Farah
Clickety-clank
Bumpity-bump
Honk honk
So went the van that Komal, Ahad and I were riding in on our way to the school that we had promised to donate supplies to. The school itself was at a short but treacherous distance from the main Swat valley. A beautiful valley among snow-capped mountains, that is also affectionately called the Switzerland of Pakistan.
"Who thought renting this khatara van was a good idea? It doesn't even have a freaking AC", Ahad muttered under his breath. (Old broken down)
Of course neither Komal or I owned up to it, and just shrugged our shoulders as we hung on for dear life.
"We're almost there. Stop complaining", Komal snapped back at her brother who had been quietly cursing his decision to join us.
"You could have been more specific when you said the roads were bad. There are better ways to die than being thrown off a cliff in the middle of nowhere"
Ahad and Komal kept taking jibes at each other while I sat quietly in the backseat holding on to the boxes of school supplies, wondering how Kamran put up with this constant sibling rivalry.
Or maybe they didn't even notice him when they started bickering, a feeling of sadness descended upon me remembering my conversation with Komal from the day before. And I wished that instead of Ahad, the seat in front of me was occupied by his younger brother. For I knew exactly what his younger brother would have been saying at that time, and a smile played on my lips while I gazed outside thinking about a conversation I had with him.
**Flashback**
"So, you think you can save the world, huh?", he asked me with a coy smile on his handsome face, as we sat next to each other at the expansive table that seated the rest of our family on the first night of our trip to Naran.
"I never claimed I could save the world. Just that I wanted to help as many people as I could", I answered, wondering yet again how it was that we always seemed to end up next to each other.
"An honest doctor who knows her limits...", he laughed, "I like that"
"Just because I know my limits doesn't mean I won't keep trying to push them"
He paused midway while putting a piece of kabab and bread into his mouth and glanced at me. Even though I kept my gaze on the food in front of me, it was impossible to miss the look of amusement in his eyes.
"You have an answer for everything, don't you?"
"How could I not? You keep asking me such easy questions", I shrugged, stifling a laugh.
To be honest, I had surprised myself as well. I wasn't the kind of girl who talked with men so freely, or talked at all really. But there was something so comfortable and natural about being with Kamran that my brain just kept regurgitating words without giving me any time to even think about them.
"Ok. Here is a hard one then", he whispered, leaning into me slightly. The scent of his cologne tickled my senses, making me giddy for a moment.
"Name something that everyone thinks is important, but is actually not"
Just before then I had been thinking about how everyone blamed the dilapidated condition of some of the local infrastructure on politicians in power, and so my immediate answer was, "Power. You don't need to be in power to get work done. You need guts and determination"
"What about you? What's not actually important?", I asked him too, curious what the reply to his own question would be.
He smiled in return and said, "Money"
"But doesn't money make the world go around?", I teased him, even though I couldn't agree more.
"You're right, it does. Around and around in corruption and greed. Contentment is what moves the world forward in a positive way. It allows people to work for each other, rather than against each other. Look around you", he gestured at the staff of the roadside restaurant we were sitting at.
"The people here don't have much, their roads are broken down, sometimes they may not have electricity for days. Life in general, is tough. Yet you'll never hear them complain, they'll travel however they can to get to their destination, they'll come up with alternatives if they don't have electricity. They face adversities everyday, yet adapt better than any of us ever could"
"So in summary, instead of people with money and power, we need determined people who are content yet have the guts to get work done?"
"Exactly", he turned towards me and grinned, "You know, the two of us together may actually be able to save the world"
Since when had we become 'the two of us', I wondered.
****
"Helloo. Yoohoo", I heard someone call out as my mind returned back to the present.
"Why are you smiling like that?", Ahad squinted his eyes at me.
"Leave her alone. She has a lot on her mind", Komal chided her brother, and winked at me, making me blush slightly.
To her brother she handed a box of stationery and notebooks and told him to start following our driver on foot. To me she shook her head and whispered, "I too wish Kamran was here instead of Ahad"
Then she chuckled and added, "For totally different reasons though"
I just let myself chuckle with her, there was no point in denying the truth that she was well aware of by now. I was missing Kamran, terribly. It was on roads similar to the one we were walking on right now, and among tall pine trees similar to the ones that provided shade to us against the morning sun, that I had started to realize that he was unlike anyone I had ever met before. And his absence now was making me frustrated at our situation and impatient at the pace with which time was passing.
