In the middle and lower middle class, you are most likely to find a train of daughters preceding the “janasheen”. And, once the heir apparent arrives, instead of thanking God and calling it a day, parents have this notion of getting a ‘spare’.
HEART TO HEART
In the middle and lower middle class, you are most likely to find a train of daughters preceding the “janasheen”. And, once the heir apparent arrives, instead of thanking God and calling it a day, parents have this notion of getting a ‘spare’. But contrary to their expectations, they end up having yet another daughter. The first daughter, as the first child, still gets a lot of attention. If the second child is a girl again, she is doomed! The middle child or manjli, and a girl! Of course, if it’s a son, there is nothing to worry even if it is a manjla. Guys get away with so many things, but the problems of “manjli(s)” are far more hideous than the elder and younger sisters of the sibling-train, because the youngest child, son or daughter, usually are the apple and apricot of their parents’ eyes.
A manjli doesn’t bear any specific title, being neither elder nor the youngest, and she misses out so many things given to the eldest and the youngest. She does not get a new, expensive dress or shoes, either like the eldest daughter. The excuse: “Wo toh bari hai naa, sb dekhtay hain!” My goodness! As if the “manjli” is invisible.
It doesn’t end here as she is the one blamed for every insurgency at home, and the younger sibling gets away without even a reprimand. Even if the ‘manjli’ puts her head and heart into proving the younger one responsible for it before her father and other siblings, she is trumped by her mother. The award-winning excuse “tum nay hi choti ki aadatein bigaar di hain, achi bhali thi ye”. Uff, where do these poor ‘manjli’ souls go? Furthermore, when there is no space in family car, all the ‘requestful’ gazes turn towards the ‘manjli’: the younger cannot be left alone and the eldest has to go because, well, she is the eldest. So, it is the middle child who is left at home. She is advised to make sure that the kitchen is clear and the water tank is full when they get back.
When a proposal arrives for the eldest daughter, the ‘manjli’ is told not to come before the guests as the elder sister must be the first to get committed. Hushh ... don’t even think of what happens if they somehow get a glimpse of ‘manjli’ and asks for her hand. The poor girl would be scolded in front of her father and brothers: “Bari behen ka to khayal hi nahi hai isay”. The situation is completely different when it’s the turn of the ‘manjli’ to get committed. Then, the younger one is allowed to come before the guests. If they like the ‘manjli’, well, and good. But, mostly the younger is found to be “lovelier” and even then things go right. The family rule of “elder-first” is conveniently overlooked. The excuse, of course, is that the proposal was too good, and nowadays it’s impossible to get good proposals. The ‘manjli’ is, all of a sudden, considered ‘not so old’ in such cases.
Get it, readers? It’s the lot of all the ‘manjlis’ of the world - to be conveniently sacrificed!
tum nay hi choti ki aadatein bigaar di hain, achi bhali thi ye
