Journalist, writer, photographer, 33, Bangalore, India
‘What I’ve Learned’ is one of the most popular columns in Esquire magazine. Once, they asked readers to send in their two cents of wisdom gathered over the years. And this is what I sent Esquire.
1. Honestly is indeed the best policy. But just when you think, it’s not working, go ahead anyway. Backtracking can be more harmful.
2. It’s better to be sorry than safe. That translates to taking risks whenever, wherever and not fighting shy of saying ‘sorry’ when you screw up.
3. Sometimes, it pays to listen to your ego. But most times, it’s the cause of things only going downhill. And there’s no such thing as a balancing act. Either you are in it or you are not.
4. Judging people by how they dress can turn out to be downright wrong. But it’s good to judge people that way, too. It takes all kinds of judgements to sum up an individual. You could start with his fashion quotient.
5. Sex is good, whether you like it or someone else likes it. The glow of satisfaction you get from your partner’s body language can de-stress you more than massage.
6. You can make a fashion statement by not following it and no one will call you a rebel except the fashion designers whose rules you blatantly violated. So go ahead. Live your freedom to be.
7. Never go behind what women want. Eventually, everything will be to their heart’s content and nothing to your liking.
8. Phone etiquette is good to an extent. After that, what matters is how much you pretend to be ‘interested’ in the conversation. If your pretension is up to the mark, you don’t need no etiquette.
9. You may not believe in clichés even when ‘being in the right place at the right time’ worked for you.
10. Luck is no lady unless you manage to inherit millions from your grand mom.
11. Patience and perseverance can get you everywhere, including a woman’s pants.
12. It’s better to think you can read people’s minds. That will boost your self-confidence and egg you on to breaking the ice with people who were indeed very hard to crack.
13. Maturity is to know when to be immature. It’s true and it works, even if it seems like a clever little cliche.
14. Chant ‘love is lust without desire’ and you will have a good time in bed because all the time your ladylove will be convincing you that love is indeed lust atleast for her. Now which man would resist that?