No one can drive us up the wall quite as efficiently as our partners! It is because we live in such close proximity to our spouses that the potential to rub each other the wrong way is ever present. We have compiled a list of seriously annoying habits that could endanger your nest.- Leaving wet towels on the bed, on sofa ...more

With the marriage and reception party (sometimes an unending stream of them) over, its time to actually spend sometime together as a couple. To embark on the journey of discovery. Well, what better way to just that than to go far away from the madding crowd into the lap of nature and let magic of togetherness evolve. You' ...more

It does not take too long after marriage for a couple to begin taking each other, or the very fact of being married, 'for granted'. However, such an assumption that your partner is bound to show you the utmost affection, loyalty and generosity without any special need to be thanked, is very destructive to a relationship i ...more

If there is a single, gossamer thin thread that binds us to the person we love, it is trust. Trust is the only area in relationships where we deal in absolutes. The strongest relationships are where we can trust another absolutely - to be faithful, to be a good provider or fellow parent of one's children, in short, to be ...more

Marriage is probably one of the most important institutions in human society, as it signifies the bonding of two human beings in an everlasting bond of fellowship, in order to provide a safe and secure environment for the nurturing of the future generation. Hence, every society has its own concept of an ideal marriage (be ...more

Sometimes in life you find that no matter how hard you try, some sad, some unpleasant memories just don't go away. And if you can't forget a harm done to you, how is it possible to truly forgive someone? Many a time I have been misunderstood, misquoted and hurt by people whom I have cared for very deeply. And though I hav ...more

Feeling stressed out? What are the first things that come to mind? A relaxing massage, a hot bath or a pampering at the spa perhaps. Have you ever thought that all these luxurious treatments could be replaced by one single smart move - a happy marriage? What's more is that researchers have found that a happy and satisfyin ...more

To this day, 6 years after it happened, Srikant feels he will forever remember the effect of that one phone call he received on that hot summer day. "Hello," said the voice at the other end. "Do you know where your wife is right now?" the voice enquired. And then went on to reveal her whereabouts. Stunned, he called on he ...more

Seema put the duster down as she looked lovingly at the now rather weathered packet of letters. Letters, that Mohan had written to her during their days of courtship. Seema settled down on the chair near the window. She took out the yellowed sheets from the envelope and a dried rose fell into her lap. She smiled and took ...more

Never in my worst nightmares had I ever expected to hear the news of D's unexpected demise. And certainly not in the way he died. In good health and fine fettle, he was someone who found a way to your heart just by being his soothing, silent self. His quite demeanour and unassuming ways reflected not only a highly refined ...more

Sometimes the best birthdays one can celebrate are the ones with colleagues in office. The murmur has already gone around among one's co-workers several days previous to the big day. On the birthday morning, it is wonderful to come to office to find flowers and a card on one's desk, and colleagues popping up every now and ...more

Come to think of it, why should there be any reservations about the concept of 'Parents as Friends'? Especially in the present day, when we have grown out of the parental generation of disciplinarians or those who set down rigid rules for the family. Parents today have grown up themselves with a mother and father who lavi ...more

One thing that always strikes you whenever you leave the shores of India for the first time, is how open people are in the West about expressing their love. Kissing, cuddling, and more intimate scenes can be witnessed as one goes about one's business on the London underground or the New York subway. It is nearly always st ...more

It's the most natural thing in the world, but its also the most artificial. Developing feelings of fondness for someone you see 12 hours out of the 24, sometimes 15, or even 18, is very natural. Not only are you seeing colleagues who work with you a lot more than you can see your own family members, you are also seeing th ...more

The Indian society is greatly divided on its views about what is the right time to get married. According to the law any woman above the age of eighteen years and any man above the age of twenty-one is ready to get married. But, more and more young people are now beginning to consider a successful career and sound financi ...more

Aging has much more to do with thinking and one's mental approach than it has to do with any physical signs of decay or change. Being young at heart is a sure way to appear more youthful, energetic and attractive to others even those who may be younger! How does one keep one's thoughts and thinking young and fresh? Here a ...more

There is perhaps no relationship in the world that can give as much comfort and security as a good marriage. No matter what the trials and tribulations you face in the outside world, home becomes a haven for you to take refuge in when there's a loving, understanding spouse to share things with. A good marriage is one bas ...more

My relationship with my mother undoubtedly remains one of the most troubled ones in my life. From the earliest days when I must have been an opinionated and precocious brat (precisely the kind of kid I find most irritating!) my mother and I have had the kind of stormy relationship that one should more reasonably have with ...more

Show me a married couple, or even a couple in a short or long term relationship, and I'll show you a couple of fighters. If we look at all the available evidence around us, fighting is as much part of any relationship as is the loving, sharing and bonding. A fight is normally about real issues of common interests vs. indi ...more

