Scribbleriana

If Kalsuma had had any doubts about Azhar’s interest in her and why he had opted for an arranged marriage they were removed on one particular day. Kalsuma had felt Azhar’s interest was indeed serious and genuine when he sent her a message that day panicking that he could no longer see her on his Whatsapp messenger.  Kalsuma had no idea why she wasn’t showing up. Even if she had blocked him he would still be able to see her name appear, while her picture would be removed. These were the joys of modern communication.  You could block someone on a messenger application to show them that you no longer wanted to speak to them.  You didn’t need to write this out, let alone verbally communicate the message to them.  As the number of people you might speak to was increasing with globalised technologies, the methods of removing someone from your life was also easier. You could unfriend, unfollow or block someone if you had the mind to.   However, in this case Kalsum...

“Our second son works as a manager in a bank and his wife is a Nurse.  She is here with us of course.  Our fourth son is at university and my son Juber as you know has completed a law degree”. It was a chance to display the successes of her family and Mrs Islam was not one to let go of an opportunity to list each of her children’s occupations including professional titles or what she understood of them.  She wasn’t one of the more staunch mothers who would not have shied away from mentioning which university her children had attended being knowledgeable about University league tables and the prestige attached to particular faculties of higher education.  Mrs Islam wasn’t an egotistical woman but she discussed her children’s occupations and achievements as much as any other family or mother would coming from a Bengali household; with a certain amount of pride and with the simple satisfaction of saying her children were educated.  It did not really matter whet...