Delhi Laddu Allures Party Lover

Chintito

Dare I say I have always found some relationship between politics and marriage! This was not necessarily prompted by the notorious saying that politics makes strange bedfellows. In some cases, so does marriage.

It is because you can so very easily interchange the words love and politics. Also because lovers are often good politicians; they have to for the sake of survival, and many politicians have proven themselves to be adequate and delightful lovers; the latter because they have occasionally delighted the nation with their exploits. Washing their linen public? Not necessarily. Not all are comfortable in linens in our sultry weather.

To my personal delight, I was amazed to discover how I am bird of the feather and flocking together with some of the greatest minds.

Getting back to the love-politics theory, for instance, if you heard some politician lamenting, 'I recently read that politics is entirely a matter of chemistry. That must be why my leader treats me like toxic waste', you have just read 'politics' for 'love', and 'wife' for 'leader' after David Bissonette.

They say that when political reformists coax a party member to their side, and conversely the efforts of the conformists, (and the unseen tussle has begun), there is no better revenge than to let them keep the wretched being. You have in fact just heard Russian-born French actor and dramatist Sacha Guitry saying, 'When a man steals your wife, there is no better revenge than to let him keep her'. I say amen and vice versa about a woman stealing your husband.

Have you not noticed how politicians within a party start bickering soon after winning elections? Especially after elections that take them to power, politicians of a party become two sides of a coin; they just can't face each other, but still they stay together. Well, Hemant Joshi coined this one: 'After marriage, husband and wife become two sides of a coin; they just can't face each other, but still they stay together'.

That does not mean one should not be involved in politics. By all means do politics. If you get a good leader you will be happy. Let's take it from here from Greek philosopher Socrates. He said: 'By all means marry. If you get a good wife, you'll be happy. If you get a bad one, you'll become a philosopher.'

Now it was perhaps the French novelist and dramatist Alexandre Dumas who said 'Woman inspires us to great things, and prevents us from achieving them'. We could suppose that in modern times that goes for man as well. Can you say the same thing about politics? Of course you can. Many years back someone in a journal said, 'Politics has made Bangladesh poor'.

It is easy to know what a voter wants three square meals at a tolerable price, safety on the street, dignified shelter not in knee-deep water every time it rains, education for the children so that they are not compelled to become waste pickers, proper medical attention even if facilities may not be made available to all, Live coverage of all matches in all games involving Bangladesh except away cricket series against Sri Lanka, and so on. But it is not easy to know what a politician wants. Asked Austrian psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud, 'The great question, which I have not been able to answer is what does a woman want?' That's because his favourite topic was often sex and not politics.

This one is attributed to an anonymous. 'Marriage is not one word: it is a sentence.' Well, all you have to do is ask one of them really corrupt politicians behind bars to find any association they may have with that statement.

Asked what the secret was about their long marriage, Henry Youngman had a perfect explanation, 'We take time to go to a restaurant two times a week, a little candlelight dinner, soft music and dancing. She goes Tuesdays, I go Fridays.' In politics, such convenient unions are common. When a journalist questioned how the alliance was surviving for such a long time, the politician explained, 'It's simple. We take time to hold meetings twice a week, a little pandal, some important discussions followed by a hearty Bangalee meal. They do it Tuesdays, we do it Fridays.'

Anyone who has an inkling of politics in Bangladesh knows how it has been fused with terrorism. It does not seemingly worry politicians that bombs are hurled at public meetings. Limbs are strewn all over. Adversaries are shot point blank. Throats are slit open. Eyes are gouged. They must be encouraged by Sam Kinison who said, 'I don't worry about terrorism. I was married for two years'.

In conclusion I would like to apologise to the ladies, as the above comments coming from men are made against their women and wives. In truth, the statements are as true for some men and husbands. For today, men and women are similarly empowered. The men only pretend to be stronger and the women to their credit humour them all the way. Don't you recall the classic declaration of the pseudo chauvinistic husband who said, 'I am the boss of my house and I have my wife's permission to say it'?

Copyright (R) thedailystar.net 2007