Nagging is a small word, but most unwelcome. To nag is to continuously find fault and complain. It becomes a characteristic of women, specially when their youth is departing. Most life partners, with aging, turn into awful nags, leaving others stunned at this behavioural change. Such women in past in the West were given even such odd names as ‘amazon’, ‘hag’, ‘scold’, ‘shrew’, ‘termagent’, ‘vixen’ and ‘nag’ depending on their toughness, talents and the degrees of tempers shown by them.
Xanthippe, wife of the great Greek philosopher, Socrates, had a reputation for being an awful nag. She never missed any opportunity to find fault with Socrates. Once, as the story goes, the Greek philosopher was inattentive to her utterances, being lost in his deep thought, she is said to have become more violent and full in fury. She poured a pitcherful of cold water on him just to arouse him from his stupor. Poor Socrates on regaining from such a shocking treatment meted out to him, only smiled and said that ‘there is always rain after a storm’.
Some persons, usually after their mid-50s, are found to be more inclined to nag. Domestic servants are nagged daily by housewives for improper vacuuming of carpets, dusting of furniture, cleaning up the living room or bathrooms. Even grown-up males get their due share of nagging from life partners for leaving newspapers here and there after reading them. Children are chided for their bad manners if they leave for school without saying Asslam-o-Alekum or without shaking hands with their parents and grandparents. School teachers fret over their pupils for their absence or for not doing homework.
Daughters-in-law, in most families, are the ones to be nagged every now and then by mothers-in-law. If, by any chance, the dutiful son once forgets to bring a medicine, he is in for a good nagging by the ailing mother or father. If he is found to be spending more time with his family or takes them out, he is apt to get a good nagging from the parents. Males who are not stay-at-home types can save themselves from the nagging of their beloved wives by the time spent out of their sight.
Now take your own example, if you have a nagging wife. Suppose you have brought the best of meat and mutton available to you in your daily routine shopping, but the stuff brought is found to be an old animal that would not cook well or on cooking, taste odd. Poultry meat and fish also come under fire from a nagging wife. Fruits and vegetables, however fresh they maybe, but for your partner, they are always stale. If nothing is found to criticize, you are told to have paid more for quality. Potatoes are found too big, and the chips made out of them are always sweet, and that the children hate to eat them. Curd brought by you is tart.
Similarly, the milkman is warned daily for the poor and adulterated quality of milk he has been supplying for months. He is told to mend his ways, otherwise the milk supply will be stopped as there are many others who could supply milk at a relatively low cost. If the next-door neighbour knocks at the door for taking back the key of his/her apartment left with you, it is enough to start a nagging spree.
Even well-provided-for ladies are seen nagging at their sons, daughters and husbands for one thing or the other. They are criticized for their failure to take the nagging mother or the ailing grandfather for a routine check-up with the doctor.
Nagging is said to be an unpleasant habit that nobody likes. It is not a disease, as doctors tell us. Maybe, it is due to the physical and psychological changes that come in women with aging. But in all fairness, it has to be put up with as a natural phenomena, as anyone can become its victim.
But this is also a big problem as a nagging wife can hardly be appeased to keep her tantrums or moods under control. Moreover, it cannot be said with any certainty that the daughter of a nagging mother would not turn to be a nag, if nagging is hereditary.
There is no guarantee that a nag can cure herself of this nasty habit unless he/she realizes that it is not good, and one cannot endear him/herself to others by it.
