So last weekend my parents and I were invited at a family friend’s house for dinner (let’s call her McBestie Aunty). When we arrived, we found out another mutual friend is also coming over…let’s call her McPendo-Aunty.
A little background…my mom and McBestie aunty are practically like sisters…their friendship goes back many years…McBestie aunty has always looked at me with googly eyes and sent her youngest brother’s proposal for me last year…she asked McPendo aunty to find out first how we felt about it but when they didn’t get a clear answer then she asked directly and after we said no, she has been watti-kutti with my mom…McBestie’s brother got engaged recently and getting married this summer, but she is still acting weird with us.
As for McPendo aunty, well, she studied up to grade 8 and is your typical gaon ki laraaka aurat who loves to gossip and create trouble for others. I have never liked her much, but especially since she pulled this cheap trick on me… where she invited my family over for dinner and dhaukay se, tried to hook me up with her fobby nephew (shorty, tummy sticking out like a 40-year old uncle’s, works in factory, metric or FSc pass from Pak, speaks no English). She presented me in front of him in a separate room like I was a decoration piece. Super awkward! Poor guy couldn’t get two words out. And my parents were furious ke banda kam az kam agle ko dekh ke unke mutabiq rishta bataata hai.
So anyway, back to last weekend…
McBestie and McPendo aunties have become very close since McPendo aunty did a favour to McBestie by trying to convince my parents for her brother’s rishta.
At dinner, they both basically ganged up on my mother dear and started giving her examples of what-is-that-paki-drama-where-the-pretty-girls-in-a-kothi-are-getting-past-acceptable-rishta-age-and-each-having-an-affair-with-haveli’s-servant? So the aunties said a lot of things…like:
“madz’ mom, you have sky high demands. No one gets everything they want. You should lower your expectations and get your daughters married now, otherwise, they will suffer and then their loss will hurt you. It’s best to get girls married early … ideal age is 22-24…girls don’t need to be SO educated…like McBestie aunty’s daughters who are already either engaged/baat pakki/married with a kid…(all of them are younger than me, though none of them graduated college/uni).
Listen, after 30, no one is going to come. Your daughters are getting old. If you don’t hurry up, tumhari betiyan ghaatay main rahengi. Yaad rakhna meri baat.”
So at first my mom tried defending a little bit that no no, we don’t have sky high expectation. But education is important. Family should be good. Some attraction should be there. I don’t think that’s too much to ask? But they both weren’t letting mom get a word out. My mom tears up very easily. So before I knew it, I saw her leaving the dining room to go upstairs to the washroom to wash her face and ya Allah, itne mote mote tears.
What happened next was equally amusing to me. McPendo aunty refused to acknowledge that she made any direct or personal comments. She kept insisting to McBestie aunty that I was just talking in general and madz’ mom is overreacting.
McBestie aunty, even though at the time she tried to reconcile, the next day when my mom confronted her that she was more hurt by her comments because they used to be so close and mom really didn’t expect this from her. McBestie didn’t react well to that, and now she has been avoiding my mom. hmmm
I was telling mom to just ignore them. Some people can’t help it. But mom being overly sensitive always takes peoples’ taana-taraashi to heart and sulks for days. 
Just now, she was crying in sajdaa, praying to God ke please meri betiyon ke naseeb ache karna, unhe koi khasaara na ho.
arghhhh Desi aunties = soooo much drama! I don’t know why people don’t let others just live… the whole thing reeks of jealousy and envy. Is it so hard to find sincere people in today’s world?