This blog is in response to an Atlas Corps’ fellow and a very good friend of mine, Hythem Elnour’s blog , ‘ Living with Three Girls What a Beautiful Experience’.
Yes! Dear Hythem the situation is not very much different with me as I am living with three boys; Saqib, Kamran and Hashim in an apartment. I believe everyone would have been thinking that I would be enjoying the privilege of being the only girl in my apartment. No friends! The situation is a bit different rather somehow complicated.
The very first day I entered the apartment, I saw a guy standing in the kitchen having a very hospitable smile on his face. It was Hashim, my next door neighbor. While exclaiming with joy; he said to me, “Thanks God! Now we have at least one girl in our house which means we can have now a chance to taste exotic food and a good black tea very often”. “Am I going to cook for three of you”, I was a bit nervous. But all of a sudden an idea came into my mind, “I would rather be happy to cook for all of you but the problem is neither I can cook well nor I can make good tea”, I gave innocent remarks. I could see Hashim’s reaction on my comments. “Oh really”….he said in a very low tone.
In the beginning I felt myself very much relaxed. “It’s good to be the only girl of the house. Now nobody can make me jealous of her new clothes and branded cosmetics”, this first thought in my mind was really very selfish. But the very next day when I was having my breakfast, Kamran came to me and said, “Asma do you know to clean the house is always the responsibility of a woman according to our culture (Kamran is also from Pakistan). As being the only girl in this house; it is your duty to maintain cleanliness in the kitchen”. I forgot to finish my breakfast and murmured, ‘just my responsibility….? ‘Of course!’, Kamran said. It was my third day in the house. So, I felt it better to seal my lips to avoid arguments and just observe what the next a few days would be bringing for me.
The very next day I tried to clean the whole apartment but suddenly i realized, “since all of us are fellows and enjoying the same status. So, it’s the duty of everyone to maintain cleanliness of our apartment”. Keeping it in mind, I talked to my house mates and they agreed to divide the work load with me.
Would you believe it that now the overall situation is entirely changed. I invite you for a surprise visit to my apartment. The first thing you will notice would be its cleanliness while the very second thing you will observe would be the presence of six dusters in our kitchen and a big piece of paper allocating the duties among four of us to maintain cleanliness in our apartment pasted by Saqib on refrigerator.
We also have diversity of food in our kitchen. I prefer cooking my traditional food having a lot of spices and oil in it; Saqib cannot imagine his food without chicken, Kamran loves to cook plenty of food just once a week to eat it the next seven day and Hashim eats a lot of beans but….without any spices at all.
ENDS