Movie and coffee dates are like archaic ways of getting to know your potential beau. Hit the road together and the adventure will help you fathom each other’s peculiar, annoying and amiable habits. Navigating an unfamiliar terrain together will also help you explore the uneven contours of your own relationship. If Imitiaz Ali and Zoya Akhtar are reading this, they must be nodding their heads vigorously in agreement.
Geet (Kareena Kapoor) and Aditya (Shahid Kapoor) of Jab We Met forged a bond ‘Ratlam Ki Galiyon Mein.’ Ayesha of Dil Dhadakne Do (Priyanka Chopra) turned her life around on a cruise to Turkey. And now, Yogi (Irrfan Khan) and Jaya (Parvathy) give love another shot with a journey around Hrishikesh, Bikaner and Gangtok in Qarib Qarib Singlle. Here’s how travel can tell you if you click.
The Middle Ground Is the Sweet Spot
Compromise is key. 11 from the Netflix’s Stranger Things got this - halfway happy. One wants to see museums and the other wants to go hiking. Travel will make you confront your biggest differences and force you to find the middle ground. Yogi in Qarib Qarib Singlle agrees to stay in an Ashram booked by Jaya while Jaya goes along with Yogi’s whimsical ways to meet his ex-girlfriends.
Prepare to Share
Find someone who looks at you like Joey (FRIENDS) looks at food. At the start of Qarib Qarib Singlle, Jaya is too stuck-up to share her water bottle. By the end of their journey, she agrees to drink from Yogi’s bottle. Travel can transform you in unexpected ways.
Money, Money, Money
Finances are the most annoying of all concerns and, yet, the most necessary. A trip together is the perfect way to track your bae’s spending habits and compare your budget ideologies. Jaya and Yogi go dutch in Qarib Qarib Singlle. A relationship of equals demands splitting of bills.
Boundaries Baby
In a relationship, a boundary is the line where you end and someone else begins. Travel teaches you to recognise and respect that Laxman Rekha. Yogi always knows where to draw the line with Jaya.
Keep Calm
Missed a flight? Lost your passport? Do you know how your partner will react if and when emergencies strike in a foreign land? Travel teaches you to work around each others anxieties. Yogi has a penchant for disasters that set Jaya into the panic mode but his composure in chaos complement Jaya’s vigilant temperament. Opposites do attract!
Bare Yourself, Warts and All
New places can lead to epiphanies and lower your inhibitions. Travel can help you understand that there is strength in vulnerability. Jaya sheds her decorous exterior only to reveal her agreeably insane streak, which brings her closer to Yogi.
An American humorist rightly said - “I have found out there ain’t no surer way to find out whether you like people or hate them than to travel with them.”
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