“I'm proud to be the mother of Aly's children” – Sara Zaker
We've been married for 40 years; we were married in 1975. But sadly I can't throw myself in the category of an ideal couple, like Shaheen and Mahfuz Anam, and Kamal and Hamida Hussain, by this I mean they still maintain the same love they had when they just met, the same bonding, that kind of thing. He's a very “I told you so” kind of person when it comes to decorating our home, take for example, he said I'm getting a maroon colored bedcover made. I told him, “it'll look strange, don't have it made”, he said ok. The next day, I saw it on the bed and it went very well with the other furnishings! He's just concerned about the food we have. Mainly because of his dietary complications, but apart from that he never interferes in anything.
I remember when he proposed to me, I said to myself, well he is a solid person, but the only common interest we had was theater. But I knew if I said yes now, I wouldn't be able to take it back. When I told my father about his proposal, he went to Aly's house without my knowledge. Back then, he was a bachelor, always hanging out with his friends, discussing theater and literature. But fortunately my father approved, he was particularly impressed at the fact that he was taking responsibility for his relatives' children at the age of 30.
In the 40 years since I've known him, there have been quite a few things I noticed over the years. He became more positive even when it was quite apparent that he was physically unable to. The man isn't self-centered at all. I remember him being annoyed at all the publicity he got for his 70th birthday - this is another thing we share. I also notice that he is a very big spender, while I'm a big saver. He's also a big fan of collecting antique pens, along with wrist-watches and Punjabis, but sadly he never likes the panjabis I buy for him.
We've been together for so long because of our children and I'm so proud of them. They are the product of our love for each other. When I was growing up, my parents had fights, and I hated the fact that they did. So when we had our children, we decided never to fight, either in front of them or behind them. We also didn't fight because it doesn't suit him at all; he isn't that type of a person. Nevertheless, at the end of the day, when all is said and done, conflicts do occur, but even then, we stop ourselves before it blows out of proportion.
He's very open minded. He respects women a lot, something that was in him since the beginning. He's very good at taking tough decisions; he always sees everything through to the end. He is also very good at multi-tasking; he is the first person I have seen who works, acts, visits his home village, and everything. He watches cricket and political talk shows on the TV, and sometimes we listen to Tara Bangla songs together.
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