How would you like it?

In recent times, consumerism has grown exponentially, bombarding us with a plethora of choices. While some choices are heartening, others are plain confusing. From clothes to food, from cars to shoes, the options are infinite. However certain avenues of our lives have remained impervious to possible choice making. While we now have the capability of customizing and personalizing almost all material aspects of our lives, the choice of a romantic partner remains surprisingly immune to cherry picking.

That part of human nature to want and desire more often leads me to wonder, what would it be like to customize our romantic relationships. At this point, I would succinctly state, that any couple claiming to have it all, deserves a derisive chuckle. The creative conscience in us desires certain characteristics in a romantic partner, some of which may be intellectual, physical, emotional or purely whimsical. There is no rationale for them really.

A conversation with a male friend revealed that he prefers women with high cheekbones and another prefers a sharpened sense of humour. As amusing as it may be, we all secretly bear such preferences in our minds. One may prefer a partner with a love of sports, an inclination to remain indoors, a passion for travel, a soft spot for animals or an affinity towards adventure. But these are more conventional and easily detectable attributes, that could be revealed at earlier stages of interaction.

What if there could be a way to program the human mind to filter out possible romantic interactions based on certain whimsical demands? There is software for all sorts of filtering functions (pardon the shaky jargon, not much of a computer aficionado). A program which permits us to feed in those small, seemingly innocuous requirements, which end up being oh so instrumental. This hypothetical program in our minds could determine whether a possible romantic match has potential or is punch-less like a badly made Bloody Mary.

The curse of the quirky and whimsical attribute is, once you know you need it, you really cannot overlook it and it becomes the elephant in the romantic room. To be illustrative would be delving into the personal, and I would like to avoid that. To cite certain hypothetical examples, one may deep down, prefer a partner with a sense of Victorian romance, or one who hates mangoes, or one who sees the similarities between Pink Floyd and Porcupine Tree, or one who reads the newspaper backwards, or one who refreshes a drink before finishing it, or one who listens to jazz while cooking. The quirky mind has endless possibilities. But even if an inkling of a possibility is met, the feeling would be indescribable.

However, there are people who have found immense happiness together, and it makes me wonder, have they silenced that deviant part of their minds, have they accepted the possibility that quirks are like quarks or have they found the proverbial fit?