Da*n You, Hollywood!

"For June, who loved this garden, from Joseph who always sat beside her"- Notting Hill.

This has by far been the most beautiful, eloquent and envy-worthy lines that I have heard. It was inscripted on a park bench, and I can just imagine these two couples- June sitting there, staring at couples kissing, families playing, children laughing, and Joseph drinking in his fill of June. I wanted to be June, with my own Joseph watching the 'changing seasons of my face', loving my wrinkles and my grey hair. ***sigh***

Now that's the problem with Hollywood. Yes, Nottinghill was about a foppish Hugh Grant and a toothy but adorable Julia Roberts, but the insertion of the aforementioned line, and the fact that when the movie ends, Hugh and a pregnant Julia sat on the very same bench... it conquered and vanquished and annihilated me completely.

I found my very own 'Joseph', but the BENCH and the inscription failed to mention the trials and the very loooong journey that the fabled June and Joseph took. So there I was, sure that I was living a fairy tale, when reality and familiarity revealed that my 'Joseph' and I had conflicting opinions on sooo many things. We fight, hit below the belt, slash at each other with words and crucify each other with silences. And in the end we feel as miserable as "the pus that infects the mucus that cruds up the fungus that feeds on the pond scum" (My Best Friend's Wedding).

I blame Hollywood and also Nicholas Sparks for the sometimes too-high standards which I expect my man to live up to. Nicholas Sparks made me cry with "A Walk to Remember", "Message in a Bottle", "Dear John" and "The Notebook", all adapetd by Hollywood.

But what really got me was "The Notebook". Guy falls for girl, her parents say "nay" and send her away. Guy builds her dream house by himself, with his own two hands, and never falls in love again. Girl becomes engaged to another guy, a very nice guy too. But she goes back to original guy. They get married, and here's the clincher- she gets dementia, and the guy stays in the nursing home with her. He waits patiently for her lucid moments, which sometimes lasts for just an hour, and that too after long intervals. When she is lucid, he woos her all over again and he tells her their story. Sometimes she regresses in the middle of his story-telling and lashes out at him. But he persists. And in the end, he sneaks into her room, and she is having a lucid moment, and they die together. Damn you, Nicholas Sparks, how dare you create a man like that??

And that movie "P.S, I love you" (another book adaptation too).. My sister's husband refused to let her watch the movie again and I don't blame him. Come on, the guy had such a charming Irish 'blarney' ..charm. And what was worse, when he died, he left behind love letters for his wife, so that she can rebuild her life and fulfill her dreams. ***sigh again***

I feel sorry for men sometimes. Hollywood presents them with such a tough act to follow. The girls have it easier. The girl from "The Notebook" was kind of fickle, loud, spoilt, adorable, yes, but irritating too. And though the "P.S. I love you" girl was special in that dreamy, vibrant, whimsical and vulnerable way, it was not in an out-of-reach" way. And the worst part is, we women tend to buy into the whole act, and sometimes expect our good, but human men to live upto these celluloid images. Men don't really expect us to be Megan Fox (okay, some do).

John Mayer got it right when he sang:

She's like a maze where all the walls are continually changed,

And I've done all I can

To stand on her steps with my heart in my hands,

Now I'm starting to see

Maybe its got nothing to do with me - 'Daughters'.

I'm really trying now to not buy into the whole Hollywood myth. I have learnt that 'real' men, after watching "The Notebook" say, "Don't you dare die on me, or become mad, hear?" and then give you a suffocating bear hug :) And yes, one doesn't automatically become eligible for June and Joseph state just because they are in love. It takes guts, blood, sweat, tears, muscle, gumption, mucus (ok- drama queen again).

And we women too need to be more of a 'June ' sometimes. Yes, men should love us for our imperfect selves, but its only fair that we play nice occasionally too :)

PS: I didn't include Twilight because much as I loved the character of Edward Cullen when I first read the series, Robert Pattinson pretty much killed it for me.. Yucks!