Today was my father's b'day. I say was coz the day is done, the last of the guests have gone back to their places. Quite a hectic day.

But I'm not going to talk about how the day went, but about something else...I'm going to talk about .

When I was younger, read in school, I used to say this line that I guess I picked up from some banal card or the other. A hug's a magic circle around a happy feeling. And for the longest time I believed there was only one way you could hug someone. Throw your arms around them and they'd automatically do the same. And there...a mgic circle was created that encompassed only the two of you, yet brought with it a world of happiness and calm. Nowadays, however, hugs come in all shapes and sizes and for majorly different reasons.

There's the Page 3 hug. Hands hanging tangentially downwards, so that when clasped, they look like a V made out of human arms...belonging to two different human beings! This is always ALWAYS followed by air-pecking...If you've seen any of those "After Hours" episodes aired on Zoom TV, chaired...oops...anchored by the anorexically thin Neena Emmanuel, you'd know what I mean by air-pecking. It's standing with your butt jutting out and away and your cheek butting out - can I officially say cheek butting out? - what the heck...with your cheek butting out and toward the kissee...OK...the one who's getting the kiss...and stabbing the air with pursed pouts. Clearly, the fear put in PYTs of boy germs also gets extended to girl germs. Who wants to take on more of your germs when they have enough of their own.

Then there's the Long Lost Pal hug. This is people who come and envelop you in killer bear hugs and don't let go, coz they haven't seen you in...gasp....4 whole hours!!!Or maybe because they finally bathed and lost the yummy smell of you from the last hug and they want to keep this new smell till their next bath. Never mind that they're listed in your address book under "acquaintances". AND that you can't distinguish them from Adam (or Eve)!

And how can I forget the Blink-N-You'll-Miss-It hug?This is the favorite of the commitment-shy freaks who seem to believe that any more than a 3 second contact will mean you're the mill around their neck for the rest of their lives!Never mind that you'd like to be away from them sooner than they can say "hey".

And yet, there's the Loving hug. The one that says, "I missed you...and I'm glad to see you again". This is the kind that we actually use our arms for the reason, I'm sure, God gave us arms - around each other, never mind the height difference, or the fact that your chin ends up in someone's collarbone, sending across a wordless message that you're loved and cared for.

What's my favorite? The kind that cheers me when I'm blue, or one that whispers, 'I love you so'. One that says, 'I hate to see you go'. A hug that claims it's great to see you again, or one that brings the rainbow after the rain...

What brought this on? An insistent comment by one of my "friends" on chat...No e-hugs pls.

I'm still trying to figure out whether it was because he, like me, wanted the real thing, or didn't want one at all. :)