“The Man Who Must Remain Nameless and Faceless has defended The Third Wife, nee spiritual guide, saying that she is working on his behalf.”

“Right on his personal as opposed to the party’s behalf.”

“Right an important distinction but my question is: did she work on his behalf when he was appointing all the Ains (those whose name began with the twenty-fourth letter of the alphabet) notably The Buzz…”

“I don’t know the names of all her five children but some at least have names that have no ain, then there is the friend whose name is Farah Shazadi, her family name before she married her first husband does not start with an ain…”

“And don’t forget her own name has no ain……”

“But there was no ain in the names of the previous two wives of The Man Who Must Remain Nameless and Faceless or his two sons or his sisters so I reckon the ain has no significance with blood relatives or those by marriage.”

“Malik Riaz…”

“Which is why he is the cause of so much trouble as is the non-blood relative Farah Khan.”

“Hmm good point anyway I went on the net and found out that ain is a rare letter found mainly in words (I suppose one can also add names) borrowed from the Arabic in which it represents a glottal stop.”

“I don’t understand, what’s a glottal stop?”

“It’s a consonant formed by the audible release of the airstream after complete closure of the glottis. And glottis is the opening between the vocal folds in the larynx generally thought as the primary valve between the lungs and the mouth.”

“Interesting. So The Buzz’s first name had all this?!”

“Don’t be facetious, anyway the airwaves are insisting that The Third Wife is negotiating to get her husband out of jail.”

“I wasn’t aware that a woman with no ain in her name…”

“She uses the name Imran as her last name, I know that’s not the English way but there you go, so stop with your insinuations.”

“OK but do you really think that (a) she has the negotiating skills to get him out and once out keep him silent because I am not sure The Man Who Must Remain Nameless and Faceless will accept these terms or (b) that the one major stakeholder will allow his release given so much bad blood has been spilt already.”

“Hmmm if you had got up to the letter ain then I would have had hoped for a release from jail…”

“Don’t be facetious.”

Copyright Business Recorder, 2025