Gone are the times when lovers used to make merry sitting peacefully under the cool shade of trees far away, all alone. They would sit besides each other for hours. They would laugh, talk, gossip, tease and rarely enjoy a kiss or two. And then the times changed. Technology had to expand. There are fewer trees. Parks aren’t the places for a comfortable date anymore. Population exploded and people had nothing better to do and they came up with a stupid of moral policing. So parks became a venue for senior citizen’s idiotic laughter therapies.

With nowhere to go the lovers now had to find another place for dating. Right then coffee bars, cafes, fast food centers specially catering to the youth cropped up. You go there. You sit and chat. You have something to eat or drink. You make merry. Apart from the venue what caused a great deal of misery to the ever happy ‘he’ in the entire romance theory was money! Suddenly from chewing corn at parks he’s supposed to pay a handsome Rs.60 for an average cup of coffee. There’s more to that. A lot. Here’s the economics of love!

A regular cup of coffee costs anywhere between Rs.50 to Rs.150. Now that might sound small. You’re not having a single cup of cofee unless you’re dating yourself. Two cups doubles the amount. Just coffee isn’t going to please her eyes. She wants to show others how her table would feel full of food she never wants to eat. Sandwiches, pastries, rolls and what not adds to the agony. Food would cost you anywhere between Rs.60-200 normally. How long does that tiny cup of coffee last? Just one hour into the date and the waiter takes away the tray and the staff gives you a you-better-leave-now look! What can you do? Order or get lost!

If dates became expensive so did gifts and phone calls. The only problem with gifts is choice. Your choice will never meet her’s. Your blood pressure would always accumulate whenever there’s an occasion. Gifts aren’t any cheaper. A teddy bear (why do girls like those creatures anyways?!) costs more than Rs.450, a regular greeting card costs more than Rs.50 (mind you that’s just paper!), a perfume costs too much and everything else costs a bomb! To add insult to injury she might not always like what you gift her. Phone calls are another concern. Though the cell phone booming industry made sure the calls become cheaper but it’s all a major conditions-to-apply tag that burns the pocket. She’ll never call. She’ll be mad if you don’t call.

So you know your parents are right when they tell you to work hard. I’ll say you work harder if you want to afford a girlfriend or a wife in the near future for things aren’t getting any cheaper my dear. I hope someone from the opposition reads this and it’s an issue during the next polls. Until then, save that penny. Beg, borrow or steal. Make sure you have a wallet with smiling Gandhis the next time you stare at a girl and wish she was yours!