Outline for a Rom-Com You Can Finish
"I Don't Want Money, I Want You"
Raj and Bindi
I highly doubt that I’m the right person to write this story—the genre (Rom-Com) isn’t really my thing—but here’s an idea for a plot that could be done very well by someone else; of course, I would require you to share a percentage of the proceeds you get from it with me (between 15 and 50%...negotiable, but somewhere between those figures). It doesn't have to be set in India; the story could take place in the United States (my original idea, with Belinda and Roger as the protagonists) or Canada or Australia or Upper Volta or Outer Mongolia or North Macedonia, or what have you.Bindi and Raj meet in college (having a class or two together) and gradually become friendly. They find that they share many of the same interests and enjoy talking to one another, gradually becoming good friends and confidants.
In time, their relationship advances to mutual feelings of romance but Raj, although obviously attracted to Bindi and happy to see her and converse with her, never asks her out on a date or seems to want anything from her other than friendship.
This disappoints and confuses Bindi, who finally confronts Raj and asks him about it. After some hemming and hawing, Raj admits that he is not comfortable with the wide socioeconomic gap between them. Her family is wealthy, and he is (from her family’s perspective, it seems) “from the wrong side of the tracks.” He proclaims his love for her (“Are you kidding? How could I not love you”), but confesses that he could not be comfortable living the lifestyle she is accustomed to. He does not want even the appearance of pursuing her because of her wealth. And as far as being able to provide for her in that manner and to that degree, he doesn’t realistically see how it would be possible. So, although he loves her, Raj says that he’s afraid “getting serious” would be a recipe for failure and heartbreak in the end, for both of them.
Bindi tells Raj that she trusts him and firmly believes that he wouldn’t be marrying her for her money, so who cares what other people think (“other people” being mainly her parents, in her mind, as they have already expressed their distrust of Raj’s motives after finding out about the friendship between him and their daughter).
Raj is utterly despondent about the situation, but adamant that he can’t marry Bindi because, unfortunately, he is not strong enough to deal with the pressure of trying to live up to what her parents expect of him (financially) nor with the suspicions and snide remarks of many others who would doubt that Raj’s love for Bindi is genuine.
Both Raj and Bindi are heartbroken, though. Bindi doesn’t understand why her money should matter, and curses it, saying she would rather have Raj and be poor than not have him and be rich.
“Do you really mean that?” Raj asks. Bindi tearfully asserts her sincerity. After a long pause, Raj ventures: “There is one way to do that. A way where we both can prove our love has nothing to do with money or the lack of it.”
“How?”
“You and your parents agree that they will no longer provide you with financial assistance. If you agree with that, we will approach your parents together and tell them we want to prove our love for each other is true, and how we plan to do that. By you being ‘cut off’ from them financially, we will prove that I’m not marrying you for money, and you will prove that what you said is true: that you would rather have me and be poor than not have me and continue to be well off.”
Bindi has never really had to think about money; she’s always gotten anything she wanted without thinking about how much it cost or whether her family could afford it. Bindi readily agrees to Raj’s idea, and suggests they elope right away, but Raj wants to know if she can really stick to it. Will Bindi be willing to live the life of a “commoner” once she realizes what doing that really entails?
Raj proposes—not matrimony yet, but this: That Bindi live for a full year without any financial assistance from her parents. If, at the end of that time, she still feels the same way—that she will gladly choose Raj over money—they will wed.
The rest of the story details Bindi’s year of learning what it really means to not buy what she wants when she wants it or go where she wants to when she wants to; Bindi even has to get a part-time job during her time in college that year, and a full-time job during the summer. Her eyes are opened to “how the other half lives” (or how the other 90-something percent lives, to be more precise).
This section could include comedic elementsBindi’s parents, who doubted she could live that way for long, are impressed with her fortitude and adaptability.
At the end of the year, Bindi and Raj agree to marry. Bindi’s parents, who by now have accepted Raj, try to convince the pair to accept their very generous offer to supplement their income after the wedding so that Bindi can again enjoy the lifestyle she had been raised with. Bindi and Raj politely decline the offer, though. Raj explains that there would always be some doubt in people’s minds—maybe even Bindi’s, or possibly even his own—that the money was a factor in his affections for Bindi. And this is also a way for Bindi to prove that she really loves Raj more than she loves the advantages money can provide.
“We may eventually become ‘comfortable’ financially ourselves,” Raj says, “But I doubt it; and I’m okay with that. I don’t really care much for money. This way—making it on our own, getting by on our own, even though it will doubtless have its difficulties and anxious moments at times—we will prove to ourselves and each other, and everyone, that our love for each other is genuine and true.”
Both Bindi and Raj can say to each other at some point in the narrative, “I Don't Want Money, I Want You”
