Sunder Susheel and Sanskaari and then the Starks

She was given a lecture by all the ladies in the house, the nearest and the extended, she was way past the marriage date, even her expiry date had come and gone. So Fatima, Fatso to the world was told to be sunder, susheel and sanskaari and bend herself backwards to finally snare her mian ji and get herself nikhaoed as soon as possible. The list of recommendations and advice that had been given to her made her head go round .Her phuphijaan told her, if she just grew her hair and did a bun and used a bit of mehendi to color the stubborn grey, it would look like a streak, and the other one, told her if she wore a nose –pin her funny weird nose would get disguised.

The list enumerated from top to bottom, but she wondered who was going to explain gravity had happened, some things were sagging and some were just growing in relation to them. Hair grew in all sorts of places where it wasn’t supposed to be, and where it was meant to it was thinning! In fact, all she knew was age was happening to her, she was comfortable in her skin but this whole clan of her bibiyan had nothing better to do than dissect her as she was the last unmarried Dodo in the Niazi Khandaan.

People only settled down in graveyards, otherwise they kept on floating around as ghostly apparitions living a life pleasing others. Right now, she had been tweezed, plucked, waxed, and buffed more than she had been in her entire life and she swore she fell lighter, and all the hair had disappeared leaving her so shiny and soft she swore Alam would slide off her like a heated butter knife on the butter cake.
Oh My God, she and her horrible pj’s! She sat giggling what did they all want? Did they suddenly want her to be the susheel, sundar, and sanskaari, shy bharatiya naari so that the guy would look at her and swoon and start singing a song? And, suppose they were not compatible?  If he didn’t know how to kiss and that handle bar moustache got into the way? What was she to do? Twirl it ? and say aao ji …

Why did the autocratic Niazi khandaan not move with the times? Why were girls allowed to study and have the requisite degree and not allowed to practice and actually have a life?

Uff, this new bra strap was also digging in, Fatso knew nothing would change; she would have to give in and meet Alam. She had no excuse now; Abbaji had let her work for two years as she had asked for thinking that two years was a long time. She had finished her masters; she had worked for two years and evaded marriage for the last decade it seems.

But, now they wanted her to revert to being a sunder susheel, nirma ad wali ladki.

Sitting in the room, waiting for to be called to bring in the chai and samosas and serve it to the Sultan family was just a formality. She was nervous, tensed and angry that just because society dictated she had to marry! Why couldn’t she live like Peter Pan  in Never Never land?

In the end it all boiled down to books coffee , chocolate and the occasional kebab !

Aaiji , she said .

Now , she knew what it meant to be a sacrificial lamb, in her case it was the slightly over weight strap biting gravity affected Dodo !She walked in  balancing the tray with samosas and the plates as if she was a contestant in the Ms Fine Poise ! The guy who was in front of her looked normal , just like she was , he looked bored , had grey specks in his hair and he also looked as if he wished he was anywhere but here . She said hello , and he replied as if in a trance , winter is here .

That settled it . Someone who knew the Starks and the show wouldn’t be half bad and that moustache well it could always have an accident .

Fatima , gave her best smile and said yes, sixteen more days to go .