Stereotypes and Concessions!

There aren't many guy friends of mine who would remember when we first met. Or where. Or the first time we fought and came to blows. Or other seemingly transient stuff that don't hold much significance in the context of our friendship. Like birthdays and anniversaries. These things happen, we live that moment and then we are off, to live the next moment. And as we move from one moment to the next, all we carry forward is a light backpack called friendship instead of packing king-sized bags rightly referred to as 'baggage'!!

Now, the case is diametrically opposite with my female friends (I am spelling this out for the benefit of those for whom I haven't been obvious enough already). Birthdays, first meetings, anniversaries and any other daily life event which takes their fancy - all these are memorable occasions to be remembered and regurgitated whenever the opportunity presents itself. Fights and arguments deserve a special mention here because these are stored in a special hi-speed memory bank with quick access technology so that at the first faint visible sign of any skirmish, the contents of this memory bank are used to hit you on the head.

for any female happening to read this and happening to be my friend, please don't take it personally. I don't mind you hitting me on my head. And please read on. I have nice things to say about you.........I think.

What I mentioned above is nothing but the stereotypical male and female. I accept I am probably as stereotypical as a stereotype can be. So is probably everyone in the rest of the world. We might make a few concessions to all the people or concede all to a few people. But all of us do make some concessions. Once such concession I make is trying to remember birthdays. At least for those people that I know would hit me the hardest if I don't.

Yesterday was one such concession day and I promptly did everything expected of me. I remembered, hunted down the phone number and made the overseas call. Only to hear a gruff voice say, "There is no one at home to take your call. Please leave a message and your phone number and we will get back to you." Back I went hunting, this time for the mobile number. And this time I heard a different voice - "Your call is being transferred to the voice mail box. Please..." - you get the picture, don't you?

There I was, acting out of character, just to bring some cheer and happiness to someone I know would be cheered and happy by my out of character acting and all I get is the answering machine! Talk about life being unfair! Damned if you do, damned if you don't. Damn!