A friend of mine hooked up with a guy for the first time recently. He was nice and cute and all that, but he refused to put on a condom.

“It was so damn awkward. All the foreplay was done and I said, ‘Come on, why don’t you wear a condom?’ And he refused to,” my friend told me. That’s a tight situation. What did she do?

I get a feeling the hair removal industry has never seen more flourishing times.

Apart from all the services they offer at the ‘beauty parlours’ there’s a broad range of DIY products on the shelf. Why are women obsessive about removing body or facial hair? A friend said, “Because men don’t like hairy women.” Then, the question is, why do men find hair on women so unappealing?

Last week a male friend of mine told me that he felt sexually harassed.

He thought I had reacted quite casually. It raised a storm – when men face harassment, it’s just not the same. It doesn’t make headlines. “Why is it atrocious when a woman feels harassed and almost a joke when a man gets molested?” he asked me angrily. Quite naturally, I began wondering about it.

“Always check on how old your man is,” a friend of mine told me last week. She was of the opinion that men are like wine – the older they grow, the better they get.

It made me wonder if age really matters. “It’s like asking, ‘Does size matter?’” she said. “You might want to believe it doesn’t, but get down to business and you know it’s important.”

Like it or not, relationships can go stale. What would you do if yours was deteriorating?

How long would you keep fighting? When would you give up? And when does love end?
A friend of mine was having a rough time with his girlfriend recently and he told me there are no rules: “Gut feeling y’know, it’s gotta end when it’s gotta end.”

I’ve only heard of eloped marriages in Bollywood. But last week, I was part of a full-on Bollywood-style elopement – I helped a couple get married!

The bride-to-be came up to me one evening and said, “My parents have found out about my lover. Will you help me?” And that’s where the thrilling journey began. It ended in the couple’s sweet union – they are now legally married.

I’m told sex outside the bedroom is exciting. Have any of you tried it? If not, you should – at least that’s what a friend of mine thinks.

“Sex is great anyhow. But once you’ve been a relationship long enough, it gets monotonous, so you need to spice things up a bit. And getting out of the bedroom can be a start,” a friend told me.

It all started with a friend of mine lying to her boyfriend about her tea breaks with her “harmless” male colleague.

I’ve been a pathetic liar throughout. Even as a child, I’d lie only to be caught easily. So eventually, I gave up on it and embraced good old honesty as my best policy. But recently, my friend convinced me that learning how to lie could be beneficial.

Arranged marriages are still a part of Indian tradition. And I get a feeling they are here to stay.

We don’t rate falling or being in love as big priorities – marriages are meant to fulfil the need to be ‘settled’. “Arranged marriages are like schools,” a friend of mine said. And since she got married recently through an arranged set up, I thought she must know.

Love at first sight – something I’ve never had faith in. I’m told it exists. But I haven’t seen proof.

So when a friend of mine told me about how she fell in love with a guy the moment they met, I wanted to know more. “It’s real, trust me,” she said. Though I wasn’t converted into a believer, I did find it intriguing, like all love matters.