Zindagi Gulzar hai - Life is a Flower Garden

21 July - Kashaf

I met Asmarah in a diplomatic dinner today and we recognized each other immediately. She had given a cold reply to my friendly 'hello' and then said, "How are you here?"

Before I could reply, she answered herself, "It seems you're here as someone's secretary. Only an idiot could keep a secretary like you. Why don't you introduce me to your boss?"

I didn't get angry because I was in a really good mood today. So I said, "No, I'm here with my husband."

"You mean you really did it, huh?"

Her tone was poisonous like before. To avoid her next question, I asked, "You are here with your husband?"

'Yes. My husband is the Chief of Mission in Turkey. We're here on holidays. I would like to meet your husband."

She asked as soon as she answered my question. Maybe she wanted to know who my husband was. Before I could say anything, Zaroon came towards us. He had probably seen Asmarah. She too was shocked at seeing him. They ignored me for a while and asked about each other. Then Asmarah directed his attention towards me and said with a strange expression, "Zaroon, you didn't see her."

Zaroon was surprised and after looking at me once, he said to Asmarah, "I see her ten times a day. Actually she's the last person I see at night before sleeping and the first person I see in the morning."

"What do you mean?" She asked looking between us.

"Meaning that she is my wife."

Even thick layers of  make-up were unable to hide the changing color of Asmarah's face. Her eyes lost their glimmer and her lips formed only one sentence. "You are her husband."

"Of course. Kashaf, you didn't tell her?"

"You came before I had the chance." I apologized and went in the direction of some other people. I don't know what they talked about after I left but during the whole dinner, Asmarah didn't come towards me again and did her best to avoid me. I didn't mind because I knew she liked Zaroon and disliked me. Knowing that I am his wife must have hurt her a lot. Maybe she thinks Zaroon and I were fooling people in college with our hate-show while we were actually madly in love. But that isn't true. Marrying me was his personal decision and I had agreed only because I had no other choice. 

I had once said to him, "Wouldn't it be great if we had been friends in college? Your notes were always great. Maybe then I would have got first division in MA too."

He had snapped his file shut and looking directly into my eyes, he said very clearly, "If you had been my friend in college, you wouldn't be my wife today."

He was in a very good mood before bed. He kept teasing me and then picked up Aibak from his cot to play with him. When it was time for Aibak to sleep, he grabbed my hand. I asked him, "Have you mistaken me for Asmarah today?"

He laughed. "You've become really intelligent, haven't you?" He said it in the same tone in which I spoke and then started to kiss my hands. I was seeing him in such a romantic mood after a long time. 

"Asmarah doesn't hold a candle to you. I love you and she was just a time-pass. Just like a man may take a number of paths to reach his home, Asmarah was a path for me. But you are my destination, my life.

He talked to me for quite a while and now he is sleeping. I am thinking if meeting an old girlfriend brings him in such a good mood, its not that heavy a price.