My darling abaya!

I don’t leave home without it. No, I am not talking about my American Express (I am an American, minus the express) but my darling Abaya...

I never realized how much I love my Abaya until we were separated. I’d gone to Karachi for a short vacation. At the airport my cousin screamed when she saw me. Take that black thing off immediately; we don’t want to be seen with you in it! Whoa, I thought and said aloud, since when has Pakistan become so fashionable? Fashionable, my foot! My cousin was now hysterical. Take that off or you will get us killed. Some bandit king must be looking at us right now. He will know from your fancy black thing that you have come from some Middle Eastern country. He will wrongly think that you are loaded with money (Yeah, monopoly money) and will follow you and rob us!

That speech worked wonders. Yes, I did not dare to put my abaya on for the whole week that I was there. Oh! How I missed it! For starters, I had to iron my clothes every day...This I had not done in years. My darling abaya had hidden all the crumpled creases well...I also discovered that I was richer than I thought, in fat that is. The bulges and the love handles were now in full view. My precious Abaya had been so kind to make that less conspicuous.

I also discovered I had a shabby ward-robe and no sense of color combination. (My favorite color of course from being in love with my abaya was black). I discovered this the hard way. I went to visit my uncle who is a doctor and lives on Tariq Road. His house was fortified with locks of all kinds. I had to speak to his servant through the intercom first. When I told him who I was, he said suspiciously, Sameen who? I said the niece. I’ve never heard that name. Are you a patient? he asked. No, I am impatient. I replied angrily and started banging on the door. The servant came to the gate, peeked and went back. To make a long story short I was finally let in but not before I heard the servant tell my uncle, from her clothes, I could never guess, she was part of this family.....I missed my darling abaya who would have saved me from such embarrassment.

When I returned home, I raved about my abaya to everyone. My husband agreed with me. He had missed my abaya too....It’s so easy to follow just any woman on the pretext, oh, I thought it was my wife....But not when your wife is not wearing an Abaya!