”Other than that, Mrs. Lincoln, how was the play?”

I have done more than a fair amount of general reading in my life; it continues till date. Yet, I never knew till recently that the words in the title have been categorized as a cliché and have been spoken or written umpteen number of times by various people on different occasions. It is termed as sick humor. For the uninitiated let me explain that it is used whenever a significant negative thing is downplayed and focus is being directed to something trivial. The phrase has a historical origin associated with the assassination of American President, Abraham Lincoln, when he had gone to see a play at Ford theater with his wife in 1865. Ironically, on that fateful day Lincoln was watching a comedy play, ‘Our American Cousin’, when he was shot.

Further search on the internet revealed that the phrase was coined for the first time around 1961 when New Statesman, an American news magazine, held a competition for its readers to think of a tactless remark having a historical bearing. It is amply clear that the question to Mrs. Lincoln was never actually spoken in real but is the result of someone's imagination, however twisted.

There is another interesting remark that is attributed to the cause of a general uprising,  overthrowing the French king in power in that era. Queen Marie Antoinette reportedly said, "Let them eat cakes", when she was informed about the poverty of her subjects who could not afford bread. Many believe that this infuriated the general masses who went up in arms against the king, resulting in French revolution.

However, the historians are of the view that Marie Antoinette could not had uttered those words. Firstly, despite her lavish lifestyle and love for wealth, she was considerate to her people and donated a lot of money in charity. Secondly, and most importantly, Marie Antoinette was just ten years old and another thirteen years would pass before she became the queen when the remark attributed to her had already been made famous by the philosopher, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, in his Confessions written in 1766. The fact that Marie Antoinette's remark is still remembered even after two and a half centuries proves that people love juicy cause and effect stories - even if no such linkage exist in the first place!

Shying away from the significant and dwelling on frivolous issues is quite common in public life. Satirists and cartoonists have a ball using this as a theme in their art. Years back there used to be a Hindi humorous program, Ulta Pulta, on Doordarshan in which late Jaspal Bhatti used this technique repeatedly to tickle the audience. In one episode of the program that I remember, Jaspal Bhatti was having a serious discussion with his staff while planning for the forthcoming meeting on the occasion of his boss's annual inspection. He went on to explain in detail the seating plan of the meeting, the refreshments to be served, the color of curtains of the conference room and so on. One of his subordinates naively asked Jaspal Bhatti, " What is the agenda of the meeting?" Bhatti waved off the question impatiently saying that the agenda could be finalized later but the things that he was focusing on at that moment were far more important and everyone was asked to be more attentive.
I recall a somewhat similar experience in my service. Once my Principal Secretary in government informed me that a Russian delegation headed by their Deputy Minister was visiting Trivandrum and I was to receive them at the airport, accommodate them in Kerala Government Tourism hotel, Muscat, and later organize a dinner for the team.

In government and private sector there is a highly valued and a  brightly glowing euphemism called delegation. I promptly delegated 'welcome with a bouquet' part to my junior. Later, he reported to me that the Deputy Minister heading the team was tottering on his feet in the early morning when he exited the custom clearance gate on arrival. The bulky minister's loss of sense of direction was not entirely due to the long flight that he had undertaken. He was pretty sozzled on arrival.

Later, in the evening my Principal Secretary directed me to accompany him to dinner so as to reach there fifteen minutes prior to the appointed hour. Once we were in the empty dining hall, the Principal Secretary deftly moved around the neatly laid out tables covered with fresh linen. The scene was akin to a General inspecting his troops before the launch of a critical attack. He didn't appear to be mighty pleased by what he saw. With a slight disapproving frown on his smooth face he ticked me off, "Dharni, you should have personally supervised the arrangements. These buggers have not laid the cutlery properly."

Like a smart aleck I replied, " Sir, the government hotel staff are professionals in hospitality sector and know much better than I do about laying the cutlery. It would not make any difference even if I came here earlier to oversee the arrangements." The Secretary's frown deepened a centimeter further but I looked away defensively. Of course, till that moment I had no clue about the agenda of discussion for the business banquet that I had been asked to organize for the high level delegation. With great restraint I refrained from asking the Secretary, "Other than the cutlery, sir, how is the ambience?"