SHABBY BUT DOCILE ,PRETTY BUT HOSTILE

                                     

ZOVAL TA ZEIVAL

( Shabby but docile, pretty but hostile ) 

Our neighbour  Sondhar Dydh's son divorced his first wife and married for the second time.  One day  , Sondhar Dydh  said this to my mother( Kaaki )  :

" Hatai Kaaki , kyah vanai Zeivili khota aassim Zoval jaan. Yemiss raantus  balaai chhass na poshaan" 

"  Kaaki,  that shabby but docile daughter-in-law was better than this good-looking but aggressive girl.  I can't deal with this  witch." 

 In Kashmiri, Zov means lice, and Zoval means a woman with lice in her hair or shabby. Similarly, Zeiv means tongue, and Zeival means a woman who confronts and uses her tongue aggressively. I have heard many elderly Kashmiri women saying, " Zeivili Khota  Zoval  jaan ( a docile girl with lice in her head is better than a good-looking one who hits all with her words )  

With the spread of nuclear families,  education and women's empowerment, this phrase used by our elderly women is extinct now. 

( Avtar Mota)

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