The Bhabhis of Lahore & other forbidden tales of the city by Muzaffar Ayesha

Author:Muzaffar, Ayesha
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: UNKNOWN
Published: 2023-05-02T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter

9

Rumors and Broken Friendships

2015

The night of phupho’s wedding had been long and tiresome. The five were back in their rooms, each having the weirdest thoughts. Zaryab was seated on his squeaky couch, the one he never let his ami get rid of, and was thinking of never marrying because to him, it seemed nothing less than a burden. He also decided that the very next morning he would talk to his parents about sending him and Mohsin to Australia for the exchange program. Mohsin, who was busy skimming through an old afsana he had found on his father’s shelf, was feeling sorry for phupho. He believed that this time around, she had been married to a psychopath. Hira, who had generously distributed all her slanty packets to the house-help’s daughter, for she felt disgusted by them, still couldn’t get the image of naked phupho out of her mind. She planned on telling what she had seen to Mariam, a religious class fellow. Farhan’s thoughts weren’t actually eerie, unless you count the regret of not being able to ride a ‘two tires wali cycle’ being weird. He wasn’t concerned about the past night. Farhan adored Hira, that part was true, but his personality, before marriage at least, was less concerning than it was now. And so, after realizing that there would hardly be a chance of him having to show his non-existent cycling skills, he slept like a baby. Majhbeen, who had spent the morning after the function separating peas for phupho’s breakfast, was questioning her friendship with Hira.

What happened after was a blur. You know, like you’re boiling milk and it is still sticking innocently to the side of the dechki, and the minute you start to admire the kitchen wall, the milk boils the life out of itself. In such a blink of an eye or milk boil, Majhbeen stopped talking to Hira, Farhan got involved in the family drama and persuasion of a watta satta, and the brothers left for a summer in Australia.

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Rashid’s mother had always wanted someone like Majhbeen to be her bahu. Majhbeen was obedient, confused and knew little about the outside world. At least that was how she had initially been. Her mother-in-law had known that for her autistic son, who was merely a helper to the army, Majhbeen was a golden key. Even when Majhbeen had found out that her husband stammered, forgot things, believed in parian and imitated his narcissistic, former wife-insulting father, she did not mind. You see, Majhbeen had fallen in love before. The one-sided, purest and unconditional kind, and she knew that she couldn’t feel that way for anyone again. And thus, it didn’t occur to her how much less she had settled for. And to be very honest, she hadn’t led a spectacular life to have standards to look up to; a simple being with simple thoughts, she was.

Three days after the wedding, Rashid had come out of the room, running like he was on fire with his legs and arms flailing all over the place.

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