The town was abuzz with strange news. A new store had opened with a peculiar name: ‘The Perfect Bride Store’. It claimed to provide perfect brides to young men of marriageable age.
The queue before the shop on the inauguration date spoke volumes about the curiosity it had whipped up. As the first man stepped inside, he was surprised.
The room was barren, barring two doors, one of which was marked ‘Young’ and the other as ‘Middle-aged’. Obviously, he was looking for a young bride, so he pushed that door to find another empty room with yet another set of doors, one marked ‘Beautiful’ and another marked ‘Average Looking’. ‘Who wants an average-looking bride? Of course, I want a beautiful bride,’ the young man thought. Shaking his head at the silly choice, he pushed the door marked ‘Beautiful’ to be in a yet-another empty room with two doors, the first proclaiming ‘Cooks’ and the second with the sign, ‘Doesn’t Cook’. ‘What kind of choices are these?’ The young man thought, getting a bit annoyed. He pushed the first door, and what did he find? Another vacant room with another set of doors, the first marked ‘Sings’ and the second marked ‘Doesn’t Sing’.
He pushed the first one to find two doors in an empty room, the first one with a board ‘With Dowry’ and the second one with a board ‘Without Dowry’.
It was exasperating! The young man wondered if it was a prank as he pushed the first door and heaved a sigh of relief. Thankfully, there weren’t any doors. The room was barren, save for one large mirror on the side wall. As he made his way towards the mirror, he noticed the sign above it, which proclaimed, ‘You’re filled with demands. Wouldn’t it be better to have a reality check about yourself first?’
Much similar to the young man, each one of us is brimming with demands of all sorts, most of them extremely unreasonable. It’s time we looked in the mirror and analysed our demands. As Michael Jackson sang in his song ‘Man in the Mirror’ where he says, ‘I’m starting with the man in the mirror; I’m asking him to change his ways’. Frankly, it’s time we also changed our ways.
