In
a relationship
Engaged
Married
My eyes keep getting stuck on these three options on Facebook.
These days, nobody stays alone anymore. They stay alone with someone they’re fond of. What a wonderful thing.
Some people, of course, are having a grand time eating puffed rice. The rule for eating puffed rice is that you must go somewhere distant, close your eyes and mouth, and chew it slowly. On Facebook, though, there are no such rules. Here you can grin with your teeth showing even while keeping your mouth shut, and you can ‘like’ things even with an utterly dejected face.
The other day we went to see a prospective bride for one of our friends. After meeting the girl, when we said, “Buddy, we all really like her. She’s perfect! You should say yes,” he immediately decided he wouldn’t marry her.
Our friend refused because of the way we spoke to him. Facebook doesn’t offer this opportunity. Here everyone is beautiful, everything is beautiful; so here you can only give likes. Want to be beautiful? Open a Facebook account. Want to be wise? Quit Facebook like a good boy!
Marriage and death. Neither discriminates based on age or seniority. I know a friend who had stopped going to friends’ weddings out of anger, sadness, and resentment. Very recently, he got married. He now understands that nobody in this world stays a bachelor forever. He too has the right to attend a friend’s wedding with a chubby baby in his arms. Getting married isn’t the only thing to do in this world.
I was talking about staying alone. “Nobody goes bankrupt buying books.” And indeed, not everyone goes bankrupt just because they have a wife. So both are good. But how good it is to have both together—that could be a subject for research. Books and wives—the distance between these two might be just one letter, or it might be one light-year; it’s hard to say for certain. The only problem with books is that there is no conversation (and the ‘other things’)! People go bankrupt even without buying books. There are countless examples. Then again, people like me who are somewhat bibliomaniacal also go bankrupt from the sorrow of not buying books.
Those without wives have books. Those without books have God. Those without anyone have Facebook.
This weekend could also be the last weekend of life. Who can tell! I go to bookstores. I handle books, examine them, buy them. I have four addictions: books, movies, music, and writing. Teeth look beautiful in rows, books are everywhere. At home, if I see a place suitable for keeping books but find no books there, I feel somehow uncomfortable. Being married but not having your wife with you, having space on your hard disk but no movies, having room on your shelf but no books—all three sometimes evoke the same kind of feeling. Things have reached such a point that there’s no space at home for bookshelves, yet piles of books lie waiting for shelves.
Postscript. Not everyone is happy; some are married. May all the bachelors of the world become even happier, may they find well-being.
আপনার নেশা আর আমার নেশায় দুটো মিল আছে প্রিয়। বই, লেখালেখি।