The Failed Husband
In its many facets, life shows, hones, or harms our qualities in alarming ways. We either fail to pass through the cyclone or reach home shipwrecked or highly valued. The achievement does not lie in how we reach destiny but in what we gain on its path. Jeeli was one of the members of that fatalistic wrecked boat that reached home in tatters, tossed by the brutal ocean currents on all sides.
The stormy currents may strike our rudders, leaving us shattered within their merciless clutches. We better keep our hearts agile at their best and our muscles taut to fight back and come out of it without any harm.
On the day before Eid, everyone was busy buying necessities for their families. Jeeli was at his boss’s house, busy charting a business plan. Bosses don’t need to purchase anything for the holidays. They have Eid every day. An ordinary family cooks savoury dishes on special occasions, but the rich do so every day. Jeeli was, in this respect, an irresponsible person. He was habitually forgetting his household chores against official schedules, haphazardly mixing things at the cost of his family’s peace. Unfortunately, his regrets were often short-lived. He forgot to get groceries and clothes for the kids. How could her wife, who was busy the whole day with his kids?
Zeenat had still managed to cook out her sweat and adorn the dining table with whatever could lace up an ordinary dining room. She had coagulated and curdled yesterday’s milk into a handful of cheese. It was like a ball; the four kids would come one by one, sometimes in hordes, hurriedly touching it with their index fingers and running when softly scolded by their mom. A little basket of potatoes is boiled, with part to be mashed for samosas and part to be cooked with leftover curd. Some eggs are boiled, fried to golden brown, and added to the green gram. Though there was no air of being a special day for this family, the lady made it look so with her continuous efforts and toil despite all the fatigue and pang. No new clothes were purchased on the occasion for the kids, and no chicken or mutton was cooked that day. So, the delicacies that make the day look fabulous for any family were absent. But there was a woman’s love for her hard-working but absent-minded husband and fawn-like kids, making her days look awesome.
YouTube has certain good things to offer, and she has learned some simple recipes she could try by herself at home. So, to make this moment a gifted and memorable one, some sweets must be put alongside the dining table. For that purpose, she lays her hand on a few slices of bread and masterfully prepares the famous Hyderabadi double ka meetha. However, instead of desi ghee, refined oil was used.
Jeeli arrived around eight in the evening, fatigued and senseless. His attitude symbolized his carelessness, but he was a man of a soft heart; her wife was even more tender, like a tendril. When he sat down for dinner, he ate much less than usual, cherry-picking from the multitude of sublime delicacies.
On that day, even the heaven-pouring blessings would have detested his existence.
An era would it have been for Zeenat embroidered with fun, joy, and merry-making; such carelessness on her other half’s part filled her with bitterness, and when everyone was dead asleep, she wept bitterly.
