Married to custom
Reviewed by Amarinder Gill

How It Happened
By Shazaf Fatima Haider Penguin. 
Pages 311. Rs 399

Marriages are made in heaven but arranged marriages are fixed by families and finding the right match is a cumbersome process. How It Happened is an interesting saga on finding the correct partner for youngsters of marriageable age in the family. The book revolves around the Bandian family based in Karachi with Dadi, the matriarch at the helm of affairs. All the Bandian forefathers have had perfect arranged matches and Dadi believes in no "love-shove" and "mordren nonsense."

Nothing less than a perfect Shia, Syed match will do for Haroon, her "Amreeka-returned" grandson.The family goes bride shopping, while Haroon meets the prospective candidates who have to fulfil a checklist of rules and regulations laid down by the grand lady of the household. Luck smiles on Haroon and he finds a life partner of his liking.The readers will enjoy Haroon's ostentatious marriage involving a lot of ceremonies. The marriage of one sibling leads to offers for the next. Zeba is the next victim of Dadi's manipulations and conniving. Zeba with her beauty attracts many proposals but has a tough time dealing with a myriad suitors, beginning with Alam who never takes a step without consulting mummy dearest to Gullan Mian who dresses in shalwar-kameez with pink embroidery.

Narrated by Saleha, the youngest member of the family, the book is written with extreme wit and has large doses of tongue-in-cheek humour. Haider's characters are as feisty as her pen. Dadi is the best character, given to fainting spells and threats of dying. Her exaggerated family stories are sure to leave everyone spellbound. Readers would love to meet Dadi’s dead husband who though frail, was virile enough to sire six daughters and three sons. All of Dadi's daughters are characters to reckon with and the writer uses her great sense of humour in introducing other members of the extended Bandian clan.

How It Happened treads on familiar ground as it covers the process of arranged marriages. A girl's engagement proclaims that she possesses a trio of "virtues of chastity, beauty and fortune." Unsuitable matches are put off by the often used excuse of inauspicious constellations. Haider's writing rings true when she highlights the preconceived notion that an educated, independent woman may be enjoying her single status and may even be proud of it till someone points out that she is incomplete without a man.

Set in today's social milieu, the novel provides an insight into a girl's views on the institution of the arranged marriage. Zeba is an exemple of girls who hate being on display while blood relations as close as Dadi choreograph drawing room meetings and try to marry off the lasses to "idiotic grooms" with the right pedigree. The book probes the coming of age of every teenage girl and in this addictive family drama young daughters revolt, relatives get upset during family weddings and saviour aunts put things right. The writer has penned down a witty tale of contemporary times where good eastern girls want to be seen and heard. With its cover of a pretty, young bride with all the bling and finely arched brows, the book is an irresistible read.

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