Miscellany Of Desi Tadka

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A knock on the kitchen door startled her as she was separating the fresh mint leaves from the rusty ones.

"Assalamu Alaikum! Where are you huh? On earth or flew to Mars!" he appeared from behind astonishing her.

"Walekum Assalam. Obviously, I live on earth, in this very house" she said meekly, adjusting her gaze down.

"Well, you of course look no less than an alien. By the way, do you have to do something like Coronavirus Clinical Trials in your room? Because you are never out of it," he teased her along. She didn't reply, just kept holding her dupatta in a tight grip.

The old Amal was polar to this one. She was feisty, bubbly, crazy, cute and a lovely human, not the dismal that stood in front of him. The old Amal would have tilted her head back laughing, giving him an excellent sarcastic answer at the end.

"Do you even know that I came home yesterday?"

"Yes, I slept early." He tried his best to not release a frustrated gruff.

"So any excuse, why didn't you come today?"

"I was doing this," she pointed out towards the green leaves. He nodded in devastation. He knew it very well she was avoiding him. She felt bad about keeping her marriage a secret, for putting him into haywire because of the fit she had thrown after her husband's death, and importantly she wanted to find an escape from the gazes that were overbearing with each passing cloud. She tucked a strand behind. They stood like this for mere seconds when their mother entered.

"Amal, come with me. I want to talk to you." Faiqa gave a cryptic nod to Wildan.

"Yes, mummy," she replied, keeping the fresh mint in the refrigerator before departing with Faiqa to her room.

Wildan leaned against the kitchen table running a hand through his lustrous raven.

Faiqa took out a flower double-banded ring with a rainbow gem at the center. She forwarded it to Amal.

"Mashallah Mummy, it is so beautiful. Is it yours?" her eyes twinkled like the diamonds embedded in the ring.

"Why don't you try it," Faiqa asked instead of answering.

It accentuated opulently into her ring finger leaving her bereft but soon reality whacked her, dissuading her to keep it for more mere seconds. How can she forget that she was a widow? She gulped the brimming turmoil which was usually shackled free at night.

"I have kept this ring for Wildan's wife," Faiqa said, breaking the silence.

"Oh!" Amal nodded, getting the answer. She was about to remove the ring when her mother asked, "Do you want to keep it?"

"What? Just now you said that it belongs to Wildan's wife then why..."

"Do you want to keep it?"

"Mum..." The derogatory statement let her move back with a few steps, getting a hold of the wall behind. Her eyes started to well up as she shook her head in denial.

"By this, you want to make me atone for my sins."

"But he dotes you, Amal, it is for your best Meri Jaan," Faiqa retorted, trying to reach her but she jerked her hand in front shaking her head violently.

"No mummy stop! What gibberish are you talking about? Stop. Please stop. Do you want him to join in the carnage caused by me? I don't deserve him, mum."

"Trust me, my child, your parents and Salar and-d...and the death of your unborn child was not your fault."

"Then whose? Destiny! Stop selling me lies mum I already know it's me who has consumed them."