Last night (on the night of 21 May 2010), i was watching the programme 'Biography' on the channel 'Fox History and Entertainment'. The programme featured the Hollywood couple Michael Douglas and Katherine Zeta Jones. In fact, it was an in-depth feature on the actress from Wales, Katherine Zeta Jones who came to prominence through her debut film 'The Mask of Zorro' that came in 1998. After doing small performances on stage and television and in screens, she left UK for good and came to the US, where she was picked up for acting in a television mini-series 'Titanic'.
The popularity of hers sky-rocketed when she began dating the ever younger 'Michael Douglas' of "Basic Instinct" fame. Michael hails from a very popular family and whose father Kurt Douglas is a matinee idol of yore. Michael and Zeta share their birth days and they decided to marry in 1999 making Michael a husband of twenty-five years senior to her. He was fifty-four and she was twenty-nine at the time of their marriage. Now she is a mother of two children through him. They are very happy and are often hunted by paparazzi.
The marriage featured on the programme along with the events that led to the deal of the couple with one of America's newspapers to cover their weddings and their litigation against another of the newspapers for leaking out the photos illegally have all reminded me of the marriage between the legendary queen of India: 'The Queen of Jhansi - Rani Lakshmi bai. The queen was chosen to have married when she was only eight. She adorned the throne of Jhansi along with the king Ganghadar. King Ganghadar lost his first wife and intended to adorn the kingdom with a new bride. He sent his minister in search of a suitable, prospective queen who came upon the playful 'Manu' (Lakshmi bai's real name). She was only eight when she was invited to the town of Jhansi. Ganghadar was twenty-nine then, a difference of twenty-one years. On the contrary to Zeta's story, the prospective bride was not in a position to understand what marriage is and what choosing a husband is all about let alone pondering over the age difference.
A thing that struck me deeply when i read about Manu, was that if Ganghadar was very particular about engendering heirs for his throne (for the same reason he sent his minister in search of a bride for him as the first wife died without blessing the kingdom with a royal-legal heir), why would he choose an eight year old child who had not even attained puberty. However their marriage lasted for only eleven years as he died in 1853. In 1851, nine years after the marriage the queen gave birth to a beautiful baby-child. Unfortunately it did not survive beyond three months. The wish of Ganghadar remained unfulfilled. After much consideration, he adopted a child and named him Ananda, that eventually lead to the recriminations between the nation of Jhansi and the British.
Let me come to the title of this posting. To an unmarried man like me, stories like these serve food enough to keep my wishes alive. I am only thirty-five and when Michael Douglas could marry at fifty-four, can i not find someone at this age though i am not as rich, popular, handsome, powerful as him. These things in life make people get themselves ahead in spite of the ennui of life. I also wish i would get a person who does not mind difference in age, if any, as these celebrity couples.
Hello! This post has blundered its way into the wrong webpage. Shift it to a matrimonial website please!
ReplyDeletedear Bala,
ReplyDeletei don't think that you are being rejected. by the way, pl throw away the horoscope and get married. i remember there were girls who were very much interested in you.
Dear Raji, excluding the last paragraph, which i believe, according to you, have qualities to get listed under the matrimonial section. Apart from that, don't you find anything worthwhile in the small feature on Rani Lakshmi Bai.
ReplyDelete