By Ratna Manucha
And then there were five. When Seema Haider decided to play hop, skip and jump, she (along with her four young children) hopped across to Dubai, skipped over to Nepal and then jumped into India with a ‘THUMP’! A thump that was loud enough to wake up the slumbering neighbours who wasted no time in crowding around her and ogling as if she were an alien from outer space. And just like that, our population became richer by five people! Something to celebrate, na? But before the film makers arrived, the cops welcomed her along with the media and the world watched in voyeuristic glee as gawkers and gapers came in droves from nearby towns and took pictures and hung on her every word as she skilfully and glibly answered all questions thrown at her. According to her, the culprit was PUBG (don’t ask me what that means). Apparently it is an online game and they fell in love while playing. Smooth.
But our country is not one to take a back seat. No siree, not us. Seema’s honeymoon was soon over as news came of an Indian woman who decided to steal her thunder and do a Seema. Anju crossed over to Pakistan to meet her friend whom she met on Facebook (but she played it safe, she took a visa and then bussed it across the border) where she was welcomed with gifts galore, including cash and even a plot of land! But she was considerate enough to leave her two children behind. After all, India must continue to retain the tag of the most populous country in the world. Even two can make a difference and why help the neighbouring country up its numbers? ‘Boond boond se saagar banta hai’ and all that jazz. Let’s grant her that. She was thoughtful in this regard.
While the hapless husbands ranted and raved and reveled in their two minutes of fame…the women preened in front of the camera and smiled and gloated for all it was worth.
I honestly don’t know or care why they came. Without getting into the hows and whys, truth or lies or politics of it all, let’s just for a moment focus on what the women said. They both stated that they crossed over for love (whatever that means). All I know is that it requires guts. And, boy, do they have guts!
For me, who has absolutely no sense of direction, (I believe it is called topographical disorientation and I have finally come to the conclusion that the part of my brain that deals with directions is probably pea – sized) I find it fascinating that these women decided to take things in their own hands and take the plunge into a totally new world.
Well me, I get the heebie–jeebies each time I have to go to the loo alone in a strange place. I find myself looking out for landmarks and making maps in my head … the endless maze of corridors in malls and hotels confuse the living daylights out of me and I inevitably go in the opposite direction to where I should be headed. So, if I need to go right, I will always, and I mean always turn left and vice versa!
Totally charged up by this new form of woman power, the other day I squared my shoulders, looked Boss Man, in the eyes and said, ‘You’d better watch out, if you don’t behave, one of these days I just might do a Seema or Anju on you!’
Without batting an eyelid, he looked me back in the eyes, matched me stare for stare and retorted, ‘Tell me the directions to the railway station first.’
(Ratna Manucha is an educationist and an award winning author of fact, fiction and text books for children and young adults. She is the author of 34 published books.)
