ZGH Celebrations ~ROUGH THREAD~

Kashaf was much more than a bitter, pessimist, ungrateful, rude person. She was extremely vulnerable, sensitive, insecure, easily hurt, helpless, caring daughter and person and such characterization of a female lead was intriguing. The makers took a big risk in showing such a characterization and it could have easily back-fired if it lacked the brilliance of Umera Ahmed and Sanam Saeed.

When she is first intorduced to us, she is seen lamenting about life in general and everything specifically. She has a negative outlook towards life and is seen cribbing and complaining. One simply wanted to strangle her when she started cribbing about life being unfair because something as trivial as a pen running out of ink happened to her. But then her sensitive side is shown, where she is disheartened by her father's indifference towards her mother, sisters and her. Also for a long time she has been burdened with financially helping out her family and though all her sisters contribute towards it, but she being the eldest has to bear the major chunk of it. It irks her to no end that it's her father who is responsible for their predicament and he's totally indifferent to it, yet her mother gives leeway to her father and defends him and still harbors hopes of him helping them out. All this frustrates her and hence she tends to be overtly bitter, rude and ungrateful and also cynical.

But when her indifferent father taunts her mother and blames her values and her having daughters for the trouble they face, Kashaf bravely confronts her father and stands her ground against his sharp and stinging tirades, even though she is hurting from within. And although Kashaf is shown a pessimist, but at the same time she keeps striving to make her lot in life better. Her mom and sister Sidra r more resigned to their fate and more accepting, but Kashaf isn't. She is feisty and has the confidence to take on the world no matter what. Though she is shown doing shikwa, a lot, but when it comes to problems, she is the one to come up with solutions, whether it is how to arrange money for Shanila's education or Sidra's wedding nd her mom and sisters' too look up at her in such situations. Her sense of value is well ingrained in her coz of her mother nd dat makes her a strong character.

Because of her past she has great difficulty in trusting people, especially men and coz of the complexes she suffers, it's difficult for her to accept that anyone would want to marry her, whether Zaroon or Osama, other than out of pity or as some sort of a game. But at the same time, she got convinced about Zaroon's sincerity not because her wooed her romantically, nor coz he made huge promises (btw he did neither), but just coz he prevented hot tea from falling on her and taking it on himself. It was equivalent to him taking a bullet for her and throughout her life she had never had anyone shielding her and dat's exactly what Zaroon had done. Marriage for her was not going to be easy and she was a difficult wife. At the same time as she said to Zaroon marriage was important to her and she would give it her all. And dat's exactly what she does. When her mother explains to her that it was the little caring and concern that cemented a relationship, she makes effort to do exactly that. When she feels belittled by her mother-in-law, she cries her heart out to her mother, who once again gives her a practical picture and she listens to her mother and follows her advice, which go a long way in-laws accepting, valuing and respecting her.

Kashaf's inherent sense of responsibility makes her a responsible wife and daughter-in-law. Though she never gave marriage a priority and if it had been up to her, she probably wouldn't have married, but once she got married she was dedicated to make it work, no matter how much effort she had to put in it. Also she didn't know much about how to go about making a marriage work. But her mother helped her out by giving sound and practical advice. With her in-laws, initially she had adjustment problems due to pre-conceived notions by both the sides, but once again heeding her mother's advice Kashaf made the effort and developed a good relationship with her in-laws based on mutual love and respect.

When she came to know that she was pregnant with twins, and later came to know that they were twin daughters, all her old insecurities resurfaced and she was afraid that Zaroon would abandon her and her daughters, just like her father had abandoned her mother, sisters and herself. Though at one level she clearly knew that Zaroon was nothing like her father neither his family like hers.

Her biggest drawback is that she is not able to fully trust Zaroon and also refuses to share her feelings with him and her past insecurities are never far away and almost ruins her marriage. But slowly she startts falling for Zaroon. From usse mein nafrat karne ke kabil nahin rahi, to iss aadmi ki ajeeb si aadat aur who mere zindagi mein nahin raha toh ek bada masla ho jayega, to mein usse miss karungi? Miss toh ek bahut chota sa lafz hain inn ehsasaat ke liye jo mein usske liye rakhne lagi hoon, to who mujhse poochta hai ki mujhe usski kaun si cheez achhi lagti hai, par mein yeh kaise kahun ki mujhe usski kaun si cheez achhi nahin lagti! And she falls for him hook, line and sinker. Still she is unable to confess her love for him. Finally when she does, he simply says I know', coz her love was evident in all the unspoken words of her, her little gestures of caring and concern, her jealousy for his past girlfriends, her caring for his family and much more.

And finally when she finds the security which she had always lacked, in the form of a loving and caring husband, two beautiful daughters and a secure family life, she realizes that she had been too harsh in blaming God and judging life and she regrets that. She is happy and grateful for her lot in life and readily accepts whatever God has in store for her and finally attains security, happiness and peace of mind and her Zindagi is gulzaar!