Actually let’s not be too hasty about censuring Mr Tomar for his statement on KBC. Why jump to hasty conclusions? Think of it.
Tomar could have planned for many options even as he prepared to take the hot seat hoping to win the big prize.
He could have decided he would use the money for buying himself a bigger car; going on a world tour (with or without wife), investing in a house where he could truly feel lord and master of all he surveyed. But his thoughts were for his wife.
The little woman back home. The bride he had married, and perhaps after some initial reservations, decided was really worthy of being a life partner to him.
Mr Tomar is a modern man. He knows women like to continue to look young, and beautiful. Perhaps, despite himself, he too likes women who are younger, prettier, more talented than the sweet woman whose charms have paled with use.
But unlike many of his ilk; virile husbands who believe the field is more open for them than it is for their women; Mr Tomar did not think to stray.
Or to use the money and its attending benefits to get himself a bevy of new playmates. Even a new wife.
Instead he thought of his wife. Of bequeathing his winnings in her name, for her continued good fortune. For it is indeed a lucky wife who, despite the vagaries that time and the birthing and rearing of children, manages to hold on to the continued attention of her spouse.
And if you listen carefully between the words of Mr Tomar’s public statement of intent, it reflects his realisation of the fact that it could happen in his wife’s case too. Unless a lucky win could help him prevent it.
Though Mr Tomar was not diplomatic in the expression of it (thus earning himself rebuke from no less a personality than the quiz master himself), I believe his statement was indeed a declaration of husbandly love.
Which is why we should excuse him for also thinking of himself. That while giving his wife a second stint at looking young and beautiful, the gift would carry with it the double benefit of giving his eyes relief from the tedium of her fading looks.
Like everything else, love too has evolved into new ways of expression. Love letters gave way to messages in WhatsApp lingo; emojis replaced words.
The human mind too invented new means. The romantic kidnappings of the era of chivalry and the pining lover were relegated to bookshelves holding forgotten books.
Today, the thwarted lover does not drink himself to death, he throws acid on his beloved to ensure her face can remain intact in his heart alone. Sadly not everyone understands these new interpretations of the age-old emotion.
And Mr Tomar, god bless his blessed husbandly heart, showed his love too. Mrs Tomar, knowing that needles and the scalpel could turn the clock back a decade must have felt a rush of warm gratefulness. But a word of caution to the hero of this story. He should use some of it to restore his looks too. For should Mrs Tomar look into the mirror and realise she is too good for him, she just might decide to look for someone more suited to her updated.
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