“The fault, dear Brutus ...”
Reliable sources are saying The Great Khan’s residence has been cleared of his soon-to-be former wife’s belongings. Her stuff has been packed in containers and dispatched from his Bani Gala redoubt. They say the ex’s domestic staff has been sacked and The Khan’s old retainers brought back. The house was apparently filthy, and The Khan’s sisters came in for a special spring clean. The Khan’s fixer, ZB from London, is also acting as courier and has apparently taken a certified copy of the divorce papers to the United Kingdom so that they can be formally delivered to the lady.
People all over the country are asking if the couple was so incompatible, why did they marry in the first place. Insiders are well aware of the answer and it is that The Khan was nudged to do the needful by the former head honcho of the Invisible Soldiers Inc. so that a brewing scandal could be preempted. As with all the former head honcho’s myopic plans, this too has backfired, but not before devastating The Khan and shattering his nerve. Apparently, he says it’s been a traumatic experience because they both wanted completely different things from the marriage. He wanted a docile, supportive wife who wouldn’t question any of his presumptions and who would deflect the limelight away from the developing scandal. She was an ambitious, hard-bitten woman on the make, who wanted fame, riches and power from her marriage. Sadly, the ingredients of a successful union – love, respect, friendship, shared values – were all missing from this marriage of convenience.
Unable to bear the daily tension and trauma, The Khan called it quits the day before the Local Bodies elections, devastating his party colleagues who were out in the field, trying desperately to garner votes. He is now inclined to be melancholy and mournful, not for a love lost, but for the failure of another opportunistic venture, this time the Mother of All U-Turns. They say he’s occasionally weepy and says he’s been cursed by “kissi larki ki bud dua” or a wounded woman’s ill will. He’d be better off recalling The Bard’s famous words: “The fault, dear Brutus, lies not in our stars but in ourselves.”