Chill Time at Both the Places

By

Sadaf Fayyaz

Being a girl, people ask me why I write against girls. My fiction story “The Dollar Beauty” was even criticized a lot, as it reflected some bad aspects of a girl’s personality. I felt like writing about a specific category of girls at educational institutions who just want to have fun and enjoy life. I have seen some cousins and friends of mine who just kill their time.

There is a category of girls at who join universities after getting married. Some of them are very decent, mature and sophisticated. The specific ‘category’ I am talking about is something like this:

“Hey, see my shadi albums. I got my makeup from X-parlor and got my wedding dress designed from Y-Designer. “A friend would say, “O wow Sobi, you look like a fairy in these pictures”. “You look adorable.” And some remarks like these.

They are least bothered about studying or making notes. You would never find them in the library. Every day they come to university in a new dress, wearing some gold jewelry and having tons of makeup on face. However, this may apply to some unmarried girls too. But this category has some additional features too.

They have a good time at freshman nights, trips, picnics and alumni dinners. But if you ask them to do something on the assignments and term projects, they would say,

 “Oh, we have problems. Please cooperate with us and do the project yourself.” Upon the start of a new semester, this category goes straight to course instructors and say,

“Sir, we are married. We have problems. Please get us adjusted in some group for the final project.” The teachers often take sympathy and get them adjusted with every group of the class. Almost each group has such a lady. Most groups keep them in courtesy and on teacher’s request. One such a lady was assigned to my group as well. I being the lead had to say a “yes” to the teacher and accept her as a member. I used to assign different tasks to group members, depending on their skills and capabilities. On day, I asked her to contribute a little in the final project. She replied, “Oh, I have a problem. I have a dinner at home today and cooking food. Please do my part of the project. I hope you won’t mind that”. I breathed a sigh. Being unmarried, my laptop was open and I was cooking dinner for family as well. But I could never use it as an excuse for not working on or contributing to the project.

I have story of a cousin of mine. She had her Nikah in 2007 after her BBA. She kept sitting at home for three years and had fun. She got married in 2010. Now there is a lot of domestic work at her in laws’ place. She has joined university for MBA in order to get rid of the domestic work.

This specific category is good at stating at university, “sir, we are married and have problems. Please do us a favor”. At home they state to their husbands and in-laws, “Oh God, there was a lot of work at the university and the assignments made us tired.” They go straight to their rooms after coming from university and take rest.

I remember a friend of mine who joined university after marriage. She would always come, had fun, chat and leave for home. I never saw her doing any project or working on any group assignment. One day, I saw her talking to her mother-in-law, “Aunty, there is so much work at university. There are lots of assignments and I am tired. I will be late.” Another friend from the same batch told me that she had joined an office just to get rid of her mother in law and domestic work. She used to wake up late, never cooked or did any domestic work after getting married. I saw her mother in law doing it all the time. The friend was even choosy for food too. She only ate junk food like burgers and chips and her old mother in law would use to cook special food for her. After three years of marriage, her mother in law asked her to help her a bit with her. She instantly joined an office paying very low salary to her. “I have joined the office so that I don’t have to do domestic work. I don’t eat Daal or any vegetable. My mother in law is sick of cooking food for me now. I don’t want to cook any food or do any home work,” she told me. At office, she would say, “I have to reach home, can’t work till late. My husband and mother in law are very strict. I have to make food for them too.”

A cousin of mine did the same. She was never even able to pass her MBBS examination. After marriage, she joined some learning center. Upon coming home, she would always tell her mother-in-law, “I can’t cook or do any home work. I am extremely tired.” And she would go straight to her room.

This category doesn’t work at home or university. At home, they pretend that they are doing lot of university work and doing lots of projects. At university they show that they have lot of domestic work and have many personal problems. All they are found doing is, showing their marriage albums to their friends, putting tons of makeup, wearing heavy gold jewelry, attending every good function at the university. They even back out from most of the final presentations by stating “personal” problems. I simply envy this category of girls. You would always find their hands manicured, their feet pedicured, their eye brows plucked, their faces massaged, their hair dyed and ironed despite so many “problems”. I wonder that these problems only arise at the time of working on assignments and term projects, not else. They disappear while attending a university trip to Murree or a party. This category enjoys their time at both the places. What lucky people they are? There are some married girls who do have problems, but they would work with you, do their best and never disclose their problems to you. They are extremely serious about their work. They leave the functions but complete their work. The category I talked about just is good at finding excuses for not working at both the places and enjoying their time at both the places.