Ye Dil Mera

•| Tears and Truths |•

Klaxons of blaring truth rang in his ears, as a strange numbness blanketed his entire body, the chill of which spread through his heart freezing the blood running through his veins. Ripples of pure cold terror made him shiver, buckling his knees as he fell to the ground. Everything around him was blurry, he could hear faint voices, panicked whispers but he couldn't hear anything, an unfamiliar female voice rang in his ears as his brain repeated the words he heard earlier...

Aina is dying!

Amaan felt his head spin, his knees buckle, as the man with compassionate gaze Adil? Akhil? Ahil... Yes, Ahil held onto him. He looked at his wife's friend with blank eyes as the words of the doctor echoed in his mind: "Prolonged drug abuse has poisoned her blood, the effect of which has been escalated due to her bloodstream being contaminated by a foreign rusty object," the unclean candle stand Aina used to repeatedly stab herself, Amaan's mind supplied immediately, making him shudder rather violently, the words of the doctor, her suicide attempt colliding viciously against each other creating a maddening cacophony, in the despair of which Amaan sank and sank...

"Jaante ho Amaan, bohot roney ke baad, bohot dard ke baad: ab main pur sukoon hoon. Tumhe yaad hai tum kehte they tumhe kisi cheez se darr nahi lagta? Mujhe lagta hai... Main jhooth nahi bolongi, bohot si cheezon se mujhe aaj bhi darr lagta hai, jaise bugs se, band kamro se, tumhe khone sey... Par jante ho kis cheez se ab aur darr nahi lagta? Maut se! Pata hai kya maine na Azrael se dosti karli hi hai, so darr bhaag gaya! Aur sahi bataun toh ek ajeeb faraghat hai. Pata hai kyun? Kyunki sahi mayine mein mere maut se hi tumhara badla pura hoga. Jiss aadmi ne tumse tumhara sab kuch chhin liya uska nasl mere saath mit jayega!!"

Words uttered by his Aina, a few hours back, cut through the cacophony with precise sharpness, making him scream till his voice got raw, and black spots danced before his wet eyes, making him pass out in pure agony, scaring poor Ahil out of his wits!

***********

It had been a year since Ahil Omar has reunited with his childhood bestfriend; his wife, their common friend, Arya, being a teacher in Daryabagh Academy for Learning, a school that his Noorey had opened to atone for the sins committed by her father, the malevolent Mir Farooq Zaman... After the initial confusion and haze of Aina, they rekindled the bond, and slipped into their old rhythm with ease, their conversations flowing like sparkling stream. They laughed together, finishing each other's sentences, and shared knowing glances that comes when they recall some especially fond quirks of each other that remained unchanged over the years, they grew so thick infact that one could hardly tell that the childhood best friends had spent two decades apart from each other!

As the conversations flowed more, they drifted from childhood horror stories to marriage and commitment, Ahil got to know of Aina's tumultuous married life with her husband, and honestly didn't know what to make out of Amaan Ullah, his Amaan Jiju as Noorey insists him to address Mister Khan as, when he first heard the tale of his deceit, then again he shuddered imagining the visual of seeing his entire family being brutally murdered before his own eyes, while they went out to celebrate his upcoming birthday! Ahil couldn't fault the man for seeking revenge but neither could he forgive him for toying with his Noorey's feelings! Then he talked to him for the first time on call 10 hours back, heaven knows how reigning in his own squeamish.

10 hours later, as he is seated beside Amaan Jiju, tending to the unconscious man, who is writhing and whimpering even in his sleep, Ahil can see a naked truth as clear as day: Amaan Jiju loves his Noorey with an intensity that is both frightening and intriguing, and for the first time in years he prays to God:

"Ya mere Malik tu toh azeem hai, andhere ke baad ujala tu hi ata karta hai, aziyaton ke baad sukoon bhi tu hi dilata hai: toh mere pardirgar tune in do masoom ke kismat mein itney kaante kyun bichaye hai? Mere dost aur uske shauhar ko unke hisse ka khushiyan de de. Unke zindagi mein mohabbat aur sukoon ka izafa farma, unke dil mein sukoon aur itminaan ata farma. Unke kadam mein rehmat aur barkat ki nazil farma mere khuda... Aameen!"