What People Really Want

Women want men with money, men want beautiful women.
...This notion is popular, but wrong.

To a girl, far more delightful than a wallet stuffed with cash is this: when someone returns home on a drizzling evening, soaked to the skin, suddenly, for no reason at all, carrying a garland of jasmine flowers.

More beloved than the careless man who hands over pounds of gold and silver before turning away to sleep is the man who firmly takes her hand and carefully helps her cross the street.

To a man, more cherished than the beautiful henna-stained hands of a beauty are those hands that bear the burn marks from cooking his favorite meals.

More dear to a man than two lovely eyes rimmed with kohl are those eyes that have turned dark from crying, waiting, their kajal streaked with tears.

Believe me, the idea that women want money and men want beauty is an utterly demeaning piece of nonsense. You cannot bind everyone within such stereotypes.

In truth, men seek motherly affection, sisterly tenderness. Women seek fatherly shelter, brotherly support. Beyond this, most people really want nothing else.

If it were otherwise, our fathers wouldn't sit up all night by hospital beds, holding their wives' wrinkled, thin hands, even when their own bodies fail them.

If it were otherwise, our mothers wouldn't shoulder the burden of their poor husbands' poverty and stay with them through era after era of hardship.

But there is one thing both women and men desperately want. Without it, no one feels any pull toward relationships anymore. What is it? Love? Romance? Trust? Respect? No! It is...peace. Peace and only peace is the first and final word of our lives. In this world, no one commits suicide for lack of love—they do it for lack of peace.