Hyderabad: What’s common between Prime Minister-elect Narendra Modi, Tamil Nadu’s J. Jayalalithaa, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and Odisha’s Naveen Patnaik? They’re all in positions of power, start their days early, and yes, are single. No wives or husbands and a lifetime devoted to their careers.
The recently-concluded world’s largest election then has also proven the statistics right, single people are more successful. Research claims the ‘singles’ have more time, patience, focus and at the end of the day, don’t have to fight over the remote.
Sadhguru Jaggi Vasudev even has philosophy to back up the numbers. “If one is emotionally organised, having no one waiting for you at home turns out to be an advantage. For relentless pursuit of goals, being single certainly helps.”
Now, before you go, ‘come on, that can’t be right’, sample a few more examples.
Industrialist Ratan Tata, in a famous interview, revealed that he came close to marrying a whopping “four times” and when asked why he bailed FOUR TIMES, the man responsible for one of the biggest conglomerates on the planet, cited ‘fear’ as the reason. Yes, marriage scared the socks off Mr Tata. But he has added, “There are no regrets”.
“When you asked whether I’d ever been in love, I came seriously close to getting married four times and each time it got close to there, and I guess I backed off in fear of one reason or another,” Mr Tata said.
Then there’s Rocket Man Abdul Kalam, father of the Indian missile programme and former President of India.
The book, A.P.J. Abdul Kalam: The Visionary of India claims Dr Kalam once jokingly admitted to a friend that if had married, “he would never have achieved even half of what he had managed to.”
The book quotes Dr Kalam’s brother, Mustafa who has an interesting anecdote. “When he was posted in Thirvunanthapuram, we almost fixed an alliance for him. But then my wife and daughter fell ill and we got distracted. After that, Kalam left for Hyderabad.”
But it’s not just the men who are obsessed. “It’s especially the women. They don’t have to do housework. There is nobody to control them and they are more free. All this leaves a lot of time to just work,” says Dr Ranjana Kumari, director of the Centre for Social Research and member, National Mission for Empowerment of Women.
In politics, meanwhile, there’s now a need to be single. In fact, the very concept of family ties has been given the boot and the bramhachariya has essentially become a favourable quality for a candidate.
“With the kind of adverse reactions we are seeing to things like dynasty and (allegations of) ‘family corruption’ in politics, being single definitely does make candidates seem incorruptible,” says Advaita Kala, author of Almost Single.
The traditional thought process that ‘they have no family and their aspirations to accommodate’, works for such politicians. And they are even being seen as selfless, given that their family is not defined by blood. So, their constituency, state becomes their family. It’s an emotional pull,” adds Kala.
Political analyst and professor at Lucknow University, Sudhir Panwar, agrees. “Being single adds value. Whether it is Vajpayee or Modi, people perceive they are single so they see no reason for them to resort to corruption. Like Modi, he starts work at 6 am, time they would’ve ordinarily devoted to family, they devote to public life.”
Panwar continued, “You also become a little tougher in your dealings. You look at any single politician, Mayawati, Modi, and then Patnaik they are indifferent to people’s sentiments.”
That particular quality, however, does not take away the humanity. Alex, (name changed on request) is a sworn bachelor faced with the prospect that even fellow club-member George Clooney has now agreed to tie the knot.
“I do believe bachelors are more successful. But that’s simply because we have more time and there’s no weekend shopping to disrupt focus. I have dated though, and the longest I’ve been in a relationship is eight months. Three of those months were spent traveling and half the time I was with her, it was emails and phones.
When the recession hit India back in 2011, I was given charge of a department that had me working 10 straight hours, six days a week. Let’s just say, you forget a few birthdays. One fine day, I got the talk and she just left. But every firm needs a person like me, it’s even important to the economy I must claim. Overall though, I may be alone, but I’m not lonely.”
