Why single out Anup Jalota for his choice of partner? Just because he isn’t a stud but a god-fearing bhajan singer?
It’s the millennial world. Age here is just a number, relevant only for documentation. Relationships, on the other hand, have graduated to love without boundaries and marriages of convenience. So, if the man is 30 years or more in age and his PYT wife doesn’t mind, it’s their world, their decision and their way of life. That’s individualism, that’s today and that should be accepted. So putting singer Anup Jalota on the mat for his unconventional relationship with his muse Jasleen Maruthala can be modestly called uncalled for, even if it was unfolding in the salacious Bigg Boss House and was meant to be a publicity marker for the newly started Season 12 of a reality show battling familiarity and ennui. If the gracefully aged dude Milind Soman could marry Ankita Konwar, 25 years his junior, without anyone raising an eyebrow, why can’t Jalota? Well, the answer lies in collective societal hypocrisy, double standards and, last but not the least, the inherent need for human kind to blow hot air over gossip.
For one, in popular mindset, Jalota lacks the profile for such a relationship. A bhajan singer from the Hindi heartland is supposed to be strictly conventional on two counts. One, that he is in worship of God through his songs, and the other, that he is an old man who was never a dude and is likened to the papas and the grandpas of our world. He is 65 and his two children from an earlier marriage are close to the age of his muse and girlfriend Jasleen. But then, Jackie Kennedy married moneybag Aristotle Onassis when he was 62 and she only a 39-year-old presidential widow. That was a 37-year age gap. Hollywood actor Alec Baldwin and Hilaria Thomas sport a 26-year age gap. The present French President has a wife 25 years his senior and who was his teacher in school! Star Trek actor Sir Patrick Stewart and his wife Sunny Ozell do not cringe about the 38-year difference and the fact that they tied the knot when he was 82 and she just 43! Back home there are examples galore and the society doesn’t mind. Actor Shahid Kapoor has a wife 13 years younger – through an arranged marriage. Saira Bano showcases “eternal love” as a power point presentation of her long-standing marriage to thespian Dilip Kumar, 22 years her senior. Kabir Bedi with his velvet voice and his 28 years junior wife Parveen Dusanj never had to answer questions about what he was up to when he got married at age 70. So here’s for Jalota in his own bhajan: Aisee Lagi Lagan...!
