Infidelity

Jim Carrey, the American actor made an interesting comment which was splashed in newspapers across the world. He said that if a husband is philandering to the extent that Tiger Woods appeared to have been, any wife would guess something was amiss and know about it. Bring home the same logic to our drama at home and it appears impossible that our tennis super star Sania Mirza is unaware of her husband’s character flaws which seem to be so glaring and evident.

The entire Sania Shoaib saga reads like a third rated soap opera and has been watched sadly by her ardent admirers. A marriage over the phone, consummated and denied, a “maili chaddar” being produced by the first wife’s family (!!!!), dumped for obesity, police cases and a hurried divorce settlement hours before the second engagement. It makes one wonder at the institution of marriage and its sanctity. In most cases, the person marrying the philanderer takes the risk of tying the knot due to an enhanced status or financial prowess after the wedding. However in this case, the celebrity with the prize money is our lady so one wonders at the necessity for this rushed marriage when her career is still going strong.

One can only logically deduct social pressures being the predominant factor for putting the girl’s sporting career on a back burner and taking such a hurried decision. If the Mirza family has invested and supported their daughter’s decision to pursue a non- conformist career, faced the religious pressures levied on them by fundamentalists on the attire that she has worn, one wonders at why they would not ask their daughter to give the relationship some time before succumbing to the legal tangles of marriage, especially with a person of a different nationality.

The “izzat of the family” and the “honor of the household” very often takes precedence over the happiness of the child. Sania could have lived her life like Steffi Graff who gave herself time to see if Agassi and she could live together before tying the knot. If the two of them are in love, Shoaib being a sportsman would understand the limited life span of a sports person and how difficult it is to tour, be disciplined, practice and play tennis. India has such a limited talent pool of great sports persons and especially women sports icons that one feels sad that love has to equal marriage which will equal compromise in excellence even for someone of the stature of Sania Mirza.