Husband And Wife—The Law of Equality!

At the start of the New Year a good friend of mine sent me a joke on the husband-wife syndrome. While talking about a certain ‘Law of Equality’ it says,” The time taken by a wife  when she says to her waiting husband ‘I’ll get ready in five minutes’ is exactly equal to the time taken by a husband when he tells his wife from office ‘I’ll call you back in five minutes!’”

This reminds me of an old joke about couples where the law of equality seems to be maintained in some measure. “A couple quarreled bitterly and they were not on talking terms. It was night and the logjam continued. Now, the hubby had to go for an urgent appointment early in the morning and he did not believe in the alarm clock because he used to shut it up on the very first ring. He needed his wife’s help, but how? So he left a note by her pillow-side that said ‘Please wake me up at 7am’. He overslept and finally waking up found the clock striking 8. He jumped up and as he began cursing the institution of marriage he saw the note by his pillow-side. His wife’s note said ‘It’s 7! Please wake up!’

In another very crucial segment of marital existence namely ‘the division of labor’, this particular law gets a little weaker. Normally the wife is very concerned about the burden of work she is being subjected to and the burden her husband takes on or pretends to take on. If she fully manages the kitchen the husband has to take care of setting the dinner table, filling the water jars and doing the beds. But the law ultimately gets very biased and partisan. Hubby returns home after a hard day’s work looking for a warm cup of tea from his darling wife, but he faces the music instantly. His ‘over-burdened’ partner exclaims, ‘What do you do in office? Just relax in air-conditioned comfort and gossip with your friends and pretty secretaries the whole goddamned day! You make the tea for you and me too now! Else you are not going to get your supper!’