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The first time I visited them was like the Fuehrer being ‘welcomed’ into a Jewish settlement. Sitting in the living room I began feeling I was some kind of a virulent microbe being examined by a fastidious bunch of strictly vegetarian (‘we don’t even eat onions’) scientists. Related reading: How I convinced my father-in-law How could she do that? I was given a long lecture on the superiority of Telugu Vaishnavite Brahmans (TVB) over North Indian Marwaris (NIM)....

Am I In Love With My Best Friend? 15 Signs That Say So! Do you constantly find yourself asking ‘Am I in love with my best friend’? Falling in love with your best friend is not a big deal but dealing with it is a big one. There’s so much at stake. You could either be one of those lucky ones having a happily ever after with their best friend, or end up losing your best friend forever....

Falling in love is a lot more complicated than just a simple “love at first sight”. It’s more than rainbows and butterflies. It can be different for each one of us. You might meet someone, instantly fall in love with them, you feel “at home” when you’re together, and decide that they are your soulmates. On the contrary, it’s a slow burn for some people. They take their time when they meet someone and before making a lifelong commitment....

That’s the thing about attraction and sexual tension. Even if you are in a happy relationship, there is no guarantee that you won’t feel attracted to somebody else. But no matter how common this is, how does one deal with such a situation? Attracted to a coworker but married? You’ve definitely found yourself in a soup. One of our readers was in a similar situation recently and approached us with a query on how to navigate this mess....

Studies suggest one of the leading causes of infidelity in relationships is boredom. Boredom in a relationship is like a wound. And if left untreated, this wound can fester and damage a relationship beyond repair. So, what to do when your marriage is boring? Is there a cure? Fortunately, yes. But first, let’s delve deeper into the reasons as to why one becomes bored in marriage? Why Am I Bored In My Marriage?...

Excuses We Make For A Night Out With Him Does that mean you don’t go out at night at all? Of course, you do. You come up with the most creative excuses to go out at night. Rakhee stayed at the college hostel which was just a few miles away from home and she worked out an amazing plan to stay out at night. She would head for a farmhouse with her group of friends and her boyfriend, of course....

More often than not, these relationships begin as fun and exciting, mimicking the components of a normal relationship. During this honeymoon phase, a couple develops enough happy memories, which they desperately clutch on to when toxicity begins to rear its ugly head. This, in turn, diminishes the scope of trying to make a relationship less toxic because rather than face the grim reality staring them in the face, people trapped in such relationships latch on to the ‘happy’ past as a denial mechanism....

After all, you don’t want to show up empty handed to an elaborately planned date topped with the choicest gifts for you. Even if the realization dawns on you with a day or even hours to spare, there are plenty of last-minute Valentine’s gifts that you can count on for damage control. 12 Last-Minute Quick Valentine’s Day Gifts Ideas To Save The Day You have been so caught up with work or are still thinking it is December, and then, the fact that February 14th is just around the corner creeps up on you....

Pop culture will have you believe that without a stint with depression and growing your beard out or getting bangs, you won’t be able to shake off the hurt. We’re here to tell you that when you approach it the right way, this pain can become a lot more manageable, and that too without getting those impromptu bangs. With the help of counseling psychologist Kavita Panyam (Masters in Psychology and international affiliate with the American Psychological Association), who has been helping couples work through their relationship issues for over two decades, let’s answer the question, “How to heal a broken heart and move on?...

Those of you who have suffered this unfortunate fate know just how bad it feels to be ghosted online. Suddenly, the conversations you had with a person amount to nothing and they seem to have vanished into thin air. I’ve experienced online dating ghosting in the past and I know just how bad it feels, which is what made it so much worse when I pulled the plug on this “relationship”....

Living in a joint family in India comes with a long list of challenges. Sometimes that can even result in the issue of choosing between your spouse and elderly parent because they just do not get along. As messy as it seems, it is a reality in many households. Someone in a similar situation approached us with the query listed below. Counseling psychologist and certified life-skills trainer Deepak Kashyap (Masters in Psychology of Education), who specializes in a range of mental health issues, including LGBTQ and closeted counseling, answers it for them and for us today....

This conundrum was captured well in the award-winning Bollywood film Badhaai Ho, where actress Neena Gupta’s unexpected pregnancy after the age of 50, became a matter of despair for her strapping young sons and everyone around her. If love making beyond a certain age is considered taboo in society, the question arises – how often do 50-year-old married couples make love? The 50s are marked by tremendous physical and life changes....

In those days I used to take private coaching lessons from a Sir, who incidentally was a Sir to all the young budding girls, in the vicinity. It was sort of mandatory in those days for a girl who cleared her 12th standard to learn this particular craft from this particular Sir. It was, in fact, almost a ritual, a tradition.In my case, I think I enjoyed the attention he showered on me....

Love, as they say, is a many-splendored thing. Sometimes, when things go amiss, there is no option but to let go of the very love that holds the key to your heart. The challenge then is to learn how to fall out of love – for your own sake as well as that of the other person. It could be romantic love shared between partners or feelings of togetherness and care you share with your friend or sibling....

Dear Ma’am, Six months back I ended up having sex with my Senior Manager at an office offsite. I thought that the one-night stand would be long forgotten. I went back to my work. But he started trying to get close to me. He would inquire things out of me like a lover would – “Did you go to the gym?” “Did you drink?” He even tried calling me. It was strange....

How a hangover affects you Alcohol is a depressant so it basically slows down your brain activity. It has an immediate physiological effect on your brain, heart, liver and other organs. Since, alcohol triggers the release of dopamine you end up feeling an elevated sense of happiness, satisfaction, and pleasure. But most of all, being drunk to the point where your senses have no control over yourself will lead you to wake up with a maddening hangover and who needs that right?...

All of that “depends on how you handle it and whether you can balance it well with the other people involved,” believes Saumya Tewari. Occasional fling is a good thing as it may keep your mind off things. When you are single and free, you tend to feel bored and may want some change for good. Hridaan loves the way Bineesh uses the word ‘occasional fling’ and not ‘random flings....

“Marriage…mangalsutra…morality – everything has its own place. It occupied a prime position in my life for over two decades. And then I fell! Hard. At my fortieth, everyone proclaimed cheekily, ‘Women get naughty at four-zero-forty!’ Like most other things, this memory, too, was packed away to a desolate corner of the brain. The how or what or why isn’t important at all, but it’ll suffice to say that I embarked on an affair....

In her book she spoke about their strange love where in their lifetime they hardly spoke or even met but were constantly on each other’s mind. In fact, if Draupadi dressed up it was for Karna and no one else, not even Arjun. To think of it if Karna had got his legitimate place among the Pandavas then Draupadi would have been his wife. But love stories that don’t have a destiny are the real love stories, we guess....

I’ve been married to a central government employee for the past ten years. These years have been packed with interesting incidents and anecdotes, in addition to packing and unpacking because of constant transfers. I was born and brought up in cosmopolitan Bangalore. After marriage, we came to Visakhapatnam to stay in a rented house in the suburbs. Our house was situated at the foot of a hill. The small garden in front of the house was full of chameleons and huge lizards....