Afia thanked God that she had passed one more exam of her marital life, though life is a long, long series of trials and tests. While making the lemon flavored green tea after the lunch, she continuously thought about her first meeting with Zain and her family. Granny and her maternal uncle’s family shifted in their new house. They were granny’s neighbors. Zain’s mom and sister sent food for lunch. The two families proved good neighbors to each other and after sometime it turned out in a relationship. Zain was fond of “Haleem” prepared by Afia’s mother which she sent to Afia’s granny time by time. Once in the holy month of “Ramadan”, granny sent Haleem with “Naan” ( a bread) in “Iftaar”. It was a great treasure for his taste buds, a taste “out of this world !”.
And one day, Zain, the “boy next door” became her fiance.When Afia and Zain got engaged with each other by the efforts of her granny, the very first demand from her in-laws and especially from Zain was to learn making Haleem from her mother’s recipe or method.
“How old fashioned guy ! reminds me of old Bollywood movies!” Afia thought to herself.
” Ah ! He is not only look like “Amol Palekar” but he is totally a typical seventies ordinary stuff.” Afia expressed her feelings to her mom who gathered the ingredients of Haleem so that she teach her daughter with her secret recipe and tips. “The only one demand; Haleem! How glutinous!”. Afia again commented but her mom ignored and focused on her “precious” recipe.
After two weeks in her in-laws home, the couple moved to another city where Zain worked as a Banker. He proved a very simple human being. He was confident, goal-oriented but not over ambitious, he had a smiling face and pleasant personality but not a talkative. Above all he was cultured, civilized but had no attitude. In fact, he possessed a humble, down to earth and a balanced person.
Life had settled down and came into routine. Suddenly “Corona” virus attacked the town. The feeling of fear overlapped everything. It was so unexpected and really panic situation. Everybody got tensed and worried. Safety measures tended to be adopted for how long?
It was ‘lock down” everywhere. Last week, Zain assigned his duties for 3-4 hours and this week he was “imprisoned” at home. Afia was a little bit scared inside because she heard a lots of stories about “husbands at home” during that lock down period. She wished that Zain may remain calm and peaceful. Women in neighbors shared many stories about husband’s irritating behavior and ridiculous demands during this time frame.
On next morning when Afia wake up and came to the lounge, it was an unbelievable and unexpected scene waiting for her. The dinning table was full of various breakfast items and mouth watering aroma of cuisine welcomed her. Zain was coming out from kitchen with a tray in his hands having two mugs all full with pink tea. The sweet smell of cardamom was so tempting.
That was a delicious breakfast. “You cooked very well.” Afia said and took a sip from her mug.
He just smiled softly and told her that he knew how to cook because while he was a student he had been to a hostel. Besides that after the completion of his studies he was employed and lived in a solo room (before getting married). No doubt, he was a much more better chef than Afia. He further informed her that as he came to know that Afia learned Haleem just for him then he asked her sister about her choices, likes and dislikes. Her sister revealed that Afia had never been interested in cooking but for Zain and that she tried her best in learning some basic cooking especially Haleem. As her sister told him that Afia was fond of Chinese cuisine but couldn’t know how to cook than Zain decided to take classes of her favorite “Schezwan” dishes and now he would be going to make for her in the upcoming lock-down days.
After hearing that Afia got surprised and couldn’t blink her eyes. “I learned making Haleem only and the person sitting next to me, who is called my husband has learned the whole Schezwan cuisine for me.” Afia stared at him gratefully. He is truly the “life partner”, the “soul mate”.
“My dear “better-half”, my beloved wife! Everyday you cook delicious food for me and now in these days its my turn I’ll cook for you. Take rest and avail this “opportunity”. Zain announced in a lighten manner.
Where there is “care” there is “respect”, and where there is respect; there is “LOVE”.
