Wine and Women: Omar Khyyam Extolls it * 65

I have long wondered what the connection between women  and wine is. Why do they go together? Is it because both words start with the letter W? This, one will agree is a simplistic answer, the fact is both are intoxicants and though the liberated woman will not agree, the fact remains just like wine takes you into an unreal world so does the infatuation for a woman. 

The Rubiat of Omar Khayyam clearly spells out this connection. Yes, wine and woman do go together, but the complement is not completed without a man. Man is the common denominator. This is something that flows from the scriptures, both Hindu and Muslim. In a way all credit to a woman for without her the triology of wine , man and woman cannot be completed. In fact this accepted by most psychologist. Dr. Freud gave all this a sexual connotation. Maybe he was right, but again its something  that is tacit but understood by all. Thus there is nothing to feel ashamed off or be diffident about the fact that wine and women go together.

Omar Khayyam was a Muslim and his verses extolling the virtues of wine and women show how farsighted a man he was.

What a wonderful interpretation of human nature. Yes, I will say nature of a man.

Women and wine is a fact of life and it has been part of a man’s ethos since the beginning of man. Has it changed now? Despite all the pro libbers, one has just to attend the cocktail circuit in Mumbai to realize the truth of what Omar Khayyam wrote. The young women on the arms of older man, with free flow of whiskey and wine are a sight that should make Bacchus, the god of wine happy.

Man had a god of wine earlier on and the reason is that wine is the elixir that lowers inhibition’s and adds to that extra sparkle with a woman for company. One has only to see the movie “Solomon and Sheba” and the orgy with wine to realize that wine and women go together. They can’t be separated. One can enjoy them both individually, but when both are added together it is almost like nirvana. It is like a heady concoction and only a poet of the caliber of Omar Khayyam can do justice with his lilting verses. Both are part of our world since the dawn of time. Wine is available easily, but a man must strive to win a woman so in the ultimate analysis a woman rules over a man and she is the winner.