Shaharyar's POV:
I attended the phone call and an international meeting soon after that. As I was not able to visit the office, it was getting a bit difficult. Sameer was trying his best but still now it's time I pay full attention to it.
Everything in here was going fine. It was a pretty tiring day but everything went well. The lunch affair was good. The families had a great time together. And it was decided that the wedding and all the festivities will take place in the farm house of the Khan-Siddiqui's. It was built by Mansur Mama and was a place to visit on vacations and spend family time. We will leave for the place in the next week already.
I changed into the nightwear and got ready for bed. But sleep would not come. I drank some water and laid down. After tossing and turning in the bed for half an hour, I finally got up and sat on the window sill lighting up a cigarette.
Something was making me restless or more precisely, somebody. Noor Khan Siddiqui. This girl loves to dance on my nerves. She always had and now too. But who's this girl that I have been meeting for the past three days. She doesn't seem to be the same Noor to me. She has changed. A lot.
I missed her soothing naughty smile. It is nowhere to be seen anymore. Doesn't anyone notice that? Of course, Noor doesn't talk much. But still she did. This girl only speaks whenever required. She wouldn't say a word if a argument is going on, she will only say if there is a fire at your backside.
The reason I was excited to come back here the most was because I will see Noor after almost five or so years. But this isn't the Noor who I used to know. Who is she? I don't know her.
It was the time when I had visited my village after a long time. I had made up my mind that I will stay there for at least a month. But I couldn't. It was only a week after which I felt suffocated. I always feared that I will not be able to mix up well with them. I didn't have any connection with them for the past years. But they welcomed me with open arms. They showered me with so much love that I wondered 'am I living with them for the first time? How do they know me so much?'
But did I deserve them? I was never there for them when they needed me. I had kept no ties with them after I became a part of the Khans. Although it was not my fault, as Mansur Mama used to say; I didn't know anything to be at fault and to be blamed. But still I considered it somewhere to be my fault. Did I deserve their love and care now when I was not there for them? They showered me with too much love and neither did I expect that nor was I habituated to that.
I came back within two weeks giving an excuse that I had a lot of work and I had to get there as soon as possible. My mother grew sad but didn't say anything much, just said, 'please come back soon' and it broke my heart. Why? I didn't deserve this?
My father took me in a warm hug and said, 'Do your work good and return back to your this home'. I nodded somehow and left immediately. I came back and Maami asked why did I return so early. I gave her the same excuse and she accepted it. There was a storm going on in my heart with all the recent happenings. I couldn't find a solution to the problems in my head.
We sat to have dinner and that was when I saw Noor for the first time that day after returning back. She looked at me surprised, maybe she didn't know about my arrival. She gave me her small naughty smile as always and I smiled back. That was it. I could find my heart calming down and all the tensions coming to rest in my head. That was the moment when I realized the power her smile has. On me.
The days passed by after that. I had no work as such. Sometimes I used to get some dealings. But Maami was not happy with my work. She used to say, 'I know it's a good work. And I am also proud of the fact that you are doing something. But Shaharyar, this was not the fruit that your Munawar Abbu and Mansur Mama thought about when they got you admitted in school. They wanted you to do something better than this.' But he didn't know what.
