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Imran Khan's Columns

Imran Khan 

Man: The Manual

Imran Khan 

Posted On January 4, 2010

The ‘Celeb in the City’ space is frequently the scene of many battles of the sexes. Senior Columnist PC has been running her sisterhood series for a while now, and New Kid on the Block Kunal Kapoor (or Kunnu, as I call him. Please feel free to do the same, he loves it) spent hours rambling to various alliterative characters in his quest to better understand women. I personally think he understands them just fine for his nefarious purposes, but that is neither here nor there.


Over the years, reams of paper have been dedicated to the
celebration of women, and even more to the explaining of women.
I myself own several books such as Everything Men should know about Women, Understanding Women, and Woman: The Manual, none of which have been any help whatsoever. Enough. Enough, I say. What of understanding men? Don’t we deserve understanding as well? And no, simply rolling your eyes and saying “men will be men” doesn’t constitute understanding.

To that end, I present to you Chapter One of the Brotherhood Series*.
The male thought process is very simple. While unkind people might say that we haven’t evolved much since our hunter-gatherer days, I prefer to think that we haven’t needed to; if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it (another male credo, discussed in greater depth in Chapter 13). In any event, we are single minded creatures. We tend to apply a flowchart system of thought to most situations. Example: A saber-toothed tiger is charging towards you. You really only have two options; do you run or stand your ground? (The answer is run. If you chose ‘stand your ground’, you would probably be extinct by now.) Similarly, in a modern context: Your irate girlfriend is charging towards you to “have a talk”. Once again, your options are essentially the same. Run away, or stand your ground.


Now before you get all upset and accuse me of comparing women to saber-toothed tigers, let me get to the gist of it. I repeat: the male thought process is very simple. We don’t have layers. We aim to function at the highest level of efficiency. So in the interest of moving things along (since all the books on women haven’t helped us understand anything), I beg of you, women of the world; listen to me. Trust me. Men function at the most basic level. Ask a direct question of us, and you shall receive a direct answer. If
you want us to do something, tell us. Enough with the counter-espionage, already. Let the understanding begin.

*(Placeholder till we come up with a better name)

Post comments & feedback below!

Click here to discuss- The mindset of women...

 

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Previous Columns

Health and fitness

Posted on May 10, 2010

MOVIE MAGIC

Posted on April 26, 2010

LEAVING THE NEST

Posted on April 19, 2010

We all can be heroes

Posted on April 12, 2010

Year One

Posted on April 5, 2010

Bridging the Gap

Posted on March 29, 2010

Moving on

Posted on March 15, 2010

Frenemies

Posted on March 8, 2010

CLEARING THE BACKLOG

Posted on March 1, 2010

Elegia

Posted on February 22, 2010

Comments : 14

Inayat Shaikh 

Inayat Shaikh

hey IMRAN I totally agree with your statement dudeAt 3:35 am on February 8, 2010

Santosh Reddy 

Santosh Reddy

ya watu said iz correctAt 0:12 am on January 6, 2010

Jojo Jermaine 

Jojo Jermaine

Hey Imran - I think you're kind'uv cute and i just freaked out on this write-up of yours!! basic instincts!At 5:39 pm on January 4, 2010

Tanvi Aggarwal 

Tanvi Aggarwal

Imran - first time I read your column - bu t very interesting topic...loved ur comparisions too...but why do men behave so - run away - rather than face the facts? they hate to face the faccts...At 4:50 pm on January 4, 2010

Shaily 

Shaily

Enjoyed hte writing,,,but is it really so? But let me tell u ask a man a direct question on a relationship and u can never get a direct answer or an honest one...why??At 4:47 pm on January 4, 2010

Shaily 

Shaily

I loved this one from you - hope you are going to continue...help us women to understand this basic male persona please :) At 4:34 pm on January 4, 2010

Dhruv Gupta 

Dhruv Gupta

and its wishful thinking for men to want women who think like guys. If they did, then the men would be screwed, bcoz then it would be like hanging out with the guys, they would go out for dinner in just any tshirt, probably be scruffy. I'm alright with women being like women. Men have a simple formula for happiness. Women have one too. Its just a little more complex. Figure it out for yor girl, and you're set (for a while, till the formula changes :)At 2:11 pm on January 4, 2010

Dhruv Gupta 

Dhruv Gupta

Imran, as much as we like to discuss how women are too complex for men and men are too simple for women, and how they should both try to figure each other out, its not going to happen. Men have clearly had thousands of years to figure out women, and are still at a loss. There are some basic differences. As long as you understand that this is how the other sex works, it goes a long way!At 1:51 pm on January 4, 2010

Shivangini Rastogi 

Shivangini Rastogi

Imran...you MUST build it on...At 11:26 am on January 4, 2010

Shivangini Rastogi 

Shivangini Rastogi

lol...this is funny...the battle will never end! Kunal Kapoor did it well too(ref. his 'The Battle of the sexes' At 11:26 am on January 4, 2010

Arpit Jain 

Arpit Jain

I truly agree with you Imran, these women are very difficult to understand, and men are too simple and straight forward.At 10:29 am on January 4, 2010

Purnima Jaggi 

Purnima Jaggi

Hey Imran, that's really bad, Women are never like this, they are simple too. It's men who make them complex.At 10:28 am on January 4, 2010

Jagriti Sharma 

Jagriti Sharma

some woman- please start a parallel manual for men...lets look at the same thing from both the sides... At 10:25 am on January 4, 2010

Anumeha Singh 

Anumeha Singh

You right about the logical directness in men's arguments and that's where the problem is- I feel that men try to be sooo simplistically logical that what they end up doing is- 'Reductio ad absurdum' i.e. they take the argument to such extremes of logic that it become absurd and senseless! Think about it- in most issues there are no fixed answers whereas men try to prove the the opposite. Everything cannot be proved with simplistic logic like math problems...this is what most men should understaAt 10:23 am on January 4, 2010

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