The Diary Of a Social Butterfly

This is a fortnightly column written by Moni Mohsin for The Friday Times.

Long time back the newspaper was freely accessible and my brother introduced me to it. There were two columns that were hilarious: The Diary of a Social Butterfly and Ittefaq Nama.
The Diary of a Social Butterfly features a Punjabi Convent Educated woman who believes life is meant for party-shartying, hello-hiing. She is in her own words "sophisty, smart, and socialist." She has penchant for malapropism and is saddled with Jannoo. Her husband, bhai, who is very boring and likes to read-shead. She has a 13 year old son Kulchoo, and The Old Bag for a mother-in-law. She has two sisters-in-law, The Twosome Gruesomes. But to offset The Old Bag and the Twosome Gruesome, she has her Mummy and Aunt Pussy. Not to forget her friends: Mulloo, Furry, Flopsy and host of other delightful characters. Oh, and then there is Jonkers, her cousin, who has been twice-divorced and now is looking for a third wife with the help of the Social Butterfly.
The portrayal of was just too apt!
I must confess I preferred Iteffaq Nama. This featured a half-witted Nawaz Sharif, airing his opinions in his Punjabi English. It also featured his brother, Shabaz Sharif, and our bhabhi/Lal ki Ma aka Mrs. Nawaz Sharif. Oh, I think there was also ammijaan, or Nawaz Sharif's mother. You can read one of these columns here.
Alas, one needs to subscribe to The Friday Times now to access the Internet version.
So, when I read yesterday, in Outlook, that The Diary of a Social Butterfly has been published, I went to Vasant Vihar to purchase the book. Fortunately one of the two bookshops had it!