Who is Jeena?

I did not know how limited my capacity was to answer this question until a friend confronted me with it.

And then, there was a barrage of queries. Every other comment on my post was asking the same. Curious, eager, confused statements all ending in just as reflective punctuation –

The ever questioning and curious?

The ever screaming!

The forever oh-so-confused?!! Because you’re so bamboozled you neither remember nor care for the etiquette of proper grammar.

And last but not the least the ever dreadful... as if a lifeline had gone dead...

Who is Jeena?

I tried to tackle the challenge as was presented to me. Knowing all too well that I might fail but I tried. I had to. I gave them this.

But it wasn't enough. There were still doubts and a truckload of questions.

An easier way out would have been to tell them to go watch all 267 episodes of Mann Mayal and be exposed to the experience of Jeena but I knew that was too much and would be futile. Who had the time?

Hence, for the good of humanity, I took it upon myself to try – TRY – and explain the phenomenon of Jeena.

In simple words, if one can dare to use simplicity in an attempt to define Jeena, she is a fictional character in Momina Duraid’s HUM TV play Mann Mayal. So, don’t end relationships arguing over her. She ain’t real. And thank you God for that. But that’s not all, not nearly.

Jeena is a lonely girl trying to make it on her own in this cruel, big, bad world. Her name to fame is her abundance of tears and lack of parents.

Yes, Jeena is an orphan.

That’s how we got to notice her in the first place, isn’t it? We knew about her not having parents even before we knew about her. And that’s the truth. We didn’t know what a conniving b – ahem – she was initially but we knew that all her life’s problems wouldn’t have existed if only her parents had but because they ceased to, she was doomed to suffer for all time. *sinister silence*

In a sense, Jeena is a sentiment that lives on in every such person who craves familial ties, regardless of family’s physical presence. She is the emotion that surges through your veins every time you blame the universe for depriving you of your good luck and a fair chance at life because you didn’t have the family background that could help with it. Parents! If only you had parents, or the right kind of parents, or could adopt such parents, but since you didn’t and couldn’t, you were doomed to fail forever like Jeena. *Go on, cry*

Jeena is Salahuddin’s assistant but not his love interest.

Salahuddin – the filthy rich hunk with a sugar-molasses voice, morals of an angel, and intelligence of a fruit fly – could not get the people to talk about Mann Mayal for even a fraction of how Jeena has. That’s her power. Don’t undermine the PA, y’all!

She may just be one of the two employees Salahuddin has ever hired to run his business apparently worth billions but she sure knows how to pull the strings and be the puppet master in the ultimate scheme of things.

She can be the perfect go-to friend when you have no one to go to. She’ll listen to all your ramblings. Cook you delicious comfort foods and actually comfort you while you eat that food. Be up for you at ungodly hours of the night just to make sure you got home okay and didn’t end up dying in a lonely street somewhere. Move in with you too because she has no parents and neither do you. I mean…they’re not living with you or anything, right? She’ll also be the one link your mom was looking for to keep tabs on you while you were out about running fruitlessly after other people’s wives, desperately trying to ditch the Mamu label all the while.Does that irk Jeena who loves you with all her everything because she has no parents?

Yes, it does.

So, she does everything in her power, which is a lot because she’s a total witch, to make things go her way. She cries. Makes sure she throws the fact that ‘uskay maa baap nahi hain’ out there and at you at least fifty times in a two-minute conversation. Belittles the one and only love of your life because quite frankly, that ship had sailed about two children ago and you are seriously old and fit enough to be Mamu to Mannu’s kids, Salahuddin wake the hell up!

And of course, a little flirty affair on the side never hurt anyone.

Enter Jameel.

What? A servant of the house raised to the temp level of an assistant cum butler not good enough for you to romance with? You snooty burgers! Yes, yes, shut up. If Salahuddin can blatantly and obviously be crazy in mad love with Mannu, why can't Jeena have an equal right to be ‘khul ke’ loved by a married man? Can't you see, this is the perfect quadrangle of behudgi?

Jeena is after Salahuddin who is after Mannu who is after Mikaeel who is after a casino. So basically, Jeena is losing to a casino even without betting on anything there! How unfair is that? Obviously, she then traps Jameel with her charms and an offer of unabashed affair that he absolutely doesn’t refuse. *Orya Maqbool already warned you about such things, don’t complain now*

So you see, Jeena isn’t such a random stranger to us. We all must have known at least one Jeena in our lives, maybe not with all her fifty shades of promiscuity and deceit but some. And even if you didn’t *how boring was your life?* now is your chance so jump on the Jeena Train!

In a nutshell, as best as I could put it, this is Jeena. Don’t be like Jeena. But do watch her be herself every Mann Mayal.