Young Man of 24

Sameer had been pacing like a caged tiger in his room for over an hour and was beginning to feel hot in his cotton kurta-shalwar. Having no prior experience in such matters, he wondered how the next hour would unfold; his mind raced over the possibilities.

When he heard a vehicle approach, Sameer repeated his ritual of rushing to his first-floor room window to observe the make & model of the car. He peered down to see a white Margalla stealthily inch forward and stop right before the protruding black gate of his house. For an inexplicable reason, the Top Gun anthem started playing in Sameer’s head.

They had arrived.

Four people descended from the car: an uncle with a white beard, an aunty wearing large gold bangles that glittered in the sunlight, another aunty clad in a sari and a young man of 24 years of age in a sharply-pressed suit.

Sameer ran to his sisters’ room. Sabina was helping Sadia get ready for the show-and-tell. As Sameer proclaimed, “They are here”, the doorbell rang. Sadia nodded in resolution, looking much less nervous than Sameer felt.

When Sameer entered the drawing-room, his father had already started debating Imran Khan’s politics with the uncle and his mother was already discussing tomato prices with the two aunties. This gave Sameer the opportunity to scrutinize the young man of 24. He was well-built and well-educated, having done his M.B.B.S from the same university Sadia was in, Dow Medical College. Sameer knew the basics of what Aaliya aunty (Sameer’s mother’s friend who had set up the rishta) had told the family the previous evening, but that was obviously the golden side of the toast. Sameer was searching for the blackened, burnt side. Did he do drugs? Did he have a girlfriend? Did he eat naswar? Did he pick his nose in public? Sensing Sameer’s eye on him, the young man of 24 attempted to make polite conversation. Sameer replied warily, not willing to approve of the guy easily.

Over the next few minutes, as the conversation turned towards the families, the real agenda of the night was set in motion. The aunty in the sari began lauding her nephew in not-so-subtle words. She even hinted at the vast number of rishtas he was apparently receiving from beautiful girls all over Karachi.

As Sadia and Sabina entered the room with refreshments Sameer kept his eyes on the young man of 24, who had started ogling his sisters. Feeling uncomfortable, Sameer offered him a samosa.

As the aunties began grilling Sadia with questions, Sameer couldn’t help but feel proud of his sister for handling the situation well. He on the other hand, was still waiting suspiciously for the first wrong move by the opposing party. Aaliya aunty had warned the family that rishta-walas deliberately visited the washroom on some pretext to see its cleanliness, purposefully asked the girl-in-question to show her skill in the kitchen and intentionally arrived just before Maghrib to see if the girl was sufficiently religious to excuse herself for prayers. The formula proved undeniable: the aunty in the sari claimed she was staying off sugar (which in all honesty, she needed to do) and asked Sadia to make another cup of tea for her. The uncle asked to be led to the washroom so he could perform ablution for Maghrib prayers.

3 points for the Margalla team.

After prayers, the families sat down to some serious business. Sameer sensed a perceptible change in the air but didn’t understand it until the aunty with the gold bangles started interrogating Sabina. Sameer saw his parents exchange a worried look. The uncle stepped in boldly to claim that their son liked Sabina not Sadia. This announcement was met with stunned silence, though given his way, Sameer would have responded with some excellent abusive words. Sameer’s mother signaled him to take his sisters upstairs.

When he returned, the room was thick with tension. Sameer’s mother was explaining that Sabina was just 16 years old and not ready for marriage, while Sadia was ready to get engaged. He did not approve of the pleading in her voice. Sameer’s father turned to his wife and said, “We don’t need to send our daughter to a house where she was a second choice”. Sameer felt proud of his father in that moment. With nothing left to say, the Margalla team hid their faces and scurried away.

Game. Set. Match.