After the End (Tere Bin) (ON HOLD)

Milestones

"Meesam beta crayons ko khate nahi unse drawing karte hai. Ye dekho aise"Murtasim said while drawing a straight line on the brand-new drawing book he'd gotten for his daughter.

("Messam, dear you're not supposed to eat the crayon you're supposed to draw with them! Here look.. like this" )

The parenting article online mentioned that kids her age were supposed to start grabbing pencils and start drawing straight lines and Murtasim was on a self-proclaimed mission to help her achieve just that.

Using both hands, Meesam reached and grabbed the sketchbook. She looked at him for a good 10 seconds before carefully tearing the page in two.

Murtasim sighed and closed his eyes.

"Ya allah madad kar" he mumbled before looking down at Meesam with a helpless look on his face. She giggled.

("oh dear god help me")

"Mere kahe har cheez ka ulta kyu karna hota hai aapko meri jaan? din bar din apni mummy ke tarah banti ja rahi ho-"

("Why do you have to do the exact opposite of everything I say meri jaan? Everyday you become more and more like your mother-")

Murtasim paused and looked around the room, making sure Meerab wasn't around to hear what he said next. "vo ek hi samhal jaye mujse badi baat hai, baba se mummy ke do-do version nahi samhale jaane"

("She's quite handful to deal with alone, baba is not sure if he'll able to handle another version of her")

Meesasm couldn't care less at her father's incessant ramblings and continued to tear page again, adorably laughing at the sound it made.

Murtasim smiled at her.

He knew that he had missed many milestones of his daughter's life but he was trying to be optimistic. Meesam was still young, only a little more than 12 months old, there were still many milestones left for him to look forward to and he'd be damned if he missed any of those.

Often, long after his wife and child long retired to bed, he'd lay quietly on his side of the bed and scroll on his phone reading articles and watching videos on parenting. He'd soon lose himself to the youtube rabbit hole and watch random family vlogging channels at 2 in the morning with rapt attention.

Meerab would sometimes wake up in the middle of the night to catch him looking at his phone screen mumbling to himself "huh, my Meesam can already do that AND she's a lot cuter than your baby"

She'd roll her eyes at his childishness. Murtasim was turning into an overbearing middle-aged woman with his competitiveness about all things 'Meesam'

All the newfound knowledge from the web had taken over Murtasim's mind a bit too much. He would constantly nag Meerab, much to her dismay, worried about Meesam not achieving developmental milestones at the correct age. She could tell that he was trying to make up for lost time, though he'd never admit it. All the explanations Meerab gave him about each kid having different growth journeys seemed to go right over his head.

A few days ago, on an unusually hot and sunny afternoon when Meerab was in the kitchen boiling milk for her daughter's lunch, Murtasim decided to leisurely stroll into the kitchen, laptop in hand, and casually asked her

"Yar Meerab, Meesam ka crawling to walking ratio kya hai? iss article mai likha hai ki uski age mai 1:8 tak hona chaiye, I think we shou-"

("what do you think is the ratio of Meesam's crawling to walking rate? It says right here on this mommy n me vlog that it should be around 1:8 at her age, I think we shou-")

Murtasim quickly shut up when we looked up at Meerab's face.

She looked pissed, like she was ready to commit homicide, most likely his. A bead of sweat trailed from her forehead down to her neck which seemed to piss her off even more.

"Dopher ke do baj rahe hai" She said slowly and took a step towards him.

He took two steps back.

("It is 2 in the afternoon")

"2 din, 2 din se Nahana aur khana toh door ke baat mai dang se soyi tak nahi hu. Tumhe lagta hai ki sare duniya ka time siraf mere he paas hai? Aur agar hai bhi toh uss time mai mai apne beti ka crawling to walking ratio dekhugi? What even IS THAT?" She shrieked.

("I have not slept, I have not eaten and I have not showered in 2 whole days. Do you think I have the TIME to check what the RATIO of my child crawling to walking rate is?! What even IS THAT? )

"Well its just how you calculate -" he began

"Dafa ho jayo yaha se mai karchi utha ke marugi!"

("Go away before I hit you with a laddle!")

Murtasim didn't need to be told twice, he rushed out of the kitchen in record time.

So here he was, on a random Sunday. Sitting on the floor of their bedroom, ripping a brand new sketchbook to shreds just to watch his daughter laugh. The meticulously laid out plan to help his daughter achieve the milestone of 'grabbing and drawing things' long since forgotten.

Meerab walked into the room and looked at the two of them. A smile etched the corners of her face hearing her daughter's hearty laughter. She quietly sat beside them and took her phone out to record them.

Murtasim had a whole lifetime to watch his daughter grow. For now, he just wanted to enjoy this moment of calmness. Just him, his wife and his little girl, content and enjoying themselves. His whole world, right here inside his room. He could have asked for nothing more.

~~

A/N:

Thank you so much for all the love you guys showed for the previous chapter! I'm so glad you guys enjoyed my work! :)

Have a few questions to ask you guys.

How old do you think Meesam is exactly? I'm guessing she's a little older than 12 months but I wanted to hear you guys out on this first. We haven't seen her walk or talk even a little bit in the show so she could be younger right?

Since we have only seen her talk on the show, do you want her first words (coherent words) to be when Murtasim is around or are we assuming that she can already talk? The show is really vague on this so I guess we can take some creative liberties here lol

Anywho, do let me know how you find this chapter! Always open to suggestions and ideas!

Until then, Peace out ✌️