Strings Attached

~Chapter 9~

My dad was only twenty at the time. He came back without ever completing his Masters or acquiring a degree, distraught with worry for his mother and sisters. Our ancestral home had been already mortgaged to pay off the debts, but it wasn't enough. Creditors came pressing in from all sides. The family was spent... emotionally and financially.

It was dadi and dad who toiled hard to make ends meet, pay off the debts and feed the whole family. All the haram money was done away with and they moved to Delhi from the town, in search of better opportunities and a better life. Eventually and after much exertion on his and dadi's part, the ancestral home was saved from going into strange hands and two of my dad's sisters were married off into respectable, if not rich, families. But it took the best years of their lives to do it. He was already in his late twenties before he had a steady job.

Those days were hard and tiresome. Dad couldn't find work except all that was beneath his education, for he'd no degree to show he had ever done his Masters. Wherever he went, he was turned down. He didn't even have enough money to go abroad once and take his exams. Dadi and my two aunts had to work for the family to sustain it. But she was strong in all of this and never showed weakness by lamenting over fate. She urged every one of her children to believe in Allaah (SWT) and never lose faith in Him. And every day that dad came home, jobless, she was there to console him and push him to try again.

Finally, she advised him to write to his University and ask them for permission to take his exams right there in Delhi. It was a long shot as many batches had passed after him, but they were kind people and after taking some money, they allowed him to sit for exams and grant him the Master's degree.

This long space of more than six years between joining the course and passing it, cost him at his job. Wherever he went, a long list of questions followed about his long absence from his studies. But after some more struggle, he did become a temporary substitute teacher of Economics for 10+2 classes at Jamia Millia Islamia University's Senior Secondary School in New Delhi.

He was finally at the right job, doing the right thing. Remaining two aunts of mine were married that year. And it was around that time that Amir Bhai was born to my eldest aunt, not as the eldest child but as the second eldest.

Dad always had a passion for Economics. It has been so many years since he began to teach there. He is now a permanent faculty, but they can't promote him any further for he never had the time or money to pursue a Ph.D. Although, he never stopped us from dreaming, his dreams were crushed so much that he never dreams about anything anymore.

The burden on my dad has been heavy. It has lessened now but he has spent quite a lot of money to install me here, and I hope that I make each and every penny count. He never mentions it to me but I know he fears for me, of my dreams getting crushed just like his did right before they were an inch away from being fulfilled.

And then there's me. I get scared of little things. I don't know if I can ever match their level of endurance, but I'll try, for my father, my dadi and everyone else who believes in me. It was not really easy for them to send me here, but they didn't like crushing anyone else's dreams in the family... it had been too much. I've been nothing but a whiny teenager all this time, but not anymore. I'll make my dad proud and he wouldn't be afraid to dream anymore.