Never Say Die-- seems to be the slogan my mom and sisters have wholeheartedly endorsed these days, well, as far as marrying me off is concern. My eldest sister called me at odd hour saying she just felt like speaking to me. That's news! When we were face to face the other day she didn't have anything to say to me. I soon realize what she actually wanted to talk about; the perfect girl she had found for me, whom she met this morning and who is the cousin of her best friend's husband. My second elder sister begged me to pick her up from work. Reason—unspecified but seemed pretty serious. As soon as I reach her workplace I was introduced to one of her younger co-workers and I instantly realize what my sister was up to. Her co-worker was cute, she was educated, she blushed when she shook my hand, but what is she ever going to do with me!

My mom is not so direct but she has her subtle way of saying things: I am getting older; I don't like being at home alone, so on and so forth. Then she asked every visiting friend of mine if there was anybody I was seeing. She literally asked them to introduce me to girls. This makes me the laughing stock of my friends. They jokingly say that my 'ding/dong/whatever' won’t stand up when I am with girls and that's why I don’t want to marry. Bull's Eye! But of course, they just didn't have any idea how true they are. "Don't worry, ours is here to help if yours is not working," seem to be the slogan my friends have adopted to slaughter my manhood. As a precaution I now keep them as far away as I could from my mom; straight friends and an eager-to-marry-her-son mom, a mixture deathlier then a hydrogen-bomb for a closeted gay like me.

Among all these intimidating slogans you might think I might have perished. Uh-uh! In fact, I have my own slogan, secret ones of course, to match theirs—--Submitting Profiles to Internet Gay Dating Sites Spree. An online friend asked me during a chat what I wanted in my future gay life. I told him that the idea is to settle down somewhere, hopefully a gay friendly place, with someone I feel like spending my entire life with. His response was simply; submit your profile right now to gay dating sites. I told him I wasn't looking for hookups, and he told me, very rightly, that there are people looking for a person just like me. I was skeptical but anyway followed his advice.

Boy, am I not glad I have followed his advice. I have met some interesting guys in the first few weeks itself. I am in knowing-each-other-mode with each of them. Of course, I will write about developments as things shaped up in that front.

As for Jake, he is home preparing for his forthcoming college exams. At least that's what he told me. But usually there are no main college exams this time of year. May be he wants to prepare in advance for his exams, or, he just wants to be away from me? I don’t know and I didn't ask. His slogan seems to be— Far is Good. Now that I have decided to have nothing to do with him and apparently he also wants the same, a little distance is just what the doctor ordered for us.

Mom slogan, Sis slogan, straight slogan, gay slogan, secret slogan... The battle of the slogans is on!