FATE
Murtasim had believed fate was cruel when he had his passion for photography snatched away from him for responsibilities he never wanted.
But he accepted it.
Fate, he called it.
Cruel, cruel fate.
He thought that was the most pain he'd ever feel. But boy was he wrong. For fate had decided it would be cruel to him once again.
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As Murtasim walked out of the panchayat meeting, he immediately snapped out of work mode, returning to his usual sulking mood as his face fell and his shoulders dropped. The stiff shoulders of his neatly ironed double breasted blazer did nothing to conceal his slumped posture as he walked to his car, his mind blank.
Bakhtu waited outside for his maalik to drive him home but Murtasim wasn't looking forward to it. That was how it had been for the past 7 months since Meerab left. Without any explanation, without any last words. Just one night of fierce passion shared between them and then she was gone, disappearing into thin air, nowhere to be found almost as if she never existed.
But she was real and she was his and will always be his and he firmly believed that. His Meerab. Murtasim ki Meerab. She would return one day he always told himself. That was the hope he clung to desperately like a struggling fish out of water, like a dying man gasping for air.
When she left, she took his spark with him. The spark that made him not Murtasim Khan but just Murtasim. Her Murtasim. Meerab ka Murtasim. He not only lost the shine in his eyes, he lost interest in life. He felt as if he had no purpose, no reason to live. He was a walking, talking, breathing man on the outside. But on the inside he was dead. He was empty. His soul was lost. Meerab had taken it with her when she left.
The last time he felt this empty inside was when he voiced his wish to become an international wildlife photographer in front of his parents and they had cruelly denied him the pleasure, his sick father and stressed mother guilt tripping him into giving up his dreams for the gaddi he was born to inherit.
He had somehow managed to fill that void by trying to have an optimistic outlook on life and convince himself that a feudal lord was who he was born to be. So he vowed to be the best one there ever was. That was the rise of Khan Murtasim Khan. The ruler, the protecter of his lands and his people. Their saviour and their hope. He was almost the equivalent of a God to his people.
Now he felt that void again. But this time it was different. It felt like uncharted territory which he had unintentionally trespassed into. It had felt that way for the past 7 months. A deep never ending chasm in the centre of his chest that only his Meerab could fill.
He silently sat in the car, letting Bakhtu close the door behind him before they drove off. He didn't look forward to going home for he believed he had no one to return home to.
Meerab was his home. His home was where she was and she was gone. It was now just a house made of bricks like all the other houses and a bunch of people that shared blood relations with him resided in that house along with him. But that's all it was to him now, a house.
Home is where the heart is. And his heart belonged to Meerab. And she was nowhere.
He snapped out of his thoughts when his phone rang, the ringtone echoing through the silent car as an unknown number flashed on the screen.
His eyebrows furrowed as he tried to recognise the number but failed, his thumb swiping across the screen accepting the call, he held the phone up to his ear and spoke, "Hello?"
"Uh hello-Asalam o Alaikum-aap Murtasim Khan baat kar rahe hou?" A frantic voice was heard through his phone, panic evident in their tone causing him to furrow his eyebrows in confusion.
"Wa alaikum as Salam, jee mai hi houn. Aap kon?" He spoke with a heavy voice, his demeanour changing as his mind assumed it had something to do with business. But it didn't. In-fact it was the last thing he expected it to be.
"Kh-Khan sahab mai Farukh baat kar raha houn-Farukh Dil" the man on the other side spoke with panic causing further confusion in Murtasim's mind as he tried to remember if he knew a Farukh Dil but failed to do so.
"Sorry, mai aap ko nahi janta" he spoke through the phone. He could hear shuffling and blurry voices on the other side. It sounded like the other man was standing in a public place.
"Khan Sahab aap ko yaad hai kuch mahine pehle aap hamara ghar aya tha. Police ke sath. Aap ne hamara ghar ka talaashi lia tha? Woh-woh eik prescription bhi aap ko mila tha aap ne hum se poocha tha ye kis ka hai tou hum ne kaha tha ke hamara biwi ka hai woh naraaz hou ke chali gayi hai?" Farukh spoke hurriedly and Murtasim immediately recalled that day, the memory of the event still fresh in his mind as if it was yesterday.
