The other Half of my Deen

part 8

Zaahir: And take care of yourself and all the girls, keep me updated. Are you sure you can manage?

Nausheen: yes I'm sure.

I just turn around. My cousins came from nowhere. And shagufta (eldest of them) tells Zaahir, "we'll manage and so will Nausheen." I think Zaahir felt embarrassed and left immediately.

I ran upstairs to my room immediately prayed istikharah. And made dua for a very long time. I felt very connected to Allah. Even the fact that he suggested me to do istikharah was so nice of him. All the things after that went on smoothly. I think this is where I went wrong last time. I should have asked Allah to show me the right path. The good thing was that. I felt very good. And very confident. I didn't have any doubts about this.

Four of Zaahir's cousins joined us, Asiya who was the eldest of them, she was 21, Azra who was 16, Anjum 14, and Suha who was just 10. She had threatened Zaahir that if they don't let her come with us to Hyderabad she'd never talk to him again. We were all scared for her. She might suddenly start crying one night, missing her parents or anything. And Hyderabad wasn't too close to Bangalore.

The next few days were busy. Since I was the eldest of all the girls who're going to Hyderabad, I had to make all arrangements. I liked taking responsibilities. Especially now, it was my wedding. I wanted all of them to look extremely beautiful. The day we were leaving, I called Asiya.

We reached the airport Abba Ammi and mamu had come to drop us off. We saw that Asiya and her cousins were already there waiting for us. They had all come with omar and their driver. We all checked in and in less than three hours we reached Hyderabad. The cabbie was there holding the board which had NAUSHEEN written. He kept our luggage in the Innova, which was just enough for 9 of us. I make the Noorain (my youngest cousin 12 years old) in the front seat. Immediately as we settle down I call my auntie who is Abba's cousin, she lived there, and thank god she did, or this trip would have been a dream. I immediately turn on the gps and then Google maps. She had offered to pick us up but I didn't want to trouble them so much. It was almost dinner time when we reached her home. Her home was very beautiful. She had done so many things to decorate it. I could smell the room freshener. I really wanted my house to be just as beautiful as this. The paint, the cleanliness, the fragrance and her welcoming gestures, made me feel at home. I hope Zaahir's cousin felt comfortable too. Auntie had two sons. Their house was a quite big. But, we were lot of girls. I started thinking where we were going to sleep. And it was not just one night that we were going to stay. I didn't want to cause any trouble to auntie. It was 9pm and she called us for dinner. We all sat down in the kitchen, her husband and sons ate in the dining room. I had no idea how big her sons were so we all chose to sit inside. We ate biryani, sheekh kabab and jalebi for dessert. Authentic Hyderabadi cuisine. It was almost 10 when we finished eating and cleaning up. After we finished eating, I saw that Zaahir's cousins got up fast and started helping auntie clean up. I was actually envious. My cousins were still washing hands and Zaahir's cousins had cleaned the place and Asiya was insisting that auntie let her do the dishes. I was surprised. I was so pleased with their behaviour. I elbowed all my cousins and they went running to help. Actually, the house was so pretty no one could stand the untidiness in that place. When all the dishes were done and the place was clean we finally sat down on the couch deciding what to do when. First we needed to buy clothes. With which we could match the jewellery.

Auntie: aren't you all tired and sleepy?

Nausheen: yeah, I guess we should sleep now.

Auntie: come I'll take you to your rooms.

Nausheen: our rooms?

Auntie: just come.

She went out to the top floor. Opened one house and she had arranged for our beds there. One room was for me and my cousins and the other was for Zahir's cousins.