Not That Interested

Chapter 30: The One With the Roof Painting

"To Live, is the rarest thing in the world. Most people just exist."—Oscar Wilde

The house is deathly quiet. Like a tomb. Unnatural silence fills the rooms, and I am responsible for it.

After weeks of hosting a rowdy group of singing and dancing relatives, their quiet departure serves as a mute button for our home.

I cannot imagine the embarrassment and questions my parents and brother had to face when they announced the wedding cancellation to everyone staying at our place, and others who were in town for the wedding reception.

I simply locked myself in my room and painted.

I could still hear them though...

"What do you mean he broke it off?...."

"...I knew there was something shady about that boy...He was too wealthy..."

 "Mina can do much better...I have a cousin, he is an architect...maybe we..."

"Tch tch....too bad you have already paid for the reception...Maybe he can be persuaded..."

"Are you sure Mina didn't offend him in any way? She is rather outspoken, and career focused for a traditional wife...maybe she should have quit her job..."

"What about Ali? his wedding shouldn't be postponed....."

At one point I simply couldn't bear their speculating voices. They were discussing my life, like a movie critic dissects a film-plot. I didn't know which was worse; the thinly veiled criticism or the pity.

It is a widely held belief in my culture; that any broken engagements are most likely the woman's fault. She must have been too un-yeilding, she must have opened up too much during the engagement period, and turned off her her suitor...she must have been involved in less-than-respectable activities, and the guy found out about them. Nobody steps right up and says it, but it is very obvious what they think.

My parents had simply disclosed that Me and Areeb "Had irreconcilable differences". The fact that Areeb broke off the engagement (as opposed to I) also threw flame to my reputation. He had insisted that I tell people it was from my side, but Mom and Dad refused to lie.

The only one of my extended family who was truly on my team was none other than ; Kulsoom Nani.

She loudly, and vocally proclaimed Areeb; "A half-brained degenerate, who cannot even wipe his own bottom without losing IQ points.", and also, "A no-good, spoiled donkey who wasn't fit to breath the same air as Mina!"

I would have laughed if I remembered how to.

Kulsoom Nani was the only one who stayed over when all of our guests moved out. To be honest, she was the only one I could bear to be around. She was the only one I let inside my room. She would bring me my favorite snacks, to get me to eat. Sometimes it was the Aloo samosas from my favorite vendor, sometimes it was Pani Poori from the local snack-house.

She would criticize my paintings to get me to defend them. Most often she would simply let me curl up on her lap, while she told me stories from her childhood. She was so old, it almost felt like a history lesson. She always told me to recite all sorts of duas (prayers) and Quranic verses.

"There's a cure for everything in this book." She gestured towards the Holy Quran. "And that includes heartbreak....Girl, you have so much better than that IDIOT in your future. Hmph. Don't you dare let me see you sad over his useless ass."