He remembered the atmosphere in that house. It was chilling. Not literally but metaphorically. To this day he couldn't figure out why he felt what he did in that house but for some reason still unknown to him, his heart screamed that Meerab was there. And she was indeed. So close to him, only a wall separating them. So close yet so far. He just didn't know it.
Why was this man calling him? How did he get this number? Why was his heart telling him to suspect something he didn't want to?
All these questions rang through Murtasim's brain as he spoke, "Jee yaad agaya. Lekin aap mujhe kyun call kar rahe hain? Aur mera number kahan se mila aap ko?" He asked with a tone that demanded answers. But the answer shook him down to the core.
"Saba baji ke ghar se"
"Saba ke ghar se? Kya mutlab hai?" He wasn't prepared for that answer. The words had blindsided him.
Did this man have anything to do with Meerab? Did he know her? Did he know where she was? Had she been with him all along? Why? Where had she been? Where had they been?
"Jee woh unke naukar ne unse contact kar ke aap ka number dilwa dia. Khan Sahab aap ko Karachi aana hoga. Meerab-Meerab hospital mei hai uss ka tabiyat boht ziada kharab hai Khan Sahab. Aap please ajayein, aap ka boht zarurat hai yahan pe." Farukh begged over the phone. His voice sounded desperate, in need of immediate help and he begged him as if Murtasim was the solution to all the problems.
"Meerab..." Murtasim felt like a heavy weight had been placed on his chest as he breathed out her name. Even Bakhtu's ears perked up from where he was sat in the driver's seat at the mention of her, his eyes glancing at Murtasim in the rear view mirror and he noticed the startled expression on his face.
"Meerab kahan hai?" Murtasim's voice choked as he asked the question.
"Usko operation theatre mei le ke gaye hain, Khan" Farukh spoke lowly, the worry etched in his voice and Murtasim felt it through the phone, his heart beat rising rapidly with each word.
Meerab. Hospital. Tabiyat kharab. Operation Theatre. Karachi.
The words rang through his brain like a wild storm and all he could think about was Meerab.
"Kya hua hai usko" he nearly shouted in the phone and Farukh winced on the other side, pulling his phone away from his ear as the sharp voice nearly pierced his eardrum. His own heartbeat quickened as he braced himself, preparing to tell Murtasim the truth that had been kept from him for far too long now.
It had to be done. He needed to know. It was wrong to hide it from him now. It had been wrong even then when Meerab found out but begged him to say nothing even as Murtasim searched the house for her while she hid behind a wall and saw him struggling for her. Because of her.
After what felt like a never ending silence and a test of Murtasim's patience, Farukh finally mustered up the courage to say the words that changed Murtasim's life forever, "Aap baap banne wale hain Khan!"
The world seemed to spin around him, the air knocked out of him as Murtasim froze in his seat, Bakhtu glancing worriedly at his maalik through the rear view mirror. Murtasim didn't even realise when he had pulled over and turned around to ask him what was wrong.
He lost all ability to think or make sense as the words rang in his ears.
Aap baap banne wale hain Khan.
The sentence replayed in his mind, the words ringing in his ears even as Farukh chimed his name worriedly over and over through the phone. At the fifth call of his name he snapped out of his shocked state albeit only slightly as his heart hammered in his chest.
Aap baap banne wale hain Khan.
"Khan Sahab?"
"Hospital ka naam batao mai araha houn Karachi!" was the last thing he said and Farukh hurriedly told him the name before the call ended and Bakhtu was ordered to drive to Karachi as fast as possible.
"Khairiyat Maalik?" Bakhtu asked, his voice laced with a mixture of concern and confusion and Murtasim breathed heavily, the interior of the car suddenly feeling suffocating, his response shocking Bakhtu the same way it had shocked him.
"Meerab mil gayi."
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Remember this is an AU but beware that it's a sad one so grab your tissues coz y'all are about to go an emotional rollercoaster like never before. You've been warned!