Chalk and cheese

It is a well known fact that the way we think, talk and behave are worlds apart.

It was a get together of sorts and the ‘son-in-law’ seemed to gel so well with the spouses’ family and the ‘proverbial mother-in-law,’ that I happened to remark to his wife: ‘You have a very nice husband,’ and I was taken aback when she replied, ‘Yes, he is good husband material!’

That set me thinking, if only women could shop for would be husbands like ‘material,’ then the fabric, count, weave, texture, shade of colour and all other parameters and intricacies would be thoroughly scrutinized before tying the marriage knot. And of course if needed, there would be an exchange option too! I must admit, that if this ‘husband material’ came with a user manual along with a list of  instructions that says, things to do to make it last forever without ware and tear and minus heart aches and broken minds then all the better!

For it is a well known fact that the two genders are as different as chalk and cheese, and the way we think, talk and behave are worlds apart. Now this is even backed by scientific data of how precisely our brains function differently. Let me explain. Once while we were out on a shopping spree, (a favourite for me and an unwanted burden for him), I had stood and gazed at my object of admiration and declared, ‘Isn’t that beautiful?’ ‘Oh, yes, it is,’ quipped my husband, and while I was stunned that the agreement had come in so quickly, the brief moment of the ‘heightened synchronicity’ in views vanished when I realised that while the object of my admiration was on the exquisitely draped linen inside the window, his was on a large sedan parked just outside it!

 And then, there was my nephew who had a second daughter and when someone remarked, ‘Man, how will you handle three women?’ Even as I corrected ‘three lovely ladies’, my nephew was quick in his response, ‘man, I will be man handled!’ One thing that leaves me confused even after studying all the brain differences of the ‘husband… and wife material’, (if I may now add), is how a man can go to any length to woo his maiden to be his better half and when that job is done, he unearths any number of jokes on the wife and mother-in-law of which there is no dearth and recounts it with uninhibited glee!

When all of this was running a riot in my head, I remembered the movie, ‘My Fair Lady’, and recalled a verse that I had by hearted as a child…for the sheer splendor of the play of words, not realising then, the in-depth meaning and frustrations of Prof Higgins who essays this and frequently asks, “Why can’t a woman be like a man?” Watching the movie now, with the wisdom of years left behind, I told myself, ‘If a woman thought and behaved like a man the world wouldn’t be half an interesting place to be in!’ Well, after all the two genders represent the yin and the yang, complementary opposites and it’s precisely this difference that gives a tang to the journey called life!