THE ART OF REMAINING SINGLE
A Story
By
VIKRAM KARVE
There is a beautiful and bright young girl who lives in my neighbourhood. She wants to get married but just can’t seem to find anyone suitable matching her requirements. She is surrounded by so many “eligible” boys, colleagues at work and as her friends, and has “seen” and “rejected” a large number of boys her parents and well-wishers keep lining up for her. None of the boys seems to come up to her perfect standards and high expectations. But she does want to get married.
I wonder whether I should tell her this apocryphal Mulla Nasrudin Teaching story – THE PERFECT WIFE :
Mulla Nasrudin was sitting in a tea shop when a friend came excitedly to speak with him.
“I’m about to get married,” his friend said, “and I’m very excited.”
“Congratulations,” Mulla Nasrudin said, pokerfaced.
“Tell me, Nasrudin, have you ever thought of marriage yourself?” the friend asked Mulla Nasrudin, who had remained a chronic bachelor.
Nasrudin replied, “I did think of getting married. In my youth, in fact, I very much wanted to get married.”
“So, what happened?” the friend asked curious.
“I wanted to find for myself the perfect wife,” Nasrudin said, “so I travelled looking for the perfect wife. I first went to Damascus. There I met a beautiful woman who was gracious, kind, and deeply spiritual, but she had no worldly knowledge. Then I travelled further and went to Isphahan. There I met a woman who as both spiritual and worldly, beautiful in many ways, but we did not communicate well.”
“Then?” the friend asked.
“I kept on searching for the perfect wife and travelled all over the world meeting so many women,” Nasrudin explained.
“And did you find her? Tell me, did you finally find the perfect wife?” the friend asked eagerly.
“Yes,” Nasrudin said, “after travelling all over finally I went to Cairo and there after much searching I found her. She was spiritually deep, graceful, and beautiful in every respect, at home in the world and at home in the realms beyond it. I knew I had found the perfect wife.”
“Then why did you not marry her?” the friend asked excitedly.
“Alas,” said Nasrudin as he shook his head in dismay, “Unfortunately, she was searching for the perfect husband.”
Tell me, Dear Reader, should I tell the beautiful and bright young girl this story now, or should I wait till she perfects the art of remaining single ?
VIKRAM KARVE
http://vikramkarve.sulekha.com
http://www.linkedin.com/in/karve
Vikram Karve 