Thank you for the tea: part 2

There came the most awaited guests of the day. A woman of age about 50, whose poise was visage, stepped out the car. I gathered to be the mother of the boy, followed by a coquettish girl who was in her mid-20s of life. Finally, stepped out of the car, the chief guest of the day; dark, slender, tall about 30 years of his age, wearing black shalwar Qameez and polarized sun shades. The whole scenario of their entry in our house looked like a scene from a Bollywood movie, where the hero makes his first entry.

While I was watching them entering our place, I was all tired and sweaty because of working in the kitchen and of the scorching heat. So I went back to my room and decided to take a shower again, to feel fresh. When I came out, I had no time left to do the frosting all over again, as I had been summoned to the legendary task of presenting tea in front of the guests. The ritual cascading down, generations to generations, where the guests and the hosting family present a completely different scene similar to one of the cattle market. Where people come to buy cattle for sacrifice and carefully examine whether to buy it or not. It was the same for me, presenting tea in front of guests, where they could see the goat which they have come for, and decide whether to take it or not. 

Well, it was an awkward ritual for me as far as I found it. Felt like a model on-ramp showcasing some brand, however, in this case, the model wasn't presenting a brand but doing all of it on the very insistence of parents and the jibes of community. Whereas, no one bothered to ask the model if she had her heart in it; to be treated like a cattle or some showpiece in the shop, which is at least lucky to have no heart to feel the torment of going through all of this.

That was not all, the reverend guests were more inquisitive about the property that my family was in possession of and what they'd be giving their daughter after marriage. After some time my mother excused and took me along her to the kitchen and asked, "Javeria, why did you take off your make up. Now they are going to reject you."

Seeing my mom so anguished and frustrated made my heart sink and once again clouds of thoughts and questions took over my mind. Does society have even the slightest idea of the torment they cause to the families of such average looking girls? Why do we have double standards, that for once we are ranting and posting that black lives matter and on the other hand our DESI Asian society makes the lives of girls with dark complexion miserable enough? Does anyone even realize the norms being set by introducing skin lightning products, which indirectly denies the acceptance of black lives in our society?

We may well preach about tolerance, acceptance, kindness, however, there is always a contradiction between what we say and what we implement. So 

 

Finally, I came downstairs to see if the guests were done with the feast and the tea. I saw the mother of the boy standing with my mother where she finally was ready to leave and was giving the epilogue about our hospitality, food, house; at the end, with a great grievance on her face, she uttered the closing sentences, " Thank you for the tea, but sorry for your daughter." and left for another destination.