‘Your husband has dumped you’ and other insults

KARACHI: Where is your man, taunt woman at a relief camp. “Tera mard kahan hay?” they ask. And then, they proffer an unsolicited answer: “Chor kar chalagaya hay tera mard.” He’s dumped you.

Gulfam, who hasn’t seen her husband Yusuf for the last ten days, can do little but weep. “He promised he’ll come soon,” says the mother of seven, who repeats the line as a mantra. She’s even started lying to fend the people off.

Gulfam arrived at camp
No. 3 at Government Techno-logy College, SITE after she was separated from Yusuf in Khairpur Nathan Shah. He had made arrangements for her and their children to move to safely to Karachi, while he volunteered to stay back to take care of the house and cattle. “I need help finding him… please help,” Gulfam pleads. But there has been more bad news from the area. Twenty more villages were inundated on Thursday.

“I’m worried that Yusuf might have died,” she says. “Perhaps he just hasn’t been able to find me… maybe he just got lost on his way. You see, he’s never been to Karachi before.” Our Correspondent

Published in The Express Tribune, September 11^th, 2010.