Bushra's post

Welcome to Bushra’s disorganized head -- because "Sultana samajhti thi aisi baatein sochna damagh ki kharabi ka ba’is hai"

All her life, she lives with her parents; she falls in love, she has kids. But at the end, she is always alone -- hanging in the middle, not here, nor there. She never truly belongs. Whether it is Manto’s Saugandhi, his Bismillah or Sajjad Zaheer’s Dulari, Jeena or her mother Phatta, women can never expect another in their lives to be their ‘own’. Hatak especially intensifies this state of ‘homelessness’ for the woman. In every role that life gives her, she expects to be protected and loved, to lead a normal and stable life. But she can be forced into prostitution, her children can be taken away from her, Her lovers can be liars. Yet she stoically accepts these new forced realities and tries to belong, craving for stability -- any and all sorts of stability. And in doing so, she lets herself be fooled -- by herself and by those around her. She is so desperate to be a part of that normal world, because it is easy and it doesn’t require effort, emotional or physical. So that she can go to sleep at night peacefully, with a head that doesn't hurt with thoughts. But the truth is, a woman will always be an outsider,‘the Other’. She pretends, she lies to herself and she doesn’t succeed still. And once again, she is kicked out of this new zone too. And for some realization comes, Phatta and Jeena both realize the burden of the assault committed against their person and that the man in their lives cannot protect them enough. Some like Saugandhi almost slip towards madness. While others like Sultana think it’s useless to think about things that she shouldn’t.    

For me, this is what stands out the most among all these short stories that attempt to establish women as the secular figure. Women belong to a world of their own. Not one created by them but one forced on them.