BOYS and MEN

It did not take me a lifetime to meet different men, it took me just one night.

All being put through a testing situation for a woman. They all responded differently, being conditioned by life. I sat on the fringes and watched the show unravel.

Broken hearts and many a glass thrown back, low lights, music, hot sultry night and what does one get but a charged evening. Boys trying to prove their predatory skills and exert their manhood under the influence. I doubt the need to exert themselves would arise in broad daylight. Guess not, as a woman just seems less appealing in the harsh daylight glare.

She was an average woman, dressed in pins from the back alleys, seduction writ large on her face when she encountered the reason for her sorrow. The only people who were seduced were others who were out on the prowl. Her crowd was a mix of boys and spinster sisters with life's lines written on their faces and even the pancake could not conceal it. One thing led to another and suddenly, the air was rent with blows and cries. What drives men to all jump into a fracas which could die a natural death if they talked like adults? But men are never adults when a woman is in question and when its at the waning hour of the day. Yes, the target for the blows was the man who supposedly crushed her dreams for a future after having tossed among the sheets with her and now wished to burp it all out. Just as men will be boys, women will be little girls, fed a diet of fairy tales of "happily-ever-after"; hence we are always searching for the elusive "Prince". By the way, girls of today have wizened up as fairy tales don't exist anymore.....

Surprisingly, each of the men in the close circle came through for their friends and stood outside the cop station till the wee hours of the morning. Charges and counter charges, lies, bruised egos, the whole lot, flying around with no end in sight. The ones who responded like "boys" were the ones whose cord had just been severed by mummy that evening. The "men" watched from the sidelines, ready to make calls to higher ups if the need arose. The "men" in the group had been through far worse. Some battling insurgents, some battling ex-wives in court, some dodging government authorities, some rising and sitting with questionable people who are the movers and shakers. All these men in one group, each with a different take on how the situation should have been handled, pleasantly and with maturity, which comes only when one has weathered life in the harshest conditions.

I had hung out with the men that evening.