Men – The 17 Acts That Women Find Adorable in You

Sarah Abraham, TIR, April 21: Sometimes we women get together with tubs of ice cream and perhaps a bottle of wine to whine about men. Sure, it’s a stereotype, but sometimes they’re true, as in this case. But that doesn’t mean that we don’t appreciate the men in our lives. Here’re a few things that men do that we notice and appreciate, even when it becomes second nature to them.

1. When we’re walking along the side of the road, you do this neat side-step so that you’re walking on the outside, on the side of traffic. Sometimes it pushes us into the ditch that invariably runs by the road, but it’s still a sweet gesture.

2. At the theatre or cinema, you always do a split-second scan to see which seat is next to a person less likely to hog the armrest. Then you gently nudge us to that one. Of course, you might end up hogging the armrest between us, but the thought counts.

3. We know you don’t believe us when we say, ‘Stop at the supermarket, I’ll just nip in and get just this one thing I want. Won’t be more than a couple of minutes.’ But you pull over anyway, and help with the bags when we finally turn up with about two weeks’ worth of groceries. And then get home and tell you we forgot your razor blades. Oops!

4. For all that patience, putting your shoes neatly in the shoe rack or behind the door is where it runs out. If one of the pair is within sight of the other, we can consider it a win.

5. How excited you get about the upcoming release of one of your favourite video games/movies is extremely endearing. Except on rare occasions, we just watch you talk and smile because honestly, we’re probably just thinking about how appealing you look when you’re all thrilled about it.

6. We do appreciate how you try to remember what we like in our sandwiches and try to follow it to the letter – enough to surreptitiously pick out the one thing (black olives/onions/*insert preference*) we said we do not like in the sandwich rather than point out that you got it wrong!

7. The way a cold suddenly turns you into a big marshmallow who wants to stay in front of the TV and have all your comfort foods is completely adorable.

8. Talking about comfort foods, it stays the same – whatever your mum made when you were upset and six years old is still your go-to when your boss yells at you for something completely unreasonable.

9. There might be a million faults that you will find with your family, especially moms. But if anybody else points any of it out, you’ll be up in arms. That loyalty is extremely reassuring.

10. The frown lines between your eyebrows when you’re actually working, staring hard into the computer screen. Even if that means you ignore us completely, we don’t mind too much – you look like you’re trying to find a way to save the world, and that’s definitely alluring.

11. Yes, you ogle at girls and we do notice, but you reserve the real ogling for the classy cars or fiery bikes on the road. Good thing we know we don’t have to compete with that!  But when we do catch you ogling not-too-discretely at other females, the sheepishness kind of makes up for it at times. Not always though 12. The way you snatch our bags to carry like a true-blue chivalrous knight is charming. Of course, you might’ve been too busy to notice that we were trudging along with heavy bags, what with all the bikes and cars (and girls) you were checking out, but when you notice, you swoop in and snatch them from us – sometimes when we’re right outside the door!

13. Sometimes, you – the paragon of bravery and gallantry – shriek like a little girl when you see a spider or a lizard. We say you’re scared, you say you just don’t like them – never mind, we just feel like pinching your cheeks then. It’s even cuter when you try to make a joke of it.

14. When we have to go to another land, even the most unemotional man tries to anticipate and solve everything: the cab, the tickets, the luggage. The way you tell the driver “Theek se le jaana” (Take her carefully) and pre-emptively glare at him strangely melts our hearts. Of course, you could say something nice then, but the effort counts.

15. Sometimes when we are worked up or angry or just plain distressed about something, you play the clown with comical expressions or crack really pathetic jokes to make us laugh. It is funnier when you don’t understand what upset us – you just want to make us smile. Dear you, it’s never the jokes that make us laugh. It’s your lovely and well-meaning attempt that does the trick.

16. Despite what you think, we do know about your ego, strong and fragile all in one. When anybody outdoes you and hits you where it hurts, you suddenly become distracted by something else. That half-furtive look just makes you all the more huggable.

17. We absolutely adore your speeches where you poke fun at others to make yourself look good. You look so like a proud 10-year-old boy proudly describing your stunts. We laugh not because we agree with you, but because we just want to tousle your hair and go, ‘Of course you’re the best!’