Chore machaye shor. Yes, say it out loud: women at work (or play) are perfectionists. In their desire to do everything oh-so-splendidly, they don’t even mind redoing what those messy creatures called men have already done – no problem if the time taken cuts into their beauty sleep. A recent survey in Britain found women spending three hours a week correcting chores their male partners did less than brilliantly. This includes rearranging cushions, sweeping corners and washing clothes. This feminine thirst for flawlessness may have spilled into other zones.
For unmaking what Mother Nature made, it’s said superstar Liz Hurley inspired cricketer beau Shane Warne into trying face creams and concealers, powdering over every imperfect crack all those gruelling hours on the pitch must have produced. Howzzat! Politics too has many a lady gaga over their own idea of perfection. Take the ruckus over the rail budget of ex-minister Dinesh Trivedi. It unleashed stormy sulking in Trinamool boss Mamata. As Trivedi’s reform-rich plan raised passenger fares to augment railway coffers, Ma-Mati-Mamata found his ideas less than perfectly pro-aam admi. So, she decided to redo them.
The demand for his scalp ululated from Kolkata, and the minister was replaced by party loyalist Mukul Roy. Notably, Roy’s first move was, ahem, to redo the budgetary blueprint, rolling back some fare hikes earlier proposed. How perfectly the cash-strapped Railways will run is now the question. After all, chalti ka naam rail-gaadi – only if Bengal’s Didi doesn’t turn habitual chain puller. Didi isn’t the only political diva redoing what the guys have sweated over. Remember Jayalalithaa displacing Karunanidhi as Tamil Nadu CM, and promptly undoing his move to bequeath his state a spanking new secretariat-assembly?
Similarly, Mayawati, assuming power in UP in 2007, redid much of the local landscape. Sweeping away gun-toting goons, she dotted the horizon with handbag-toting statues of herself. But while her art works remain even after her exit from power, one thing is clear. If she did clean up much of UP’s law and disorder, the men replacing her have their own messy take on the chore of cabinet formation. Such as letting guys with serious criminal cases pending against them become ministers and heads of prisons.
Come now, it seems that there’s a good reason why men do as they do. Another recent study finds men become incapable of thinking straight when women are around! This may explain why reformist Trivedi was unable to stay focussed on populist Mamata’s party line. In a different sense, maybe that’s also why many male netas oppose women’s reservation. If their mental faculties dim when facing such few women as there are in politics, what’ll happen if they’re matched boy-to-girl? Guys, it doesn’t bear thinking – let alone thinking straight.