Though, it wasn't as if I could do anything about it. So I thanked my lucky stars that at least I was able to spend some time with the next best thing after Kamran, his sister Komal. Perhaps, she would talk to her brother on the phone during this trip, and perhaps I would just happen to be in the vicinity and perhaps Komal would be kind enough to let me say hi to him.
I was still working through the sequence of events in my pipe dream when I heard that deep timbre voice again, "Farah!"
"Yes? Sorry...what?", I looked ahead and found Ahad slapping his forehead.
"Farah, that bridge is not safe to go on, we have to walk down the river a bit more before crossing over", Komal said softly, as Ahad continued shaking his head while resuming to walk ahead of us.
"Sorry...I didn't see where I was going", I looked around me, embarrassed at being caught daydreaming again.
The wooden bridge that I was unintentionally going to walk on to had several boards that were half broken and the rope that held it all together was visibly damaged in many areas. It was suspended just above the surface of the river, which I had heard from our driver was a lot higher than it normally was. Thanks to global warming and melting glaciers. I could only imagine how unforgiving the fast flowing river would be if someone was to slip and fall into it.
"It's ok, don't worry about it", Komal slowed down to walk next to me and smiled reassuringly, "The terrain can be dangerous here so pay attention to where you are going"
Her smile broadened and eyes developed a glint of mischief, "Besides, Kamran would skin me alive if something were to happen to you on my watch"
"Maybe he should be here himself if he was so worried about me", I grumbled under my breath.
Komal
We made it to the school without Farah trying to get into another accident, thankfully. The girl had been a walking disaster that whole morning. She dropped hot chai on herself at breakfast, then slipped down a grassy slope outside our hotel, and just now had absentmindedly almost gotten onto that rickety, old bridge. Not that I blamed the poor thing. Even I was having deja vu about our trip to Naran. I could absolutely imagine how everything here in Swat must be reminding her of my brother.
One could wonder why I was so invested in their relationship, and one could also think that it was because I was an altruistic, selfless sister.
That I was!
But all my life I had also wanted a sister. And everytime I would say that out loud someone would tell me that with three brothers my sister-in-laws would become my sisters too. I had seen enough family drama in my life to know that was hardly ever true. So, selfish or not I had made it my mission to find myself a sister-in-law that I could truly consider my sister, one who wouldn't be afraid of adventures in an otherwise restrictive society. And my twin brother's wife would be the perfect candidate. After all, of my three brothers, he was the only one I considered a friend more than a brother.
At 27 I was fast approaching the age where rishtas, however ridiculous and incompatible with me, were drying up. So the possibility of me ending up as a spinster, was a very real one. One that I was personally ok with, though just as a backup I figured a sisterly sister-in-law would be a nice way to ward off loneliness in old age.
"What's with Farah? Is she always so careless?", Ahad whispered as he glanced at her while she was happily handing out toothbrushes to the children of the primary school we were visiting.
None of your business!
"She's just going through some stuff. She'll be fine. You don't need to worry about her", I told him pointedly. Your younger brother is perfectly capable of doing that all by himself.
He of course ignored that last part completely.
"What stuff? Is she ok?", he looked at me with genuine concern.
Just then Farah walked up to us, her hand holding on to a little girl who was probably 5-6 years old.
"Komal and Ahad, this is Safaa, and she wanted to show you something", Farah smiled lovingly at that young girl, who suddenly hid behind her legs.
I bent down to the level of the little girl with beautiful green eyes, "It's ok Safaa, you don't have to be shy. What did you want to show us?"
"Rania", she said softly and then looked up at Farah for reassurance.
"Show her Rania...", Farah too crouched next to me, so we were both at eye level with the girl.
Gingerly the little girl pulled out a rag doll from behind her and clutched it against her chest tightly. With little pieces of cotton sticking out from it, the light blue rag doll had buttons for eyes, some yarn for hair and its mouth was made of red thread in a cross-stitch.
"Rania my fweind", the little girl told us emphatically with a smile, and then pulled her hand out of Farah's and ran back to the corner where her other little friends were.
"They are all so freaking adorable!", I couldn't help exclaiming as the little kindergarteners continued to give us apprehensive smiles.
"Aren't they? I'm in love with them already", Farah said as she straightened up.
