Kiss Me Kate!

Kiss me Kate, we will be married on’ Sunday,” said Petruchio to Katharina in The Taming of the Shrew by William Shakespeare “Kiss me Kate, but make it snappy, the grandparents are watching,” said Prince William, to Kate Middleton. This seems to be the season of weddings.Daily calendar sheets are filled with artistic renderings of decorated bulls or bashful brides and grooms, indicative of suba muhoorthams.Early-morning traffic is full of motor-bike couples with the wife, dressed in a stiff silk sari standing a mile away from her body, perched precariously on the pillion, while the husband throws warnings at every step. Wedding guests greet each other languidly, with tales of various offspring in USA, the UK or the latest foreign country in fashion, while holding giftwrapped presents, purses and three cell-phones in one hand (the other is always smoothing away hair from the forehead).And the latest, grandest sign of a classy wedding? Gift-wrappers in muted colours. God forbid, if you bring a wedding-gift wrapped in bright gold or red paper. The wrapper needs to be in ochre, teal, burnt orange, or some such colour – upon which you will be gladly accepted into the folds of elite wedding celebs.You do wonder, though, exactly what kind of gifts or wrappers the celebrity wedding of the year, in the UK at least, commanded.When the heir to the throne of the British monarchy gets married to his non-aristocratic partner (as every paper in the UK keenly pointed out), what kind of common ground could they have found? As it turned out, they managed to strike a reasonably good balance between old and new: they slipped on rings on Westminster Abbey, drove off in Prince Charles’s car after the wedding in modernmarried bliss – and stuck to a particularly romantic royal wedding tradition: the kiss on the balcony of Buckingham Palace.With over 2 billion people gaping at them, including the Queen, her consort, and the in-laws, William and Kate gave each other a quick peck on the lips. Which, of course, meant that every newspaper in the country screamed the headlines: “Kiss Me Kate!” And went gaga over the fact that they kissed not once, but twice! And for 2.456 seconds! This, naturally, sent me hunting for the origin of the phrase – and I found it quickly. One, because it’s based on one of Shakespeare’s more popular plays and two, I’d seen it on film, immortalised by the inimitable Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton as they wrangle ceaselessly with each other.Burton as Petruchio, successfully tames his shrew of a wife, whereupon the absolutely virtuous Kate gives a speech, glorifying husbands as deities, lords and masters — how Shakespeare must have chuckled over that one.As for the royal wedding gifts, today’s Kate and William played it safe: they set up a Royal Wedding Charitable Gift Fund and donated the proceeds to charity. Fortunately, it looks like this will save a lot on muted gift-wrappers.