A seven year itch?

In our day to day lives, we use phrases which we don’t really know where they came from and it is a deep sense of ‘Ignorance is bliss’.

On our decadal anniversary (we met for the first time that day, I know its so girlie stuff!) Three days back, I had one of my girl friend say, oh so your seven year itch is over, and I merrily replied yes long time back, but least did I even ponder for a second if I actually knew what the ‘seven year itch’ was anyway? I mean we use it like a cliché but do most of know its basis?

According to the phrase, after the first seven year in our love relationships, marriages, live-in etc, are over, we get more stable, but this is what most of us have always presumed, and presumption does not have any basis, so get the real supposition: The 'seven year itch' refers to the urge to be unfaithful after seven years of relationships with a desire to satisfy one's sexual urges ('itches').

I again presume that most of you may also resort to a dictionary of phrases and idioms to see the real meaning behind it, well most likely you would not get it, it maybe incorporated now but it never existed as a phrase before 1950s as The Seven Year Itch was a three-act play, written by George Axelrod. Billed as a romantic comedy, the play was first presented by at the Fulton Theatre, New York City, on November 20, 1952. (Yipee!! all supa cool things happen on 20th Nov)

In 1955, 20th Century Fox released a film adaptation starring Marilyn Monroe and Tom Ewell running this phrase down in history forever! The entertaining film is best known for the definitive performance of the radiant Marilyn Monroe with a little girl's giggly voice basically portraying herself as a blonde bombshell, and known simply as The Girl. The film's promotional tease photographs packaged her as the sexually-endowed girl next door - an ideal fantasy figure for all the committed yet weary spouses.

So now that we had a successful film adapted from a play, and we had a phrase to follow, psychology came to play, people actually started believing that it was true, I have a short except from a website that reads:

Relationships: Got the seven year itch?

“When my husband and I were married seven years, we would always hear, ‘Uh oh, the seven year itch!’ or ‘Do you have the itch yet?’.

The question: what is the seven year itch and is it real?”

The website answers: The seven year itch is actually a real phenomenon which occurs in many couples, although not always at seven years. One interesting fact to note is that the average median marital age of divorced couples is 7.2 years, which is where they came up with that number. Why seven years? Usually by the time you get to seven years, you have children. The strain of increased responsibility is enough to get you itching…..

A whole phenomenon from nothing, kudos to human imagination and applied logic!

The ancient wonder of the world!

I had the privilege to visit Egypt this Easter break. It was a week long trip aiming to visit all the monumental wonders that the country beholds. Pyramids are the obvious answer but there are many more that have not been hyped as much as they should have.

Many those who visit Egypt mainly know of the cities like Cairo, Luxor and probably Aswan. But there are many more cities both old and new that add to the glory of the Egyptian mythology. Fayyum, Saqqarra, Memphis, Edfu, Denderah, Kom ombo and Nubia are just few of the off the track cities that are worth the visit.

Egypt is like an open air museum, each day each place there are more and more excavations, on our visit to Cairo museum, we spotted these boxes that were full of some or the other remains, one of the box said: “2nd century B.C ornaments” while the other one said, alabaster from 14th century A.D. It makes me ponder, did those pharaohs know that they would leave behind not only a lost civilization but also a huge employment opportunity, the sole bread and butter earner for Egypt for hundred of years? Many times it also makes me think of what happens to us when we die, will our future generations excavate us in the same way and then how old will the Egyptian civilization date back to?

River Nile originates in Sudan and then flows into Egypt, it gives to this land, flourishing agricultural valleys and undulating landscapes on which settled world’s most earliest recorded civilizations. Thebes (Now Luxor) and Memphis (Can be called as the old Cairo) grew manifolds due to this enriching river. Nile saw many come and go that we cannot fathom, but now its just reduced to a trade, more than 300 Nile cruisers transport more than 50,000 tourists, spilling as much waste as they can. They boast of the river as mother Nile but when it comes to adding to its splendor, I bet you can’t count on them.
Nubia was another fascination for me; Nubia is the region in the south of Egypt, along the Nile and in northern Sudan. Most of Nubia is situated in Sudan with about a quarter of its territory in Egypt. In ancient times it was an independent kingdom. Many centuries showed many different expansions and invasions over this wealthy and stable kingdom and then finally with the end of colonialism Nubia was divided between Egypt and Sudan. These people are far more socio-economically disadvantaged within Egypt, as compared to Sudanese Nubians in Sudan. What an irony, once the trading and commercial hub now, u see the Nubians working as felucca sailors, waiters, cleaners and even street shops, they are majorly discriminated just because of the language they speak and their skin color and then we talk of racial discrimination internationally!!

The ancient monumental feats that were achieved are no doubt incredible, but for the amount of international funding that is showered on Egypt, I sometimes feel it is let down, so much of hype, air of royalty is nothing but a mere trade, that has had its country men so dependent on it, that to maintain the pharaoh land status they may even go lengths to stir the conspiracy theory.

Penance vs Persistance!

Sometimes you don’t really know why life treats you harsh, I can’t call it harsh, but it’s like penance that it wants you to go thru. Though I have had many in my share and I absolutely think it works in your favor rather than against you!

With a similar experience we traveled to Egypt last week, after going thru a huge hassle of getting visa to Egypt for my better half, we were not allowed to board the flight cuz we were freaking 5 minutes late!!! That too, cuz we were standing in a long q to security check!! That blew my lid off, and after many years, I yelled on someone in public, embarrassing as it was, I felt good, sometimes the most benefiting anger management tool.

Looking at how jazeera airways is treating its customers, soon it will not have any!! Its status has been reduced from a low cost no frills airline to rude staff, labor class airline; but as seeing is believing; I truly believe it now!! I am not saying this cuz I am pissed off (which I surely am) but I am sure others who have traveled this airline when it started its operations and now, cannot disagree.

Good riddance as it was, we finally traveled Emirates, obviously we paid big moolah for it, but it was worth it!! It is always lovely to be associated with an airlines awarded for best service!!

That night, it was like this fight against time and my long on going penance. Huge deadlines at work, high filial expectations; you and your mind works 24 / 7, its ruthless sometimes cuz we cannot take life for granted even for a few seconds.

On the other hand I believe that God always shows us these signs that we ignore, to warn us and hence protect us. We had never had traveling troubles ever and did not know what was in store for us now, did the annoying troubles end, or was that just the start! At 2.30 am on a Saturday morning, wide awake from the past 20 hours, I felt so confused and exasperated!

Life has taught me to never say never; we had to make it to the pharaoh land, hook or hijack. And then, we did, though slightly behind schedule; we landed in Alexandria at 11.00 am Saturday morning. The morning air felt so fresh and crisp and it was relief to see the long night get over!

Do u think the penance was over?