Love is in the air in the calm college corridors, noisy coffee houses, the benches facing the beach or the shade of the Jacaranda tree, but we would be surprised to realise that, even today, in Kerala, it is the guy who takes the first step to propose.

Is it because girls are confused? Or because they want to play hard-to-get? Or is it the fear of rejection and the embarrassment that follows? Or, in a repressed society like ours, women often are labeled ‘desperate’ if they take the first step? “Women take time to realise that it is love, and we are often confused. For me, before I could realise this is love, he proposed me!,” says Renu Nair, who works in Technopark.

Guys feel that girls like to put words into the guy’s mouth and choose to label their love as ‘friendship’, so as to be on the safer side. “Usually proposing and initiating are meant to be done by men.

Women can do so too, but they end up sounding desperate and will be taken for granted as the relation proceeds,” says Anita Jeyen who got married to the love of her life, Sandeep. “Even if the guy doesn’t have plans to propose, the girl can easily get over it, than face embarrassment,” she adds.

Ultimately, does it even matter who proposed first? Isn’t it about expressing what you share and not fearing about the tags and consequences?