1125. Five Questions

"They will ask the husband questions about his wife's likes and dislikes, with the wife not being present. Then, they will check with his wife whether what her husband had said was correct. They will award a score based on the correctness of the answers. They call this a game!" said Selvakumar, disapprovingly.

"What is wrong about this game? A husband gets many opportunities to learn about his wife's interests, tastes, preferences, likes and dislikes. But most of the husbands won't observe things about their wives closely and won't remember what little they might have observed. A wife pulling up her husband saying, 'how many times I have told you that I don't like this!' is a common occurrence in many families" said Kuzhali.

"I can't speak for all men. But I am not like that" said Selvakumar, in protest.

"Oh, is it so? Why don't we verify your claim? We both are visiting my friend Rama this Sunday. At that time, we will have a contest. I will write five questions about my likes and interests and answers to them on a sheet of paper and hand over the sheet to Rama. She will pose those questions to you. Let me see how many of them you are able to answer correctly!" said Kuzhali.

"Selva! Are you ready?" asked Rama.

"Yes, I am" said Selvakumar.

"First question. What was Kuzhali's favourite subject in the college?'

"Tamil."

"Second question. Which subject did she dislike the most?"

"Mathematics."

"Who is her favourite film music composer?"

"M.S. Viswanathan."

"Her favourite author?"

"Indira Parthasarathy."

"Last question. What is Kuzhali's goal in life?"

"She doesn't have any goal in life. She believes in enjoying life without straining herself much. But, if I have to mention a goal, it is to keep her mother happy, for the rest of her life."

"Congrats, Selva. You have scored five out of five" said Rama.

Kuzhali, who was listening to Selvakumar's answers, sitting in the next room, came out of the room in quick steps, saying, "My goodness! How did you answer all the questions correctly? I have never told you any of these things" in amazement.

"What if you have not told me any of these things? I have learnt these by observing you and from your conversations, Let me explain how I answered each of the five questions. I could easily gauge that you were interested in Tamil literature. Therefore, I guessed that Tamil should have been your favourite subject in the college. You told me that you wanted to choose Chemistry as the subject in your Bachelor's degree, but you were offered only Mathematics. Yet, you studied hard and scored well In mathematics, you told me. So, I guessed that you disliked Mathematics but that you studied hard and earned a good score in Mathematics. Whenever I came to your house, I saw you listening to old film songs, mostly composed by M.S. Viswanathan. I have also heard you humming the songs of M.S. Viwanathan. I have observed that among the books you borrowed from the library, Indira Parthasarathy's novels were more in number."

"You have observed me so closely, as if spying on me. I think I should be cautious while dealing with you! But, how did you find out that my goal was to keep my mother happy, even while saying that I am a person who takes life easy? I was quite sure that you won't be able to answer the question about my goal!" said Kuzhali.

"This was the easiest of the five questions! People have a habit of talking more about their goal. You often talk about taking good care of your mother till the end. You even sought your mother's concurrence before accepting my love!" said Selvakumar, laughing. 

Rama turned to her husband and said, " If you had taken a test like this, you wouldn't have scored even twenty percent!"

"He is a lover now. If he takes a test like this sometime after the marriage, his score will come down. After all, it is the nature of a husband to forget things about his wife!"

"There is no chance of such a thing happening with me. Where is the question of my forgetting anything about her, when I don't remember anything about her?" said Selvakumar.

"You won't remember things about her! What do you mean?" asked Rama.

"I just understand her. That's all" said Selvakumar, looking at Kuzhali's face.

Kuzhali's face was overflowing with happiness and pride.

Thirukkural
Section 3

Love

Chapter 113
In Praise of Love

Verse 1125 (in Tamil):
uLLuvan man yAn maRappin maRappu aRiyEn
oL amark kaNNAL guNam.

Meaning:

I do not think of the attributes of the girl with bright battling eyes. When I cannot forget them, how can I think of them?

(This is the English version of the Tamil story 'aindhu kELvigaL' by the same author.)

Verse 1126
Verse 1124