Allah's Stranger

Chapter 9.

Edited by - iimanmaeen

"Jahan you remember I told you that day my father was with one of my cousin?" Zeenat asked.

"yes."

"My father wanted me to marry him."

Jahan looked up from her book,"Really?"

"Yes."

"He was interested in you?"

"I don't know that. My family has nothing to do with love. We live like robots. Everything is predecided. For girls be inside the house,study till tenth then get married to one of your cousin,have babies.For boy play and do whatever and where you want to go then study whatever you want but at the end join the family business. And then your parents would have decided one cousin for you get married and have babies! Then if it's a girl keep her inside if it's a boy let him do whatever he wants, Then when the time comes decide one cousin and get them married and the process begins again. Nothing new!"

"At least they impose rules on girls as well as boys."

"Yeah but it's not that strict."

"They are forced to do family business even if their interest is somewhere else. That sucks. You know you can work for years but then one day you will get tired. How long can someone live that boring life?Maybe that's why at the end all the men in your family becomes so frustrated."

Zeenat rubbed her chin and there was a frown on her forehead. jahan saw her and asked,"What happened?"

"I never thought about that. According to me only girls were suffering."

"You need to come out of your small I'm suffering bubble to see who all are suffering."

"Now I know why Mushtaq bhai did that."

"Did what?"

"He was my phuphu's son and their house was exactly in front of us. From my window their whole house was visible. And due to some construction work their terrace walls were broken. So there was no protection. He was standing on the edge. The he started talking to someone. His brother Saqlain bhai came near him and I think they were arguing about something. Which was not normal. They were like best friends. And then suddenly Saqlian bhai pushed him. He fell down and died. But their was this rod right next to him which he could have used to as support or saqlain bhai also gave his hand but he did not try to save himself. In fact I always thought he was happy he fell. Now I get it."

"He wanted to do something else?"

"I'm not sure as We were never allowed to talk to each other. But when we were small we all use to sit together and read Quran and after that for some time we were allowed to sit and talk. So that time he use to tell us his poems. And they were really good. Of course I never understood the meaning but the words he used were so beautiful. He was really good in Urdu. Probably he wanted to be a shayar or a writer. I remember his mom used to say he was very sad in his last days."

"Allah! But what he did with his brother was so bad! He must be guilty.It must be hard to live with a guilt."

Zeenat shook her head,"No He was not guilty. He was sad of course and for almost a year he use to stand at the same place but I never saw him crying.In fact I remember he use to smile the whole time. He was really close to his brother and that always confused me."

"Ok." 

Suddenly Zeenat gasped,"Wait! Maybe he did that purposely!"

"You mean he murdered his brother?"