Ahad had remained quiet till now, but when he spoke I wish I had left him back at the hotel.
"You should get them barbie dolls next time, or I could 3-D print something. Then they won't have to play with these ridiculous homemade dolls", he told Farah, as annoyance visibly clouded her face.
"They are perfectly content with what they have. Perhaps we should learn something from them", she replied to Ahad tersely.
The principal of the school had just come in to tell Farah that some parents had arrived to talk to her about their reservations with the polio vaccine. Rumors about which she had been looking forward to dispel from the local community. Ahad and I followed her out, and took a seat in the corner while she started listening to the parents.
That part wasn't of interest to me, but what was, was my brother's behaviour with Farah. Ahad was a strong-headed man, sometimes to an irritating extent, but he wasn't a jerk.
"What's gotten into you? Why were you being so annoying back there?", I whispered to him.
"What?", he shrugged with a smile, his gaze focused on Farah, "I was just testing her"
Huh? Testing her? For what?
That smile was still on his lips, when he turned to me and quietly said, "She is a pretty impressive woman"
"Why would you say that?", I blurted out immediately, but he had already gotten up and moved closer to her.
Over the next hour I watched Farah expertly counter all the rumors that the parents had heard, and tell them about how the vaccine was made and stored and its side effects. Ahad had gotten bored and came back to sit next to me, and I pushed back that nagging feeling that somehow I wasn't doing what Kamran had asked me to do: Keep Ahad away from her.
There is no way she is Ahad's type anyway
Crisis averted I let my guard down. And after our visit was over, quietly followed Ahad and Farah down the mountain and across the river towards the place where our driver had dropped us off and was going to pick us up again, while the two of them argued over things out of my wheelhouse.
"Eventually everything will be taken over by computers...", Ahad was telling Farah, "Even a physician's job"
"I highly doubt that", she argued back, "And even if that was true, governments would need to introduce some form of universal income"
He scoffed, "Universal income? You mean everyone regardless of their contribution to society gets a set amount of money per month? That's such a dumb idea"
She referred to him as a techie elitist, he told her she was living in a dream world. And I couldn't see how any of this would lead to anything more than Farah getting sick of Ahad's company. So, I got back to thinking about my lack of love life.
I didn't think I was being picky with the men whose rishtas came my way. It was just that they all seemed to see me as a pretty face, but the moment I opened my big mouth they would back away. What was I to do? Ami told me not to be so loud and opinionated all the time, but how was I supposed to change something that was part of my core personality?
Was it too much to ask that someone fall for my personality, as much as my face?
My phone pinged just then with a message. I had expected one from our family asking us where we were, but instead to my surprise and admittedly a bit of excitement, it was from Kamran's roommate, Safdar.
'Hi Komal. Sorry to message you like this. Kamran said it was ok if I got in touch'
Message me like what? Does he want to talk to me? Did Kamran finally get the hint? It's high time he pays me back for keeping his love life alive and well
I almost felt giddy with all the possibilities of what my brother's cool, handsome roommate may want to talk to me about, when a second message came through.
'I have a travel vlog that I try to keep updated as much as possible. I have one on Swat too, but it's about 5 years old. Heard you were there right now. Would it be too much of a bother if I asked you for some updated pictures of the scenery and maybe a video of the main market etc'
His vlog? That's why he wanted to get in touch with me?
Grrreat!
I was too busy rolling my eyes and feeling dejected to notice much my in surrounding. If I had, I would have noticed a little girl with a rag doll run past me as she tried to follow Farah. Then I would have noticed a group of older boys snatch the doll from her and throw it into the river where it got stuck in a floating pile of debri.
By the time I looked up, Ahad and Farah were wildly gesturing to the girl who had climbed onto the rickety, old bridge we had seen on our way to the school, and her little hand was reaching out in an attempt to grab her Rania as the doll floated by.
As horrified as I was at the thought of that little girl injuring herself, nothing would prepare me for the panic that set in when I saw Farah go after the kindergartner, and heard a cracking of wood, a snapping of ropes and a splash into the icy cold, fast flowing water of Swat river.
Then, there was a sinking feeling that I had failed my brother in a way that he had never even considered.
--------------------------
Another cliffhanger! Someone stop me from writing these crazy characters!!
Hope you liked the chapter, and a glimpse into why Kamran and Farah feel the way they do about each other.
And what is going on with Ahad?
Please vote and comment!