Somewhere in the mysterious headquarters where society writes its unwritten rules, a committee must have once met and decided something very important. Men must be tall. Women must be short.
In fairy tales the prince is tall, heroic and rides a horse with impressive posture. The princess is delicate and looks up at him with admiration and possibly mild neck strain.
Films follow the same formula. The hero stands tall and broad shouldered while the heroine gazes upward as if she is looking at a newly installed streetlight.
Society, it seems, cannot handle a tall woman and a short man.
But I once saw such a couple at a railway station. The woman was tall, graceful and confident. The man beside her was considerably shorter. Not slightly shorter. Properly shorter.
And yet something remarkable was happening.
They were both laughing.
They were clearly enjoying each other’s company while the rest of us were silently measuring them like government surveyors.
And that is when it struck me that the world has a strange obsession with rules that do not matter.
Tall men and short women.
Fair skin and dark skin.
Rich families and respectable backgrounds.
Society loves neat categories because they make life look orderly.
But love has never shown much respect for neat categories.
It ignores rules the way a cat ignores traffic signals.
And this is where things get truly interesting.
Because the same society that worries about tall women marrying short men is also busy making serious laws about who should fall in love with whom.
When we pass dramatic sounding bills about love jihad and similar matters, we are essentially doing the same thing as those imaginary committee members who decided men must be tall and women must be short.
We are drawing lines. We are announcing rules. We are telling love how it should behave.
History shows that love listens politely and then does exactly what it wants.
True love breaks rules the way children break biscuits. Quietly. Naturally. Without consulting parliament.
If a tall woman can fall in love with a short man and laugh loudly on a railway platform while the rest of us stare, it proves something very simple. Human hearts are wonderfully stubborn. They refuse to follow stupid norms. They refuse to measure affection in inches, religions, communities or government notifications.
Because love is not an engineering project. It does not require blueprints and regulations.
It simply finds another heart that makes it happy.
So let tall women marry short men. Let short women marry tall men. Let people love across religions, languages and cultures.
And let the rest of us relax. Because in the great measurement chart of life, the only height that truly matters is the height of the heart.
And thankfully, that is one measurement no government has yet managed to regulate…!
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Robert Clements is a newspaper columnist and writes a daily column, which has graced the pages of over 60 newspapers and magazines, from a daily column in the Khaleej Times, Dubai, the Morning Star, London, and in nearly every state in India, from The Statesman in Kolkata, to the Kashmir Times in Kashmir to the Trinity Mirror in Chennai.
Very interesting and unique reading early morning enjoyed. Thanks B..ob Sir.🙏🏻
👍
It also takes a confident man to stand beside his lady that is taller than him.
There is something very attractive in a self confident man!
Yes Mohinee. True. Thank you
Hey Bob, while you are right on all counts, you have made a reference to a law on “Love Jihad” which needs more than just a passing reference. We need to have an open mind to look at the “on ground” situation that prompted a govt. to even consider passing such a law. Many secular “warriors” and others with specific religious beliefs might want to brand this as another bit of extremist religious propaganda from certain political entities aimed at religious polarisation. But when one looks at the overwhelming evidence out there of a concerted , deliberate and well funded campaign to “phansao ” ( entrap ) young hindu girls in “love/live-in” relationships by men from a specific community pretending to be Hindu – then one can not ignore it, …. SHOULD NOT ignore it.
Evidence has surfaced – through video testimony – of such culprits admitting ON CAMERA that they posed as Hindus, their intention was to entrap a Hindu girl in a love relationship, to take sensitive/compromising videos of her, then blackmail her in to conversion and marriage. And there have been more than enough instances of girls who refused to convert being slaughtered, their bodies in parts stuffed in to fridges, or being stuffed into suitcases and thrown on railway tracks, in ponds or abandoned wells. So this is a SERIOUS matter that ALL OF US – no matter from which religion or faith – to address and find a solution for. I am sure you know that the term “Love Jihad” was not coined by an RSS functionary, but by a Justice of the Kerala high court. Several Pastors in Kerala have also expressed their concern and anguish at even Christian girls being targeted through Love Jihad.
Thank you Pankaj. I may not agree with your views but am happy that you express them here.
Enjoyed this one Bobby. Love
as you point out, is not bothered about the obsession of society with rules, it follows the heart and often overcomes all obstacles in its path.
🙏