The Man And The Conspicuous Lady

CHAPTER 1

*alarm beeps*

It is 6:30 in the morning and Saad wakes up from his sleep, groaning and quite displeased that it's morning already. He switches off the alarm clock and lays his head back on the pillow agonising over the fact that he weekend was over and he has to get back to work. He couldn't get a proper sleep last night over the ruckus caused by his parents in their house. He regretted going over to their place especially when his siblings, Abdul and Waleed were there because he knew what was gonna happen. His thoughts were going back to last night's incident as he slowly started drowsing back.....

LAST NIGHT 10:00 PM (SAAD'S PARENTS' HOUSE)

Saad's parents, Zayed and Zainab and his elder brother Abdul and younger brother Waleed were seated at the dining table along with Abdul's wife, Rani and Waleed's wife Shifa. Abdul is a 37 year old Ophthalmologist who along with his wife Rani owned an eye clinic. They both worked there and met each other during their university years. They had both fallen in love and got married while they were both still studying all thanks to their Abdul's parents who helped him and Rani with their university fees. They both have a successful, reputed and well paying career as ophthalmologists and as businesspersons. They both have 2 children Amira and Shahid who had already had their dinner with their cousin brother and Waleed's son, Shaheen and had fallen asleep in the upstairs bedroom after a long and tiring day of playing and jumping around. Waleed, a 27 year old handsome man and the youngest son of Zayed and Zainab took care of the family's businesses which included several buildings which were rented out to potential tenants, 2 jewellery stores and a hotel close to the airport which was mostly booked by tourists and flight attendants. He manages the family business along with his wife Shifa who herself owns many properties of her own and is a stay at home mom for now since she is pregnant with her second child. Waleed met Shifa through a mutual friend right after he graduated with a degree in accountancy. Shifa was studying business administration at the time and they both married a year after they met. Although Zainab and Zayed distributed most of their properties equally amongst their children, Waleed and Shifa are the ones in the family with the most knowledge in business, even more knowledgeable than Abdul and Rani, because of which they have built a good fortune, bought more properties of their own and lives in a house much more bigger and luxurious than their parents' and Abdul's.

As for Saad, his life didn't quite exactly turn out well. He has a degree in theatre, which was obviously not approved by his parents because they thought there was no scope in it. He had always been a confused man not knowing what to do in his life. He had once been married to his high school sweetheart but the relationship didn't turn out well and he had lost a lot of his property, all thanks to the divorce and also to his non existant knowledge regarding business. He lives in a one bedroom apartment and had been changing from one job to another till he settled down for this job as a salesperson. Of course, the fact that he belongs to a South Asian family and that he is divorced and not rich like his siblings, he received a lot of criticisms from his family.

The entire family sat down for dinner. The food smelled good. There was meat curry with potatoes, "pulao", chicken roast, fried eggs and eggplants and "kheer" for dessert. While everyone started eating, they discussed about what was happening around. "Did you see Sara's new diamond set?" "Have you seen Kyle's new car?" "I heard Preeti's daughter failed her class." And there was a lot and lot of gossip going around the table. Nothing new in a desi household. Saad was quietly eating his food when suddenly, Shifa brought up this topic of her neighbour's divorce. Saad knew what was going to happen. He desperately wanted everyone to stay silent and eat their food. But......
"Well, you neighbour was bound to get divorced. After all, didn't she elope and got married? Just like Saad did? And look what happened." Saad's father Zayed said these words. Saad tried to keep calm and continued eating. There was some sort of uneasiness at the table. Then Zainab continued, " I know right. It was bound to happen. We warned him though. But of course. He's your son after all. Why would he listen to his parents who have lived for years and are more experienced in these matters."

Zayed said "And also the fact that YOUR SON lost all of the properties that we gave him and to top it all up, wasted our hard earned money on some useless degree. Saad, had you listened to us and studied medicine just like your brother did, took good care of our properties and married a good girl, then today you wouldn't have been the huge gossip in our friends and family circle and worked as a mere salesman."

Now that was it. Saad had lost his temper. He slammed his hands on the table, got up aggressively and threw his plate at the other side of the room. The ladies shrieked in terror the men got up, shocked but not surprised. This wasn't his first time getting a fit of rage. Saad started shouting at his parents.
"So you brought me ALL THE WAY over here to TAUNT ME? If you hate me so much and if you're embarrassed to be my father, why don't you just give up all contact with me and LEAVE ME ALONE!!!"

His father retaliated "OH RIGHT! GIVE UP ALL CONTACT WITH YOU. You should be grateful that EVEN TO THIS DAY, after ALL that you have done, we STILL keep contact with you. After ALL the money that you have wasted on that USELESS SO CALLED DEGREE of yours, after losing our properties that your mother and I worked SO HARD to keep and after marrying that LOVE OF YOURS, NO ONE IN THIS WORLD WOULD WANT TO BE YOUR PARENT OR YOUR SIBLING. Inspite of that, we never broke the bond that we had. The least that you could do was to be thankful that we still consider you as our son. AND THIS IS HOW YOU TREAT YOUR PARENTS!!! HOW DISGRACEFUL! HOW LOW COULD YOU STOOP!! THE AUDACITY YOU HAVE!!!"
This angered Saad even more and he banged his hands on the table again and threw down the cutleries on the table. Rani spoke up calmly, "Saad, just stop for God's sake. Please keep calm and don't shout. They are your parents after all. And look at poor Shifa. She's pregnant. And all this ruckus is scaring her." Shifa was trembling in fear on her chair. "Oh Lord! Help us" Shifa said putting a hand on her chest. Saad knew for a fact that she's pretending to be afraid. Shifa has been known for not only being pretentious but also mean. She would occasionally make fun of people's looks, money and what not. On one occasion, during her first baby shower when she was pregnant with Shaheen, she had indirectly made fun of Saad's gift. He had gifted her a small gold chain and a pair of gold earrings while all other friends and relatives had gifted her designer dresses and heavy, shining jewellery since they were all well off. Even Zainab wasn't a big fan of Shifa but since she has helped Waleed a lot in the family business and was herself well off, Zainab had never complained much about her. She had also brought it upon herself to take care of her children and mostly being a housewife unlike Rani who works most of the time leaving the kids with family members to take care of. Even though Zainab despises Shifa's character, she likes her for being a dedicated mother and housewife just like Zainab had been years ago when she had married Zayed and left her job as a school teacher.
Saad started glaring at his father angrily and said, "You know what? It's not worth it ruining my mental peace over people like you. I would much rather go back to my small, rented apartment than get insulted in this big hell which you call a house." Saying this, he left without saying goodbye to anyone.