It's a relatively unsung relationship but one which has tremendous significance for the maturing of boys into men. How fathers and sons relate to each other is really how many things are decided within the family - the respect that is given to women, the sense of responsibility that develops in the boys, the amount of lov ...more

The greatest measure of love is felt in its loss. Nothing in life ever prepares you for the pain of rejection. And yet, almost everyone has to go through this experience. I can never forget my first heartbreak. There he was, this young man of 20, telling me it was all over between us. Just like that. Two solid years of to ...more

Change is the only thing that is constant in life. Hence, Wordsworth's famous lines "What is this life so full of care, there is no time to stand and stare..." seems obsolete. And something like, "Life looses its meaning without all the care, only philosophers and the unemployed can afford to stand and stare." Seems more ...more

It's 10.30 at night. The children have dropped off to sleep. The last dirty plate has been removed from the table and placed in the sink. Hastily picking up articles from the floor, cleaning up the kitchen and clearing up the general mess, the lady of the house stifles a yawn, knowing it will be quite awhile before she ca ...more

Waking up at sharp 6 in the morning after retiring to bed late at night, rustling up an appetizing breakfast for everyone while getting the kids all spruced up for school, taking care of the sundry house requirements that demand her attention that's the average working woman's home schedule for you. And things are not eas ...more

Mr. Sumit Sen a young father says, "historically speaking, it is industralisation that has distanced man from the children. In an agrarian and hunting society men spent considerable time at home and participated in the bringing up of the kids. Particularly their education. Today's scenario however is quite different. With ...more

So your relationship has ended and you have moved on - or at least, that is what you should have done, in theory. But as you go about your day-to-day actions, you realize that your 'ex' haunts your life in more ways than one. It is not unusual to seethe with anger and resentment towards some aspects of your former love. B ...more

In all the opportunities to grow that marriage provides, the parenting of children is undoubtedly one of the most important. Children seal the bond of marriage and give both partners the chance to be more loving, considerate, and caring than if they had only each other to think about. Becoming a parent is best done from a ...more

OK, so the way to his heart is supposed to be through his stomach, or, at least, that is what your mother or aunt, or friendly neighbour must have told you to get you interested in the whole business of cooking for a future husband. But what are you to do when study schedules are so demanding all the way through school an ...more

Nobody ever asks Amit, a man how he balances a home and his career. Nobody asks him this even when he is partying with his friends at a club at nine thirty in the evening of a weekday, after he has become a father. However, Amita (married to someone else) is constantly asked by her friends, as well as people she knows onl ...more

Breaking up with someone you have loved intensely inevitably brings its own burden of sadness. For days, weeks, and even months it may seem as if life has not treated you fairly. Even as you go about doing all the things you need to do, it may be difficult to shake off the cloud of melancholy that settles over you, partic ...more

Drishya' footsteps picked up speed as she walked the last few metres of platform to where her train waited. Even as she hurried, she could see the strangeness of her departure. "Please don't worry -I will manage," she had said, to not one but two sets of anxious parents- hers and Pradeep's. With both of them wanting to se ...more

Ever interacted closely with a married couple of over forty or fifty years of marriage? Those of us fortunate enough to have such monumental couples still around us have ample opportunity to observe possible formulae for successful marriages. How do couples manage to stay together for so long, and in such apparent harmony ...more

Does she? Doesn't she? Is he going to stick by me? Or is he just passing time? Falling in love means having to grapple with these and similar questions... When two people seem to share a mutual attraction, spend hours talking, weeks getting to know each other, and live in the same city, they should be getting close to th ...more

Dowry has been outlawed in India since 1961 - close to fifty years ago. And yet, even today, the papers have enough news reports to suggest that this menace has not only been rooted out of society, but still finds enough acceptance among some families to pose a very serious threat to women's lives and health. One case, t ...more

He walks into a shop, finds what he wants in five minutes flat, and wants to leave. She walks into the same shop, browses the home accessories section, looks at the perfumes and jewellery, asks for his advice about some cushions for the children's room, then spends an hour trying out night wear in the ladies changing room ...more

Their eyes met. Time seemed to come to a standstill. Like the famous lines "aur us pal me koi nahin hai. Bus ek mai hu aur ek tum ho." Though this magical first look and falling in love at first sight has been a staple of romantic novels and movies yet the latest research shows that this all important first gaze has true ...more

Social networking sites are presently making news because of the profiles that young and ruthless terrorists had opened for themselves on forums like Orkut and facebook. While the media makes much of pages labeled Hizbul Mujahideen and tries to do an in depth analysis of the data entered by slain terrorist Atif Ameen on h ...more

