TroubleMaker

𝐜𝐡𝐚𝐩𝐭𝐞𝐫 19 :: 𝐎𝐍𝐄 𝐘𝐞𝐚𝐫 𝐩𝐚𝐬𝐬𝐞𝐝...𝐭𝐨 𝐛𝐞 𝐜𝐨𝐧𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐮𝐞𝐝

Just as he closed his eyes, within half a minute a few drops of cold water fell upon his head this time. He sighed and got up again and dragging the bed to another end of the room once again exclaimed,....
“I see, the cracks on the terrace seem to have spread from one end to another.”

Again he lay down and once again water started dripping......on his toe nails!

Dragging the bed room to another corner was not helping in this matters in any way.

Water started dripping again.

Then he realized that the bed was so wet that he could no longer sleep in it.

Mawlana just realized how much trouble he was in......he was an old man in his early 70s', and although staying in the room in the cold floor was risky because of his arthritis,.....but at the same time he was too scared to go out of the room in this big unknown havelli.

but then what would happen if the cracked roof collapsed upon his head ? thinking about the worst possibilities he was scared to death,.....so he opened the door and came out to the verandah.

Though a lantern was lit there, it was pitch dark outside and no one was in sight......obviously last night everyone person was awake in prayer for Laylat al-Qadr and then today they host the iftar party for their known muslim community and for their business associates and the poor.....

so, everyone was dead tired!

The storm continued to rage in full swing accompanied by incessant rain......it was difficult to even stand still without flinching. He did not know in which room the servants slept. He shouted for them,...once but there was no answer.

There was sitting area made of finely crafted wood in one corner of the verandah. The Mawlana sat down there. Though he felt that it was beyond his capacity to do so,...after a whole tiring day, there were no other means left. The cold north wind sprayed some rain water on him and made him shiver with cold. Lifting his feet upon the chair, he pulled both end of his shawl over his body and tried to make himself as comfortable as he could.

Tired after the whole day, his body feeling numb, bitter at heart, with sleepy eyelids, and with the indigestion that had been caused by the rich food and sleepless night, Mawlana was really perturbed.

and as if that wasn’t enough........all of a sudden there was a new botheration. Huge mosquitoes started singing in his ears. Worried about the number of mosquitoes that were attacking him, at first he could not shut his eyes. But within two minutes he realized that the mosquitoes were innumerable. There was no brave man in the world who could counter such an army. The biting became unbearable, as did the scratching.

He quickly left the verandah, but the mosquitoes followed him.....and with that, much to his dismay that army made him take a tour around the whole Havelli.

The water in the room and the mosquitoes outside it really disturbed him. He started flapping his hands and feet, and even tried to hit them with his gamchha ( towel ),

but to no avail!

Running around from one end of the room to another, he perspired a lot even on such a cold night. He felt like shouting at the top of his voice but restrained from committing such a childish act. He imagined that Jubayda amma was fast asleep in her comfortable bed inside a mosquito net and that everyone else in the house was also sleeping peacefully.

Only he had no end to his running about. Somewhere around the havelli a grandfather's clock struck four and resigning himself to his fate he sighed in defeat and said,.....“Go on biting as much as you can – I can’t stand it anymore.”