Light Upon Light

#63 Surprise Surprise!

السلام عليكم ورحمه الله وبركاته
Hey! Here's an update.

And can I just say I love this chapter so much!

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#63 Surprise Surprise!

Do you know how fast time flies?

Neither do I. But I’m starting to wonder if like the stars we too are travelling in light years, because Saturday was here in the blink of an eye and it was the day of the get together at Juveriya Aunty’s. To be honest, I was starting to have a gut feeling that there are things going on behind the scenes which are being kept from me deliberately by my family members. It made me think of how the adults would be sitting and conspiring together about marriage proposals for Ayesha Di back in the day. However, I was living peacefully with the notion that my parents and definitely Samir and Di and Bhabhi would definitely not keep me out of the loop should something of the sort take place.

But the odd feeling persisted and I knew not why.

I threw away the bangles I was I putting on because they were snagging in the embroidery on my sleeves. They fell with a clatter on the floor near Kashaf who looked up at me in bewilderment. Her eyes grew wide and a look of fear flashed through them and that’s when I came to my senses and realized I probably looked like a crazy evil banshee. Poor little one had come up to my room to get ready with me and instead of the Ju Phups who loved playing dress up with her she found irate Ms Junaina.

“I’m so sorry sweetie,” I said as I fell to my knees next to her and pulled her in for a hug. She relaxed in my arms and I felt relieved. Bhai would have had my head for losing my cool in front of his child like that.

“Are you okay Ju Phups?” she asked pulling away to look at me, cupping my face in her small hands. I smiled at her.

“I am fine Kashaf Jaan, Alhamdulilah. Let me put my abaya, and then we’ll go downstairs. Why don’t you go and check if Abid is ready?”

Taking my hint she bounced out of the room, leaving me alone to collect my composure. Sighing I sat down cross legged on the floor and covered my face with my palms. We’ve hardly been here in India for a month and I feel like I’ve attended enough weddings and parties and functions to last a lifetime. It’s not like I don’t look forward to some of the events, but at times it feels like a bit too much. And the only thing people seem to want to talk about is marriage.

“Beta, when are you getting married?”

“Studies are over, so now your parents must have started looking fora groom right?”

“Tell us, what kind of husband do you want?”

“Do you know cooking? Girls these days, carrying big big certificates and don’t even have the basic skills they need in life!”

And so on and so forth. Desi aunties, I wonder where they get all that energy from. I could use some of it. Of course there were people with good intentions as well, who want me to find happiness. There were some genuinely interested to carry a conversation that did not include marriage at all. However few and far fetched they were, it was a pleasure to meet them. It’s just that for every nice person you meet, you tend to come across twice as many nosy aunties who were looking for entertainment or gossip.

The gathering at Juveriya Aunty's wouldn’t be that way, of that I’m certain. But I was kind of tired of the whole people getting together scenarios. I just wanted some Ali family time. Or maybe just some me time. It’s the one thing that I had in abundance in Dubai.