Not even two months into their marriage and he couldn't understand what had got into her. All through the time they were courting, she had seemed like the quintessential woman-in-love- finding his least witticisms wildly funny, cherishing each romantic gesture he made, having a soft and silly expression on her face whenev ...more

She was browsing the clothes shelves when she heard a male voice say, "I can’t stand synthetics. The merest mix makes me break out into a rash. Don't you have this in pure cotton?" She didn't look around, just thought to herself, 'What a fussy guy! I can't stand fussy types. My dream guy has to be someone easy-going, go ...more

The conversation with her best friend had run on for over an hour. At the end of it, Preeti was in a reflective mood. She walked around, putting away things in the small room she had as a paying guest in the busy metro, letting the details of the romantic crisis afflicting her friend run through her head. Feeling philosop ...more

  Blame it on the fairytales we were told as children. The ones that spoke of princesses marrying princes, and then living ‘…happily ever after’. Perhaps it is this conditioning that makes us so convinced about the need for eternal happiness with our partner. However, it would be unfair to think that such a need i ...more

Manish finishes work at 7 p.m on most days. After that, he is free to explore the city of Lucknow if he so wants. These days, he is finding it hard to exercise that freedom. "It was fine till my friend Bharat got married," he says. "We usually had an agenda for the evening -eating 'chaat', going for a drink or a movie or ...more

So much is changing in the world, and yet, so much remains the same. Lifestyles of the present generation may bear little resemblance to their ancestors' lives. Yet, marriages are still arranged, families still look forward to inviting a new member into their midst about whose health, pedigree and character they have sati ...more

A renowned ad for a mobile phone service provider showed Vidya Balan and Madhavan as the much-in-love couple who does the things couples do - going off on holiday, entertaining friends in the evening etc. During all these activities, Vidya, the wife who is very much in charge, reminding her husband of things like closing ...more

Middle-aged Divya was not surprised to find her neighbour's son, twenty something Neeraj, in the night club on Saturday night. After all, this was the place where she and her contemporaries were a little out of place – where teeny boppers and Gen Next couples were usually to be found dancing the night away. But while h ...more

The Mumbai High court's refusal to permit the abortion of Haresh and Niketa Mehta's 25 week old foetus – who has been found to have a congenital heart disorder has set off a wave of reaction among young couples. While many pregnant mothers are being accompanied by their husbands for tests that will establish the health ...more

Our ideas of love and romance are shaped to no mean extent by the books we read and the films we see. While no sensible person actually expects life to be truly like a movie or a Silhouette or Mills and Boon romance, there are definitely many pointers from films we have enjoyed that remain in our memory and give us hope. ...more

A chance remark by Subrata as they pulled away from the parking lot at the beach seemed to have put her husband Pravin in a bad mood. "All I said was, 'Govind loved to eat corn – there was no need to make dinner for him on evenings we came to the beach, he could eat half a dozen of them!'. Actually, it was so unconscio ...more

Young people want the moon, better still they want to live on the moon. Their life options have become so attractive today as they pursue careers beyond the realm of medicine or engineering like wildlife photography, space studies, TV journalism, animation etc. But, they are also under heavy pressure to find their goals a ...more

Getting married is the easiest part in a marriage. It is the staying together and making your marriage a success the most difficult. Probably that is the reason why most fairy tales end with the Prince and Princess getting married and living happily ever after. Nobody tells us as kids that 'happily ever after' is an emoti ...more

Blab one – Marriages are made in heaven.Blab two – There are soul mates waiting there for you with that Perfect Match.Blab three – The happily ever after fairy tale romance. Now that we have stated the mumbo jumbo that has been parroted down generations lets get down to the brass-stacks. ...more

The day of your wedding is approaching and there can be quite a few butterflies in your stomach. We understand, and have therefore put together this check list to get you into the right mood for just about anything! "Must throw away all those single socks that have somehow accumulated in my drawer. I don't want to drive ...more

The bonds of matrimony are like another bond, they mature slowly-Peter de Vries. Today's modern marriages are no longer a walk in the park. It has become extremely clear now that if a couple in the fast-paced, modern technological world want a marriage to work, they must work hard to keep it alive and buzzing. Marriage r ...more

Nothing really beats the self-confidence of little children. As infants and toddlers, we are sure that we can do anything if we try. So we reach out and touch strangers, begin drawing great works of art as soon as a pencil is put in our hands, crawl unhesitatingly towards something that excites our curiosity. Then the con ...more

My daughter and her friends are having an animated conversation. These young women in their twenties, all with educational degrees and work experience are comparing notes on what matters a lot to them - men and the infuriating things they do in relationships. Here's a list of what they are saying are the annoying things m ...more

Giving up something for a higher purpose is a concept that Indians find easy to accept because of the nature of our upbringing. Whether we have grown up with the ideal character of Rama or stories about the Prophet or Jesus, Indians tend to interpret sacrifice as an essential ingredient in becoming better human beings, or ...more

