Scrambled Tales

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Dono ke dilon mein chhupa hai

Jo ik anjaana sa gham

A SIGH left lips as she looks at the moon, the starry night above the London Bridge. The memories of her father are still there. A gulp.

A little girl of fifteen summers, scared hiding behind the seats, hearing his father scream, "Bahar nahi ana Aarzu" And she didn't.

A gulp.

"Yeh dhokha hai" Her father screamed.

"Riyasat mein sb jaiz hai Aaghir Mirza" And next all she heard was gunshots. Not once but twice.

Two friends died that day. She was there.

And she remembers it all.

"Yaad ati hai apki Baba" She smiled looking at her tiny bump. Four months old tiny bump, her Peanut's abode.

"Kaash ap yaha hote, hum khush hote." A sad smile again.

Sometimes she does wonders what the love for power can make you do, how low one scoop to. Was it worth it all, in the end? Was it worth leaving the loved ones behind? How can a friendship for decades end like that? And whom she was kidding, her brother betrayed her too, her husband did that too. The love for power is precarious, it kills, it end, it ruins lives.

It's been years to the day, she left her soul here, her childhood there, where her Baba breathed his last breath in the shattered heart of betrayals. She had lived life after that but time, that had stopped somehow.

Waqt wahi ruk sa gaya tha uskey lia,

Waqt wahi theher sa gaya tha uskey lia.

"Aarzu?" Zaheer's call brings her back to the present.

"...Ghar chale?" She nodded as she holds his hand. Years of friendship and a decade of companionship had given her this and no matter what, she is going to cherish this, hold on to this.

"You look happy today," She said while walking down the lanes, a hand resting on her little bump.

"Well, I have my reason for that."

"And that is?"

"For starters, I am going to be Chachu soon enough"

"And that's something you know for a month almost." She laughed and so did he.

"And we got the first sonogram" He smiled.

"Zaheer ab sach bhi keh doo"

"Woh ghar jake" She just shakes her head. Her mind going back to the day she got to know about her pregnancy two months back and to say she was not terrified would be a lie. She was but then the feeling of finally having someone for herself is way too overwhelming for, she is going to be a mother, she is going to have a family, finally.

Of course, the thoughts of certain amber eyes, of him taking her baby away was there, but that was way too far for her happiness. For now, she wants to live here, live her happiness with her baby. And having Zaheer always around is just another blessing, that idiot is doing everything that makes her smile stars.