Part 1:
"Any Ma,where is he?" Zoya asked Ananya.
Ananya smiled and pointed towards the room at the left side of the hall. She saw Zoya's expressions turning unsure to wheather she should go inside the room or not. Ananya squeezed Zoya's shoulder with her hand just to reassure her and said "just go". Zoya nodded and started taking slow steps towards her father's room with a ray of hope in her big beautiful eyes. She hoped that may be today her father would smile at her and hug her once, May be. She knocked on the door.
"Come in" came a firm voice from inside the room. She slowly opened the door and stepped in.
Ghaffur was busy talking to someone on his phone, his back facing the door. Zoya took some careful steps in his direction and stood behind him, silently. As he finished his phone call and turned around, he saw Zoya standing there with both her arms stretched out towards him, she was holding a paper in her hands. He frowned and took the paper from her. As he took a look of the paper, he realized, it was father's day and like all the previous years Zoya had made a card for him.
'Happy Father's Day, Abbu' was written on the card with bright colour pencils, in her untidy handwriting and below it a drawing was made by her of a man holding hand of a little girl who had a balloon in her other hand.
For any other father it would've been the best card but for him it was rubbish, a total crap.
His temper rised. 'How many times he had told her to stop interacting with him in any way but she was a hell stubborn girl, just like her mother' thought Ghaffur.
"How many times i had told you to don't show me your face, Manhoos. Don't you understand?" He glared at her.
"What nonsense is this?" He threw the paper in Zoya's feet and yelled at her. Zoya stood there, staring at him, horrified. Her eyes brimmed with tears seeing her card landing in her feet. "Get out" his thrilled voice startled her. She quickly picked up the paper and ran out from the room.
Ananya watched Zoya running towards her room with that paper clutched tightly in her fist. By observing her state, she already knew what must had been transpired between father and daughter, inside the room. She was sure that Ghaffur has yet again yelled at her innocent 11 years old daughter. Ananya followed Zoya into her room.
When she entered Zoya's room, she saw Zoya half laying on her bed, her face buried deep into her pillow.
She took few steps ahead and sat behind Zoya, on her bed. "Zoe" Ananya called while placing her hand on Zoya's shoulder. Zoya sat up immediately and hugged her Any Ma, Crying. "Stop crying Zoe, you're a brave girl, right?. I'd taught you to never lose hope, hai na? Allah doesn't like people who lose hope. He is watching us, He knows what's happening and He is the one who'll set the things right. You just have to trust him with your life and wait for him to take action." Ananya noticed that Zoya had stopped crying and was listening to her, intently.
"You're right Any Ma. I am the one who always disappoints Allah. I promise that from now onwards I will never lose hope and trust Him, whatever the situation is."
'Ma Sha ALLAH, kitni himmat wali bachi hai. Ya ALLAH is per rehem farma' Ananya prayed for Zoya, silently in her heart and free'ed her from the embrace.
"Dua bhi kiya karo meri jaan. Allah bacho ki dua hamesha qubool kerta hai or agar nhi kerta toh vo isliye k usne un k liye kuch or bhi zyada behtar soch rakha hota hai. Is liye dill chota nhi kertay.
Zoya smiled, the ray of hope returned in her eyes.
"Acha ab jaldi se mujhe apni koi shayari suna do." Ananya said to lighten Zoya's mood. Zoya quickly straightened up and cleared her throat. "Arz kia hai. ..." After listening Zoya's silly Shayari, Ananya laughed heartily and patted her cheek. Zoya also chuckled.
Seeing Zoya chuckle, Ananya heaved a sigh of relief, She knew that a dose of Zoya's shayari would definitely work to lighten the mood of her Zoe.
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Zeenat and Anwar were sitting at the beach, sipping the coconut water when Zeenat said "Anwar, I am very confused. I don't know wheather i should tell ammi about both of us being together or not." Anwar looked Zeenat in the eye and said "Don't even think about it Zeen, you know very well that your ammi would never approve of our
love. You are a muslim and I am christian. If we took a risk of telling your ammi about us then there are 85%
chances that she would won't allow you to step out of your home, alone. So that you can't meet me again or maybe she'd just fix your marriage with someone else and you know that i can't live without you, i'd already lost my parents in a car accident and now i can't afford to lose you as well." By the end of it, Anwar had tears in his eyes. Zeenat acknowledged his fears and hugged him tight and decided that she'd not inform her ammi.
Dilshad returned home and saw that Asad was sitting on the floor with his school books around him and Zeenat was nowhere in sight. Asad looked up on the sound of the door being open and noticed Dilshad coming in.
"Asalaam-O-Allaikum" he said. Dishad smiled at her son and replied "Wa Allaikum Asalaam, beta". Asad busied him self with his books, once again when Dilshad asked "Where is your aapi?"
"She went to the bazaar with her friend 'Nikhat'. Replied Asad.
"For what?" Asked Dilshad.
"Nikhat wanted to buy some vegetables so aapi went along" Dilshad nodded after listening to Asad.
A few minutes later, Zeenat entered from the door and noticed that Dilshad had already returned home from work. She bacme a little nervous, she was not used to with lying to her ammi or hiding things from her but now she has to do it, for Anwar.
Dilshad looked up and Zeenat gave her a nervous smile. Dilshad sensed that something was wrong. "Where's Nikhat?" Asked Dilshad. "Um.. sh...she went to her home" Zeenat replied, thinking of a suitable answer and lowered her eyes. She knew that she can't lie to her mother while looking her in the eye.
Dilshad noticed that she was behaving strangely but ignored it for now. "Ohh.. ok, come here and cut these vegetables for me" She asked Zeenat and concentrated on her cooking.
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Eid Mubarik! Stay blessed people 😊
Edited by Emaani.95 - 9 years ago