The French woman

A knock on the door on my friends flat, a loud noise of someone climbing down the stairs hurriedly that hushed down in a second. The entire exciting suspense dint result in the door being opened, but I definitely heard that F word by a feminine voice once my friend opened the door. She has run down the stairs to turn the stove off which had already burnt her bland and tasteless pasta. All curious with our heads down trying to see what is left in that burnt pan, which dint actually give me a chance to see the person who was responsible……

Thanks to the burnt pasta, it ignited a conversation between us three. It was then I actually got a chance to glimpse the beautiful face. She was gorgeous, like a Greek angel. The kitchen was all murky with the smoke from the burnt pan under cold water. My friend introduced each other and it was just laughter after that. After half an hour of talk about people in France, India and the UK and their lifestyles there was a pause. She broke the silence by asking me ‘Are you married?’ I threw my lavish smile at her and replied ‘No’ and my immediate ticklish impulse was to ask ‘And U?’, which I did. I was amazed by her response. She said ‘I don’t believe in relationships’. She was in her late thirties and had only had a few ‘no strings attached’ relationships to quench her humane needs (exact words used by her). She gave an example of her uncle in France who had married and divorced five times and now he is still single (???). She had lost all the belief in relationships and was not in touch with any of her family as well. I was muted for a while, she was defending her belief. She was happy to speak to someone about all these. I was happy that I gave her a chance to speak. It was late in the night by then and I had to leave. She had settled down by ordering an ‘all meat’ pizza. I smiled, shook my hands and said diplomatically ‘it was nice to meet you’ and I heard a response ‘same here’. She was at the door when she waved and said ‘you speak good English’. I waved back with a ‘ta’ at the end and said ‘we speak English back at home as well’.

The whole experience was something unusual. It gave me food for thought for the whole night and I thought; I was so fortunate not to be born in such a family or country. I am glad that we don’t have to lead our lives by following such examples. A strong bond, a feeling that relationships are made forever still binds us. I can never forget that woman; she has made me feel that we Indians are great with strong ethical values and family bondage. I feel she is one single example of west, is there is something that these people should learn from us or is it just that we follow them blindly and accept anything that has a tag ‘comes from west’ ?