Opened Doors [COMPLETED]

The Brightest Sun- Part 1

War is by far the worst tragedy that can hit a woman, her family and their country at large. It takes away everything she has, either one by one, weakening her with every blow, or all at once, thereby eternally engraving the shapes and curves of its fangs. Oh, It is a pitiful sight to watch her crumble into pieces like fragments of glass. The delicate tears which adorn her face in the darkest of days, shining and sparkling like the stars up in the night sky, find home in those eyes of hers, until she can't cry any longer, and they dry up, rendering her into a deserted being, someone incapable of loving or being loved any longer. She could wish death upon her, but she did not. Because even with nothing left, she had made 'hope' her friend. The 'Hope' that would smile brightly at her even in her darkest days. The 'Hope' that would radiate its warmth even in the coldest of months. The 'Hope' that would linger in her heart, would render her stronger, by each passing day. She would have to live, for the sake of all who were shaheed. She would live for her sons, their sacrifices, their sufferings, their ill-fate. She would live to see the end of this war, the cause her sons had fought for so long. She wanted them to see the end of the war through her eyes, and thus refused to part with her homeland. 

Fariba, she was named. Once known as the most lively woman in the town, now restricts herself to the four walls of her room. All she does is wait, wait for the war to end, wait for the victory of her people, wait for the victory parade, wait to show her sons through her eyes. She kept on waiting, in course of which she lost touch with her people, the few of which consisted of her dear husband and the neglected daughter. Of all the hardships a person had to face, none was more punishing than the simple act of waiting. It punished her, her husband and her daughter, all of them. It dug its fangs deeper than the war did, pushing them apart, creating a gap, a gap of negligence, of unfeathered love. She had been a loving mother all her life, to her sons, both of them, a diligent wife to Hakim, but when it came to her own daughter, all we ever saw was negligence. She had exhausted all the love she bore in them, that she had none left for Laila, or so she thought to reassure her. 

The war. It snatched not just lives, but memories, and love. It took away everything from her, from each one connected with her. It had rendered the family distant and deserted, bereft of love from the mother, the wife. However, 'Hope' still lingered. 'Hope' always found a way to calm down the most tensed moments and provided reassurance that the war would someday end, bringing peace and happiness again. That Afghanistan would be their home again, as they loved to call it. And so they waited, like sunflowers, for the brightest sun to rise again. The brightest. 

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A/N- I just finished reading 'A Thousand Splendid Suns', and I am just shaken by the brutality of the truth so beautifully penned down in the pages. It did not feel like reading, at all. I cried, bawled my eyes out. I felt one with the characters, and henceforth, I would write excerpts on each character I resonate with. It will be like a series. I hope you all liked it, and do read the book by Khaled Hosseini. I promise you will not be disappointed.