From Busy to Free

One of the aspects that we were to look into for this week’s blog posts was how the characters spend their time. In Khirad’s case, her occupation changes with the kind of space that she inhabits. There are three transitions that can be charted out within Khirad’s migration from Hyderabad to Karachi. The first is from the small Hyderabad house to Karachi’s hospital room, the second is from the hospital to the guest room of her Uncle’s house and the final one is her ascendancy to the bridal suite. But what remains significant is that as she moves to a better setting with more physical space at her disposal, her level of activity decreases.

In Hyderabad, she is a BSc student, a tutor of children and the girl responsible for most domestic chores like preparing food and doing the laundry as evident from a few clips of the first episode. Within the confines of the small home, the limited income and a hectic routine, Khirad is happy with her independent mother and loving neighbours like Batool Khala. In the first shift to the hospital room, we see Khirad performing the task of the dutiful daughter as she looks after her mother. While the level of activity is reduced, her mother’s health takes much of her time. She is also seen praying and attending to visitors like Sara who come to ask about her mother’s health. As she moves to the guest room of Baseerat Hussein’s house, she only has to attend to her mother and after her demise, she remains confined to the guest room clinging to the last possessions of her mother like her tablets and pillow. Even though she lives in her real Uncle’s house, she sits idle, unable to grapple with her mother’s death. Her inactivity reaches to a point that she doesn’t even eat and peaceful sleep rarely come to her. Even her Uncle says, “Soti rahe tou acha hai” for fear that waking up will only bring her back to reality and make her cry.

Finally, when Khirad moves to Ashar’s room on her mother-in-law’s instructions that “Apnay kamre mein jao, Ashar tumhara intezaar kar raha hai” she feels extremely deserted. She is to dress nicely and adorn herself with jewellery to appear like the new bride of the house however, she feels misfit for the role. She hails from a community where women were independent and enjoyed working even if it interfered with the domestic space. Here her lack of utility to anyone or in anything irritates her and passes her time waiting for Ashar to return from work, only to receive his cold shoulder. She tries to make conversation with people like Batool Khala, her friend Afsheen and her Uncle but her idleness as a mere “mujasma” always comes in the way and she is forced to complain. Her emotions range from hatred of her mother’s final decision to loathing of herself as a “majboori” on Ashar and anger at her Uncle who didn’t give her the privilege of staying like a “bhanjee” in his household. Thus, the active young girl who was always pre-occupied in Hyderabad finds herself at a dearth of possible things to do in Karachi and her feeling of being unwanted only adds to her isolation.