"Yeh pehn k ja rahi ho Office?" Her mother spoke seeing her walk into the kitchen area. Shehnaaz was dressed in a yellow suit and a duppata in a similar color. Her hair open, the meenakari jhumka's with purple work in the jhumka's, the make up was pretty much to the point and she looked a little too dressed up for the office.
"Nahi mom, Mayank has a small ceremony at his home, so he's asked me!" She replied. It was almost evening, she had just been back from a client meet and then here she was leaving yet again. Her mother sighed, Shehnaaz was distant, but then it wasn't exactly her mother who had done that. She was angry and rebellious, or maybe she had already had enough with things around her, but then it was her who had left them on her own terms, she was the one who had turned blind eyes to her ailing father, and aging parents. And she had been crude and blunt around it, never even trying to contact them on her own. Had not, Sheeraz's mother purposefully visited Shehnaaz's mother and told her something on the lines of Lata mentioned that she met Shehnaaz, that Sheeraz was friends with some Shehnaaz. Well, precisely speaking Lata had mentioned that Sheeraz was probably having an extra marital affair with a woman, and that the woman was named Shehnaaz. His mother though, did not mention to Parminder that something of that kind was happening, Parminder knew better. She knew her daughter, no she had never seen Shehnaaz being cruel to anyone, but she knew the repressed cold inside her daughter, she knew Shehnaaz was capable of seeking Sheeraz's doom.
"Here!" The woman placed the baking tray on the dining table, "Do you want tomato sauce?" She added placing the chamomile tea, along with the Afghani omlette, Shehnaaz's absolute favorite for years.
"I am not hungry!" ,Shehnaaz replied from the far end of the room, knowing that deep in her heart she was just trying to avoid the woman, maybe she could ignore her and the woman would eventually get tired and walk away.
"Okay, take your bottle!" Parminder pointed to the milton sipper placed at the dining table, while she used a knife and spatula to pull the omlette off the tray.
Shehnaaz took a deep breath, she wasn't used to this. Living with people, getting used to their schedules, making adjustments to seeeing people around her and very importantly, having anyone prepare a meal for her.
"This, here! " the womam forwarded the omlette placed in the plate, as Shehnaaz walked to the dining table.
Shehnaaz looked at the plate, her favorite and absolutely irreplaceable if her mother had made it. She turned her head to face the woman, her eyes locking into the womans. In that moment, just that precise moment, her eyes watered..Her mother should not have made Shehnaaz go through all that she had. An emotionally absent father and an emotionally unstable mother, wasn't something Shehnaaz did survive.
"Have a seat, eat something. You have been working all day!" The woman spoke looking at her daughter. She could see Shehnaaz, she could see all the anger, the resentment in the daughters eyes, but most importantly she could see the tired, exhausted eyes.
The lunch that was happening late in evening went on in silence, the two women didn't dare to break. The clicking of the China to the metal of knife made a strange sound, the silence only meanly covered by the sound of fan.
"I hope you didn't tell your husband that you are visiting me!" Shehnaaz spoke breaking the silence.
"He's your dad, Shae!" She replied. This thing that had started had a small tug of tension had turned into a prolonged conflict.
"Yeah, unfortunately!"
"Hes not keeping well, Shae. He's getting old, he won't be there forever, please leave this.." the woman spoke turning towards Shehnaaz, she looked at Shehnaaz, a young girl, bitter with herself, bitter with life and its experiences. "Whatever has happened isn't worth losing everything over. Your dad is good man, he loves you. He wanted you to study well and reach heights, you are two sisters, it didn't ever matter to him that he could think of a third child and the possibility of it being a boy. All his inheritance is for the two girls of his, he prays for you everyday. "
