What is it with these guys?

Funny how I am writing this on International Women’s Day. I happened to be talking to a friend and invariably moved onto the topic of his latest passion. No, it’s not a girl, but photography. More aptly it would be his camera. He owns an absolutely Wow SLR camera (for all I know it could be just a regular camera for all those photography enthusiasts, but for one as uneducated as me in those matters, it sure seemed WOW) and seems to have been in love with it since first sight.
That intrigued me and I was reminded of having read in a Clive Cussler novel about how men have this uncanny ability to love inanimate things and how women can never understand that. And the woman in the conversation said something that somehow made sense. She says “We women can never really understand how men can love inanimate objects. Women can never really love things that don’t love them back”.
That line really made me think. Men and women certainly belong to the same genus-species but the similarity ends there. I have seen or heard about enthusiasts or collectors and needless to say a majority of that crowd is somehow male. So what is it with men and their gadget love? I mean it could be a musical instrument or car or gadget and yeah, let’s not forget bikes! These guys would willingly give up human company to spend time with their so called ‘Love’!
I have rarely seen a woman obsess this way unless of course it comes to shopping (and a hundred and one things that figure in our shopping list). But this is certainly not the kind of obsessive love that men display. A woman can only truly love only that which can express its love back. Selfish you say? I don’t really think so. She just loves being loved and appreciated. So maybe, even pets top her list but not always an object.
This seems to be quite an opposite behavior with men, who seem to have this amazing ability to be able to love things, that can’t love them back. A guy will chase his interest with a great fervor and as time passes, the obsession instead of waning, only grows by leaps and bounds.
Or is it like the new Honda BRIO ad claims, ‘Love your BRIO, it loves you back’? Men just love their toys and somehow feel loved but not bound to them by having to talk to them/ praise their good looks/ appreciate them. This probably must be the reason why they are more comfortable around the inanimate objects! Those objects simply don’t keep talking for no reason and never even stop or give them a chance to make their point! And it’s just the same reason that women can’t be in love with objects, that can’t talk back to them. Looks like we are all wired differently when it comes to these things, each person having his/her own quirks. It’s probably why, this world ceases to be monotonous and gives that much needed spice to the many aspects of everyone’s life.