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Mira Sethi Is The New Meme Queen And She Makes No Bones About It

Sohayl Ahmed
November 25, 2018
3 min read

They say love is in the air but for 2018, the case is a little different. This year weddings have been the air. Everyone is getting married. And the latest couple to join this spree is Journalist Najam Sethi’s daughter and singer Ali Sethi’s sister actor Mira Sethi and her fiance Bilal Siddiqui. Mira had shared the news of her engagement in a social media post but as usually it was trolled badly.

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In the spring of 2017, a tall, funny, curly-haired dude walked into my life. I'd known this curly-haired dude all my life — in the way you know your parents' friends' kids — but we'd never sought each other out. (Weirdly enough, Bilal and I overlapped at Oxford in 2008—he was doing his PhD, I was spending my junior year abroad. But we never looked each other up, never bumped into each other in that tiny cobbled town.) ⁣ ⁣ Almost a decade later, we met in Lahore on a warm February evening. We vaguely agreed to meet for dinner sometime. ⁣ ⁣ A few days later we were at Spice Bazaar, and it was suddenly cold again. Bilal asked what I'd been upto: he nodded across the table and asked gentle, probing questions. Lots of questions. In between licking mutton kunna gravy from my fingers, I found myself answering his questions with an openness and ease I hadn't encountered in myself in a long time. Later, we sat in the garden of my house and played with Max. My brother joined us. The three of us talked. Bilal dug his hand inside Max's mouth and pulled out a sharp branch. Max was all over him.⁣ ⁣ A few days later Bilal lost his mother to pneumonia (she'd had Parkinsons for a decade), and it was a wrenching, difficult time. Bilal and I would text. Talk about light stuff. He used the heart emoji unselfconsciously, as a friend might. The conversations veered from TV shows to politics to "plan for the day?" The few times we met before he left for DC, he talked openly about his regrets and hopes and dreams. Sitting across from him in Cosa Nostra, this time not very hungry because my body was clenched with affection and interest, I listened. He was warm and funny and brilliant. That night, I curled up next to him and we watched a show on Netflix. ⁣ ⁣ The next year was a whirlwind. We travelled together to Lisbon, Brussels, Amsterdam, New York, Islamabad, Reno, San Francisco. We went to a festival in the desert and slept under the stars. We danced to really bad music. We biked across the desert at night, our cycles glowing with fairylights. Bilal biked ahead so I could follow him. *continued in comments* ⁣

A post shared by Mira Sethi (@mira.sethi) on

She had said, “In the spring of 2017, a tall, funny, curly-haired dude walked into my life. I’d known this curly-haired dude all my life — in the way you know your parents’ friends’ kids — but we’d never sought each other out. (Weirdly enough, Bilal and I overlapped at Oxford in 2008—he was doing his PhD, I was spending my junior year abroad. But we never looked each other up, never bumped into each other in that tiny cobbled town.) ⁣
⁣
Almost a decade later, we met in Lahore on a warm February evening. We vaguely agreed to meet for dinner sometime. ⁣
⁣
A few days later we were at Spice Bazaar, and it was suddenly cold again. Bilal asked what I’d been upto: he nodded across the table and asked gentle, probing questions. Lots of questions. In between licking mutton kunna gravy from my fingers, I found myself answering his questions with an openness and ease I hadn’t encountered in myself in a long time. Later, we sat in the garden of my house and played with Max. My brother joined us. The three of us talked. Bilal dug his hand inside Max’s mouth and pulled out a sharp branch. Max was all over him.⁣ A few days later Bilal lost his mother to pneumonia (she’d had Parkinsons for a decade), and it was a wrenching, difficult time. Bilal and I would text. Talk about light stuff. He used the heart emoji unselfconsciously, as a friend might. The conversations veered from TV shows to politics to “plan for the day?” The few times we met before he left for DC, he talked openly about his regrets and hopes and dreams. Sitting across from him in Cosa Nostra, this time not very hungry because my body was clenched with affection and interest, I listened. He was warm and funny and brilliant. That night, I curled up next to him and we watched a show on Netflix. ⁣The next year was a whirlwind. We travelled together to Lisbon, Brussels, Amsterdam, New York, Islamabad, Reno, San Francisco. We went to a festival in the desert and slept under the stars. We danced to really bad music. We biked across the desert at night, our cycles glowing with fairylights. Bilal biked ahead so I could follow him. “Twitter, however, took it slightly different and turned their love story into a meme material.

 

Mira surprising reacted very cool and tweeted, “I’ve loved all the memes, GIFs, the laughter, the affectionate eye-rolling — big love.”

Sohayl Ahmed

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