I watch this Mohammad Ali filam (mohammad and Ali, WAH! WAH! such a mubarak and blassed names) Okay this sardarji was having trouble-shouble with wife obeying orders and not giving him enough cookie. So guess what he did ? He dragged her by the hair into bed and made her give him a little sardarji... from then on this phhoreign minded memsahab became all submissive and straight like the alphabet Alif. When you bringing a good mujahid to this world, baba ?

Oh yes, I forgot my standard plug for all those who want to learn about the immorality of love and compare it to the wonders of marriage :

http://www.pacifict.com/ron/Emma.html

Then go to Marriage and Love section :

http://www.pitzer.edu/

Response to Oye:

At first I was not sure that it was a guy writing or a lady. Then I found some ``we`` in the post and I was glad. I heaved a sigh of relief :-) Otherwise I would have stood up and saluted.

Just wanted to let you know beautiful post. And I will say ditto to most of your points.

Take Care

Kamran... I`m married to Shandana Minhas... you might have read some of her work here on Chowk.

Oye... I agree with most of what you said, but reading Solitude`s mail I can`t help thinking that what he wrote was not meant to be taken seriously.

arif

Response to Zahra:

Thanks!! Its good to know that there are other women who think the same way. Maybe we can compare `notes` .

Take care and keep smiling:)