Sister Talk

We are hoping this month to (finally) visit my brother’s intended and formally ask for her hand insh’Allah. With this in mind, me and my sisters spent the weekend discussing what preparations were required (my brother being oblivious and my parents behaving like rabbits caught in headlights every time marriage is mentioned).

Eventually we headed out to the main road with all of the Indian shops. We managed to make a lot of noise and fuss in every shop – cracking jokes and then shushing each other to avoid offending the proprietors which we managed to do each time anyway. What followed was an afternoon of trudging and arguing:

“No she won’t like that”
“That’s not right”
“You are so clueless”
“Why are the arms so long? Just because your knuckles drag along the floor, doesn’t mean everyone else’s do!”
“She wouldn’t like that colour”
“How do you know? You mean you don’t like the colour”
“How tall is she?”
“Oh come on, stop wasting time, lets get out of this shop”

We finally gave up and went into one last shop not expecting much and found exactly what we wanted. Think beige and chartreuse-olive green (what we call mehndi green) with full embroidery, sky blue with jewels and burgundy and beige decorated with the most gorgeous corsages and gems (not all one outfit of course, although some Pakistani’s might actually prefer that). Next weekend we will be heading out again to pick up the altered dresses and play matchy-matchy (think heels, Indian slippers, clutches and bangles). The best bit is all the noise, squabbling and laughing till we are giddy, I can’t wait; we make a good team I think.