From the super-trendy girl next door who always looks her best to the wallflower in the street who doesn't seem to spend too much time dwelling on her reflection.

We all appear to have one thing in common Our need to be admired. That, and a nagging society but that's a whole new article!

Rule #5: Regardless of skin tone or heritage, too much of society's time seems to be wasted on worrying about the size of our waistbands.

When was the last time you read an article on the ever-expanding male waistline? I can probably count the number of times this has been mentioned in my lifetime on the digits of one hand.

Yet you'd be hard-pressed to find a single magazine or newspaper that didn't have at least one article on the female waistline. Are we too thin? Are we too fat? Were 20 year olds who existed a 100 years ago thinner and fuller than us?

With the constant analysis of our eating habits, is it any wonder that women think about their weight more times than an adolescent male thinks about sex? Weight-watching seems to have become an OCD (obsessive compulsive disorder) to which there appears no apparent cure.

We're all guilty of criticising the girl that's too fat, or who forgot to look her best that morning. What we forget or what we don't think about is maybe the person you're criticising is happy being a size 12+.

Maybe the girl who you think never looks her best is happy with the way she looks. Imagine how you feel when someone criticises your weight or dress sense. Before you pass judgment on someone else's appearance, put yourself in their shoes.

If what you're about to say would hurt you, chances are, it would hurt them too.

Rule #6: Look individual' up in the English dictionary it will say something like distinctive or distinguishing.

We are all individuals that act and think and dress differently to the person next to us. Then why do we, as a society, view individuality so harshly?

Why is individuality treated like a disease by our peers?

Put a white rose amongst a bunch of red roses, or a carnation amidst some tulips. Which one are you most likely to notice first? So you like wearing Indian clothes, or you want to look like a mosher.

Don't let the narrow-mindedness of those around you put you off. You are who you are and there is nothing anyone can do about that. End of story.

Rule #7: It's the baseline plot of any self-respecting Bollywood film.

Girl meets boy, boy meets girl, girl and boy fall in love and want to marry but parents' say over my dead body!' Growing up, I never quite believed this could be true but then again, I never quite envisaged falling in love. It's a scenario not all that unfamiliar to girls' and boys' up-and-down the country parent's objecting to their choice of partner.

I guess I'll never understand why this happens till I myself become a parent, but it certainly doesn't stop me from asking do we have the right to fall in love? Why do Asian couples sneak around? Why do they panic when they see someone they know?

Barriers are constantly being broken but this is the one rule that very few of us have had the courage to breech yet someone new falls in love with every passing second. I guess we all love a good fight.

A wise person once told me that life was as hard or as easy as we chose to make it. I'm still trying to decide whether I follow this school of thought.

I want my life to be free flowing and glitch-free. Does this mean that it is? I wish.

Yes, life is what you make of it, but choosing the path of least resistance does not necessarily equate to an effortless and uncomplicated existence.

In my mind, there's no such thing. Of course life can be testing at the best of times, the trick is for you not to let it keep you down for too long.

Obstacles are there for a reason to sort out the men from the boys. All you have to do now is decide which you'd rather be.