𝗠𝗮𝘀𝗵𝗮𝗹-𝗲-𝗠𝗮𝗵𝘁𝗮𝗮𝗯

حسرتِ عشق ۸۔

کب وہ سنتا ہے کہانی میری
اور پھر وہ بھی زبانی میری

(Kab woh sunta hai kahaani meri
Aur phir woh bhi zubaani meri)

(When does he ever heed my state
And that too when i narrate)

Zaim didn't know when his flight took off. All he felt was numb. His mind couldn't accept the fact that his mother was in the ICU.
He felt guilty and responsible for that.

He felt remorse for telling lies to his mother, about him coming soon.
All he could pray now was to see his mother healthy.

Sometimes life plays an unfair and unpredictable game.

He had tears welled up in his eyes throughout the flight. He had his tongue sticked to the palate and he would occasionally look up so that the tears didn't end up running down his cheeks.

Why is it always that men have to control their emotions in front of everyone?
Why can't they sob in front of everyone in order to remove the weight of their emotions from their shoulders?
They too are humans.
They too feel like crying sometimes.

He gulped down the lump formed in his throat, blinking rapidly.

Sitting on the flight, his life replayed in front of his eyes. How he used to show disdainfulness whenever his mother would do oiling on his scalp.
He being an early teen wouldn't help it too.
How he used to throw unnecessary tantrums whenever green vegetables were made.

He missed his family in those three years but he was selfish. Everyone in their healing process are.

He didn't know when his plane landed. The driver was already waiting for him.

He asked the driver to take him to the hospital directly.

________

اسکو جدا ہوئے بھی زمانہ بہت ہوا
اب کیا کہیں یہ قصہ پرانا بہت ہوا

( usko juda hue bhi zamana bohat hua
Ab kya kahen yeh kissa purana bohat hua)

Zaim ran in the hospital's corridor only to stop there where his father and sister were sitting on the bench outside the ICU.

Listening to someone's heavy footsteps, they both raised their heads.
His father stood up and hugged him while silently sobbing.
Daneen on the other hand, turned her face to the other side, clearly showing her resentment towards him.

All three of them had bloodshot eyes.
There wasn't any exchange of words rather, silence spoke a thousand words.

Zaim had just dozed off sitting on the bench when he woke up due to the chaos in the corridor. He saw some nurses shout and asking for the doctors to come and when they did, his mom was taken to the operation theater in emergency.

Soon a nurse with consent slip came and his father signed it with his shivering hands.

After 6 difficult hours doctors came out of that room and said,

"Congratulations! The operation went well! Her case was a little complicated.
She is out of danger now but these forty-eight hours are critical for her. It is important for her to gain consciousness or else she might go into coma!"

They all released their stuck breath on his first two sentences but their breath was again stuck listening his other sentences.

Zaim rushed towards the mosque with was in the hospital.

He quickly did the ablution and stood on the mussallah.

He offered two nafl and raised his hands in supplication.