Happiness is hard to find.
But with them, happiness is just compulsory.
Not always but yes theirs'.
They are everything but fake.
The challenges they face are nothing but challenging.
But the outcomes are always anything but failure.
The busin...
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I did it. I just made them uncomfortable. I should not have done that, but it's done. I have to make up for it. So, I returned to the table with flowers in my hand, namely the blue Iris. I gave it to Bhai and sat in my place. He said "I thought you forgot" giving me a smile. "I almost did" I said widening my eyes and raising eyebrows. "Blue Iris, it looks so beautiful" Shayan commented. "Right?" Bhai asked. "Don't Shayan, Bhai will get started with Iris this, Iris that." I said showing my annoyance. Bhai is very fond of them. He even bought a garden full of Iris plants. We talked about flowers for a while and apparently, Shayan is very interested in flowers. A man who is in the field of finance and is fond of flowers, sounds so perfect. We returned after a few minutes of wandering. Danish didn't say a word. No word at all.
"Ata, I missed you so much" said the lady, who didn't even give me a moment to breathe before pulling me into a tight hug. "Easy Didi" I said. "Zahra, you look so lovely" she said and hugged Di. "Aziz, you look as always" turning to Bhai, she hugged him. She is like this, the second sunshine of our family, after my not so here sister, Aziza. "This is Zoya, our eldest cousin" Bhai introduced her to everyone. "So this is your 'tomorrow to be' fiance. He is handsome." she whispered to me. "I don't see the brat" I said ignoring her words. "Don't call me a brat when you already are one" said Sara in her forever tone. Forever tone means her always talking in a bored and exhausted voice. She always is exhausted, as a doctor should be. "Says who?"I asked her in a mocking tone. "Well Nuha does, right Nuha?" She asked Nuha as if she was a secret witness. "Ata is a spoiled brat, Ata is a spoiled brat" Nuha started singing and Sara joined her. "Nuha, I thought you loved me" I said with a disappointed and betrayed look. "But that doesn't change you for being a brat" Sara jumped in breaking the effect of my words on Nuha. "You both are brats, that too spoiled ones" Zoya Didi said and introduced Sara as her younger sister. "We should go now" she said. "Where to, my dear?" I teased her. "Out obviously, we cannot spend our time in the house, now. Can we?" "First, we can spend our time in the house and second, we can't go now. The elders will arrive soon." Bhai stated. "We can go after they arrive" Nadim said in his excited exploring voice.
They are here. Everyone greeted the elders. I greeted my parents, in-laws and their relatives. Just a few. The last were my grandparents. I took a deep breath, walked towards them, and greeted them. My grandmother looked at me and nodded her head, while my grandfather hugged me and kissed my forehead. "Ata, you grew so fast child. I didn't even realise that have reached the age of marriage." He said with all happiness decorated on his face. I asked him about his and grandmother's well being. "Don't be disappointed. You know her, she is as always" he said and sighed. I looked at her walking in with every one else. "She was so excited for this day, child. She packed all of her favourite stuff. And didn't even sleep the night before." I looked at him and said "Grandfather, you know what today is and all her favourite stuff was bought by Aziza. I have nothing to feel disappointed about. After all Aziza was her beloved granddaughter." He looked at me with pity, which I didn't want. "Well, I am happy you both are here. It's more than what I could ask for." I said giving him my best smile. We joined everyone else. My Aunt, the parent of Zoya Didi and Sara, unfortunately couldn't join us. And Zoya Didi's husband and child also couldn't make it to the ceremony but, they did send us regards. Later, Mother's best friend, Mrs. Haniya and her son joined us. She is an interior designer and works for our company. Qasim, her son is about my age, but we have never been close. We met more than just a few times, but I had been too shy to speak to him and he must have taken me as a weirdo or maybe a nerd or something. These are my people, with just a single close person left out, who I am not sure would join us. I pray he does. We had our lunch and the elders went to rest as it was quiet a long journey for them. And yes, they gave us permission to go out, but asked us to be back before late.
💙
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It's almost time for the sunset and Ata's cousin wanted see it. So here we are, on the mountain. Nuha was standing with me telling a secret about Ata. Everyone was mesmerized by the sunset, including me. It looked beautiful. I was next to her and she looked even more beautiful. So busy looking at the sunset that she forgot to mask her emotions. Eyes shining; almost looked teary, with a natural and pleasant smile she looked like an innocent girl who just saw her favourite stuff toy. I was caught off-guard when she turned her head towards me. Eyes staring in mine. Her lips parted to say something but she never did. Slowly she smiled. She smiled, beautifully, without any fake emotion or expression, without hiding the shine of her eyes. I forgot to look away, just as much as she did. I smiled at her, I didn't intend to, but I did, with every one of my emotions uncovered. She was way too mesmerizing to my eyes. We both looked away with red ears. "Bhai" She called out softly looking elsewhere. I followed her gaze and found a man, not too far from us, looking at the sunset. Aziz walked towards him and hugged the man. Who was he? Ata looked happy seeing him. "Yasir Bhai" she said and hugged as soon as he approached us. "I am so glad to see you here" she said looking more than just happy. "Thank you, my beloved" he said. His beloved? Aziz introduced him as his best friend and family friend. Everyone was very happy about him making it to the engagement, while Zahra, Aziz's wife looked a bit uneasy. When he acknowledged her by saying "Zahra" she nodded and replied to him saying "long time, Yasir." The point is there was some sort of tension between them and unnecessary affection between him and Ata. Nuha was not so happy seeing him, she was standing behind me holding my hand and peeping at them (interaction of her family and the man named Yasir). When we returned, her parents were so pleased to see him, even her grandmother who looked less expressive, said that she was so happy that he joined. My maternal relatives, namely my uncle and his family were also here. He has a daughter, Mariyam who is quite young compared to our age. She was with us during the sunset, I forgot to mention her as I was busy seeing the beautiful sunset. Mariyam is an university student, her parents wanted her to study law as everyone else in the family, but she told them to give her time to think and currently is studying a degree related to literature. I am not so close to her, but Afreen is. "In Aziz's room sharp at 12:30." Ata's cousin, Zoya said without accepting a no or 'I am sleepy' as a reason to not join. Like seriously? I had planned to read some files before sleeping. I didn't want to join, but she warned me with a glare. I joined them, not because I was scared or something, but because I had a change of thought.
It was almost 12:40 now and there were only two missing people. Zoya Didi asked me to call Ata. I knocked on the door and Ata Kahsif answered it after a few moments. "Hey" she said. "Hey" I said. We stayed still for a minute, looking at each other. "Everyone is waiting for you" I said and realisation hit her. "I totally forgot that" she said with wide eyes. I could smell smoke from the room and there was something burning in the balcony. I didn't peep, the door was just wide enough for me to notice, even without wanting to. "Just a moment" she said and walked to close the balcony door and returned with her phones. "Let's go" she said and turned in the opposite direction. I looked at her with raised eyebrow. "Oh Zoya Didi will kill me for being late unless I give her a reason not to." She said. "Which is?" I asked. "Midnight snacks" she said with a proud look. I followed her to the kitchen, trying to make the least noise I could.
"You are late." Zoya Didi said angrily. "I had a reason" she said pointing towards the snacks in my hand. "I won't scold you early in the morning" she said seeing the snacks. "Okay everyone, come on time to begin" she said. "We could have done this in your room rather than mine" Aziz complained. "Don't mind him. Okay here is what we are going to do now" she said.
