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Since the aurat march, social media and the electronic media is in an uproar over the poster”KHANA KHUD GARAM KARLO”. Our bourgeoisie society is reacting over this as women have nothing to do all day long except waiting for men in their lives and as soon as they enter the house, women have to serve them oven hot food because women have nothing to do all day long as I mention above.

Hence, men spend all day long working and earning money and as I understand from peoples posts from Facebook and Instagram, men do other plenty of work like kill lizards go to mechanics for cars, do grocery etc. Now, I have a question for all those women who read my blogs and men too, give me an honest picture; do we, mediocre women, only stay at home with maids and do nothing except wasting money on shopping, being online, chatting with friends and sleeping?

Today, I have an eye-opener for all the Pakistani men around that what the women do in their absence, (apart from whatever accounts of wandering they have from their mommies and sisters). I am not talking about an imaginary world but the world in which our 85% women live and act. And, if my point is not authentic, you might have to notice the advertisements we have on media and mind that these advertisements are made after immense research. So, before questioning me, you should look around and if a few of you give your wives space, it doesn’t mean that 85% of others do it too.

So, after a short introduction, let’s come back to #KHANA KHUD GARAM KARLO. When an average woman wakes up, she has to prepare her kids for school, her husband and other people in the house. And if she doesn’t, she is doomed for life with the taunts of not being a good wife and she doesn’t have a single day off (obviously depending on their financial conditions). In Pakistan, many of us have a wide range of breakfast from parathas to bread and if a woman is lucky, she can feed the family a same kind of breakfast but in many cases (joint family), she has to make parathas for few, omelettes for few and some would like to have tea and others would to have coffee.

And I wonder every morning, many don’t have the help of maids usually in middle or lower middle class. When many of the other members of the family are in beds while the wife works like crazy. But who cares? Every woman has been doing this for centuries. Then she prepares everybody for their school or office because it’s her responsibility (and please don’t argue, we know many women still do this). When all men and children have left for their respective destinations, many of us find a few hours to rest and many don’t –  obviously who have underage kids or elderly living with them.

Each and everybody living in the house is her responsibility. Despite many of us having maids, we still have to help as they come and wash utensils or look out for the kitchen. But we know that many of us don’t have this luxury (obviously because man of the house’s financial stability and ghairat that doesn’t allow us to do jobs). After the never-ending morning sessions, our afternoon session starts around 12 PM. And remember my word, it’s the overload of washing clothes and plates or dusting and in most cases, the endless taunts that their sister-in-law or mother-in-law gives that makes them sick and in many cases, somatization which has no physical but psychological effects. And after not finding physical bases, many women turn to peer babas who tell them they have been under some sort of magic.

Around 12, the kids arrive and women have to give them time. They feed them, listen to their stories about school, friends, teachers and then freshen them up for tuition which is quite mind-boggling. I agree that many of us send kids to tuition centers but till we ourselves are not able to handle their studies otherwise we teach our primary kids by ourselves. And not to forget, we pick and drop kids to the tuition centers by ourselves and if not drop, we usually pick them up ourselves and if schools are near, we walk through the streets or take a rickshaw and it doesn’t include the weather.

Obviously, it’s so pleasant that we enjoy it and before our kids arrive, we daily do our groceries or street wanders came to our house. Many of us don’t have cars and luckily if they do, then they don’t know how to drive. Our afternoon passes as we try to make the kids sleep or teach them monstrous amount of homework given by schools. Then there comes the Quran time, and you tell me, is it easy to make a timetable for kids and make them follow it? And even if the kids go to sleep, many of us have other things to do. Some of us stitch, some of us watch TV, read books or scroll through social media or maybe an hour or two of break which men, too, have in their offices.

Then comes the evening. Many homes have the tradition of evening tea, we get busy with that. And then our husbands arrive and we should be looking absolutely stunning whether or not our husbands give us the allowance for our monthly visits to the parlor; they expect us to look like Faryal Makhdoom or Kareena all the time. When they arrive, we have to entertain them because obviously, they had a busy day at work and they must be tired by sitting or walking through air-conditioned corridors (not the field jobs one).

But again, they are not mocking us on #KHANA KHUD GARAM KARLO. After endless cooking, washing clothes, washing plates, and teaching kids, now comes the time when we ask for one thing and that is “rest”. If, after getting done with ALL the duties and responsibilities, she is lying on the couch and watching TV and man of house enters after quite a time with friends and asks her “KHANA GARAM KERDO” and she asks for a favor that spending an hour with friends you must be feeling fresh, go put your plate in the microwave, is it too much to ask for? Do men who don’t help their wives with chores, too disabled to warm up their plates?

The point that has upset me is that the class which we think is educated made fun of this request as women do nothing at all, all day long. And by killing lizards, doing groceries once in a week is equal to the sacrifices she makes on a daily basis. She doesn’t go out with her friends on a daily basis. Even if she talks to her family, it is considered a luxury rather than an antidepressant for her. Why? Isn’t she a human? Have we demanded more than our AUKAT by asking you to #KHANA KHUD GARAM KARLO??

It is not crying for help but rather an awareness for you guys. Even if we work a 9-5 job, we have to do many chores by ourselves as we all can see it in advertisements nowadays. Do you agree with me on this? Let me know your thoughts in the comment’s section.