Ghetto Blast : The jealous always feel insulted

One of her shoes flung about a metre off on impact, the handbag meekly beside the owner, while her cellphone landed on the carpet facing downwards.
Gloria’s long hair covered a huge part of her face, which resembled a pineapple owing to a fair share of pimples.
Pain and anguish were written all over her face.
But what had gone wrong?
After a joyous Heroes weekend with friends and family, she surely deserved to be happy.
But the opposite was true.
She felt deeply insulted after all her kid sisters made for the holiday family reunion arm-in-arm with their husbands while their cheerful children followed gracefully at a distance.
“Daddy . . daddy, mummy . . mummy,” the children shouted oblivious to the fact that those melodious calls irritated their aunt.
They made her feel empty and as useless and rusty as a steel rod at the bottom of a well.
Aive nemoyo wakasviba kunge chipunu chakambokwenga poto.
But Gloria was alone. She had no shoulder to lean on. No one’s bad drinking habits to complain about.
The more her siblings spoke of their marital affairs, the more she felt like a double-edged sword was being driven deeper and deeper into her chest.
Jealous and a silent voice of emotional competence seemingly told her mental eye that she deserved better.
She was stewing in her own juice. Her past life was haunting her, but the decision to spoil the broth for others was not on.
Hupenyu hamawe-e, yangove wasara wasara,
Wasara wasara hama yangu, ukasashinga unosara,
Hapana anofarira, farira kukundwa nemumwe,
Kunhabvu hakuna anofarira kukundwa nemumwe,
Madzishe haafarire, farire kukundwa kutonga,
Ngoma inorira ichiti kwangu-kwangu,
Hapana inoti kweumwe, sang the late Mukoma Ketai Muchawaya and the Simba Brothers in the song Wasara Wasara.
And the king of gofingo dance was not wrong. People generally want to be associated with greatness though not everyone accepts defeat.
No one wants to play second fiddle.
People hew tree branches they will be sitting on through deeds and misdeeds and a quest for greatness.
Unozvichekera bazi raugere neshanje.
But the case is not confined to the aforemention Gloria. It is an issue, as old as creation itself, that most people want the best to themselves. The moment they adjudge someone to be doing far better than them, they go green.
In some instances they become suicidal or get into negative mode which compels them to react in a manner that points to the next person their urgent need for help.
“My sisters are wasting time in marriage. They give a lot to men who often beat them up and expose them to disease. If I had a way, I’d simply ask them to leave marriages which are in actual fact major drawbacks,” you hear jealous people saying, though inwardly they will be yearning for that life. An unemployed man struggling to put a meal on the table often talks of the evils of going to work to make wealth for someone else.
“Takambopinda mabasa aya tikaasiya. I just cannot stomach the challenge of working and making wealth for someone. The moment you pride yourself in being promoted, you should instead take that promotion as a growth in colonisation. Unetenge uri zimushandiswi ziguru pakambani iwe uchisekerera,” you hear jobless people saying of their employed fellas.
The irony of it however, lies in that such conversations will not end without a request for a beer or cigarrette.
Some people feel insulted if they see a former classmate behind the wheel of a top-of-the range vehicle. They often go berserk, giving outpourings that however, gives away the secret behind the armchair smiles they wear.
“Uchati atenga mota izvizvi yabiwa. Murume aiba Mazoe kuchikoro uyu zvekuti handishamiswe kunzwa kuti asungwa. He is a bloke never to trust because if you just show people that you know him, you may end up being arrested. Anotamba mbenja mbenja,” they will confide in you.
Even in the world of love, the same obtains.
A woman intending to snatch a lover from the other will go out of her way to volunteer wrong information and half-truths about a rival to third parties.
“If I was a jealous person, I would not have told you this classified information. That woman who is going out with your son is married to a soldier who is in prison. The guy is very dangerous and the best way to protect James is to end the relationship. Chingoitai kuti zvipere mwana wenyu awane rugare.
“Mukadzi wacho futi iyeye anobatsirana naamai vake kubvisa vanhu nhumbu nekiroshi kuMbare. She is one hell of a woman never to allow under your roof at least if you still care for your son,” unsuspecting elderly women who make the bulk of our mothers are told while we are away at work in the ghetto.
The workplace is not also without people who feel insulted whenever someone is appointed to the top ahead of them.
“Anoenda kupiko iyeyu? Mupfanha mudiki uyu ende futi haana kana hana. Anorasika nemaths dzacho manje manje tikafa zvedu isusu nekuseka,” you often hear people saying in the corridors. As a way to discredit you, some people will buy you copious amounts of beer ahead of a special assignment as a way to prove to the high offices how undeserving of the post you were.
“Tinofa zvedu nekunyara. Mati mapombero aanoita hwahwa here murume uyu. Manje mota yaapihwa iyi, anotofa manje manje,” you hear some guys saying of a workmate.
Others will go to the locations where they sponsor those with a gripe with you to come and address you at the workplace. They can even offer them a shoulder to lean on so they can glean as much information as possible to get a huge laugh at you.
Some people feel insulted seeing your children going to school while theirs are seated at home.
To vent their anger, they might lure the children into drugs, expose them to bad things or even accuse them of being lawbreakers.
Some people embarrassed by people’s success even plant stolen goods in their yards just to get them arrested.
A good number will leave mbanje or alcohol in your desk just to get you fired because they know for real, they will never move forward in your presence.
A threat remains a threat if the threatened do not take measures to move off the receiving end to be on the offensive. But there is one way to avoid being insulted by other people’s progress. Just work, work, work hard. Nyama inonaka inotaura yega. Inotambika mughetto.