The naughty knot

The world has lived through polygamy; it is time to give monogamy a new meaning.

Let me be honest that I was not ready to encounter upfront what I had only read and heard in the recent past. A light tremor shook me when Peter introduced me to Paul, his ‘husband,’ and he reciprocated with a smile. My conservative upbringing was in for a rude shock, exposed to the grey shade of human relationship beyond the conventional black and white.

Many of you will mock me for my naivety, knowing well that like many, I am witness to and participant in several transforming realities the world is tossing up every so often.
Legal sanctions notwithstanding, same gender co-habitation is for real now. Proclaiming a same gender partner as ‘husband’ or ‘wife’ in public is a brave new expression, heralding a new era in human relationships.

If marriages are indeed made in heaven, then same-sex marriages may also have a divine sanction. My bewilderment was no more than a fleeting emotion because the guys were cool about it. Two husbands under one roof without a wife or two wives under one roof without a husband. Bravo! 

If family means putting our arms around each other, then that is what they are doing. If family means caring for each other, then that is what has brought them together. What goes behind closed doors is none of anybody’s business. Chill! The world has lived through polygamy for long, it is time to give a new meaning to monogamy now. I doubt if there is anything new about it. Our ancient monuments stand testimony to such relationships, stone carvings on derelict structures depict that such relationships were in vogue then. 

Stone or plastic, these couples give two hoots to what the clerics or the biologists think. They hold no obligations towards either! Darwin may have started rolling over in his coffin, however, the fittest have sought their own ways to devolve. Nurturing a new-found relationship, they have left the task of procreation to the test tubes and surrogate mothers. Why should all eggs be put in the same basket? As science takes charge of procreation, relationships are beginning to go beyond the obvious. A new beginning has, indeed, been made.

When Aaron Chervenak, a native of Los Angeles, married his smartphone recently, he went beyond gender stereotypes in tying the knot with a machine instead. The priest in the Little Vegas Chapel in Nevada proclaimed them ‘husband and cellphone.’ This is not startling, as one-third Americans say they would rather give up sex than lose their cellphones. As people touch their smartphones more often than they touch their spouses today, a new bond has evolved in every living room.

If you too have touched your smartphone a few times while reading this, you know exactly what I am driving at.