It was their sixteenth fight since their wedding eight months ago. As Pradeep reached out to hug Nishi, trying to make up for their hot and angry words, to which he had contributed a fair share, she shrugged out and walked away. After that, she got busy in the kitchen. He knew just by watching the set of her shoulders tha ...more

In dealing with your mother-in-law, never strive for nobility, only for common sense. Remember that your mother-in-law is an old hand at proving to the world how right she is. If you get into the game of trying to win the moral high ground, you will lose.Your attempt should be to prove to the world and yourself that you a ...more

To be or not to be? - A question made Hamlet a tragic hero. However in real life it is not so. But that is fiction. Facts are never this kind. To be undecided is not going to make you a martyr. Why then do we have a narcissistic tendency to procrastinate? Why do we have cats on the fence, when they could be better off it? ...more

SPA – the name spells pampered luxury and relaxed languor. It is about being soothed and made limp by massage and therapy. So much for a decadent splendor; ever thought about how they originated? The word SPA is an acronym for Roman phrase - 'Senus Per Aquam (healing through water). It was originally meant as a recuper ...more

It depends on various factors. Firstly, will you be able to forgive and forget. Secondly, will the aberrant abstain from doing such deeds in future? Thirdly, will you as a victim be able to prevent withholding a grudge and resume normal marriage? It is a complex situation further precipitated when children are involved. ...more

There is much hype about the need for space in a relationship. Is it really important for a couple to have space in a relationship or is it some fancy talk doing rounds in the town? The need for space is not so much about the need for physical space in a relationship but more about defining the identity of a partner in a ...more

'It doesn't happen to Me.' - the refrain provides a false sense of security from facing the harsh realities of life. Nobody is immune from reality and that includes affairs too. Prithvi's profession involves a lot of travel abroad. He says, 'When overseas I like to have a little fun to prevent getting bored. What my wi ...more

The effect of a break-up between a man and a woman can be equated to a "loss" in one's life. A person's sense of belonging has severed the fundamental bridge which connects two people - trust - has broken. This has long-term repercussions on a person as one loses a sense of trust in others, an essential part of any relati ...more

The adage "thin is in" seems to be loosing ground to a more realistic woman who does not sport an anorexic look. However, fat is still out. What is more acceptable though is a healthy, good-looking woman who loves herself for what she is - body, mind and spirit.This concept has been widely accepted by fashion designers, f ...more

A good marriage is like old wine. It can only get better with time. But, often we find the "fizz factor" dying out and the relationship falls flat. Couples continue in their marriages for reasons which are very different from the initial reason that made them decided to spend their life together.Marriage usually starts ou ...more

"O! My God", exclaimed Rita, "is that how I looked just eight years ago?" as she turned the pages of her wedding album. Amidst a lot of laughter and discussion the couple reminisced one of the landmark events of their life.  Each photograph was like a moment frozen in time. A moment that never was and will never be again ...more

A wedding invitation is the most important piece of info about a wedding. It gives friends and relatives details about both, the bride and groom, date, time and venue of the wedding. All this info has to be correct. "I, personally had a bad experience. When my wedding cards got printed, little did we notice that the date ...more

In a world so vast how do you pick a place to spend a special time of your life—your honeymoon? Keep two factors in mind before making your choice: the weather conditions of the location and secondly, whether you want to opt for the cool climes of the hills, or enjoy a lively, wind-swept feel beside the sea and sunshin ...more

We call ourselves the most developed species; we have evolved over the past few thousands of years. Yet, some of the ways we function bear semblance to the way the Neanderthal man operated. One example of this fact is the way we choose our partners or mates. According to the theory of evolution women's primary concerns w ...more

A marriage counselor once said - Marriage is the commitment that two individuals promise to one another and the trust they repose on each other. Where there is commitment there is love and respect. Commitment and Trust are the two pillars of the institution called marriage. To be committed you need to trust. Trustworthines ...more

What do 'Break up', 'Akele Hum Akele Tum' and 'Puthu Puthu Arthangal' have in common? Well, besides being titles of movies in different languages, they reflect space conflicts in relationships. Let's start with 'Break Up' where the couple is in a 'live-in' relationship. The woman – Jennifer is the responsible one. ...more

Counsellors will caution you to first understand the person you are about to wed, to know and learn his personality and nature, before trying to be Ms Honesty. Is he the understanding kind or is he a volatile person who might fly off the handle and lash out at you? Or, does he fall somewhere in between and you are unsure ab ...more

There is food for health, food that makes you more beautiful and then there is food for love. Food, that promises to help you experience to the hilt the physical expression of this rather exotic human emotion called love. Since time immemorial man has believed in the powers of certain foods to help enhance this experience ...more