Farmeed | One shots

Together Forever!

Umeed was busy staring at the initials of his name hidden in the intricate henna pattern on her hand, with empty eyes sitting on her bed still in the light yellow pishwas she wore today at her very intimate pre-nikkah dholki, when her phone rang. She knew who it was; who else it could be.

“Jee farmaiye kiun baar baar phone karke tang kar rahy hain? Koi kaam waam nahi hain apko?” She picked up the call, after ignoring it for quite some time.

“Kaam hee tou kar raha hoon, apni hony wali begum se baat karne se zyada zaroori kaam bhi bhala koi hosakta hai? Or tum mera phone kiun nahi utha rahi thi?” He asked out of concern.

“Main aap ki tarah farigh nahi hoon naa, buhat kaam hain mujhy. Ab aap phone rakhein, hum baad main baat karen gy.” This was the only excuse she could come up with at the spot to hang up the call, or she’d have ended up transferring all the emotional baggage she was carrying, to him, ruining his happiest day; that’s what she thought to herself.

“Kaam mujh se zyada zaroori hain?” He replied, though he had sensed that her voice wasn’t chirpy and happy like it always used to be with him.

“Farjaad mai aap se baad main baat karoon gi.” She clearly wasn’t in her best state of mind to talk.

“Umeed tum theek ho?” His protective instinct told him that maybe something is wrong with her.

“Jee main bilkul theek hoon, bas thak gayi hoon sony lagi hoon. Aap bhi sojayen, subah milty hain, Insha’Allah!” She tried to cover up. She didn’t want to affect his happiness in any way.

“Insha’Allah!”

The call ended. She was about to lock her phone and throw it away when it vibrated again.

“I love you dear wife-to-be.” She smiled seeing this text despite not wanting to. He clearly knew how to make her smile even in the most awful of times. She loved this thing about him. The effect he had on her was something she was unable to truly comprehend, but enjoyed and loved every bit of it.

“Wife-to-be loves you too, shohar sahab!” She replied, smiling and turned off her phone, going back into the whirlpool of emotions which his text got her out of.

☆☆☆

This time was supposed to be the happiest time of her life. She was finally getting the love and support she yearned for all her life. But her happiness felt incomplete without the presence of the most important person of her life, the person who loved her the most in this whole wide world, the person whom she loved the most in this whole world, the person little Umeed would run up to to share every little joy and every minor inconvenience, the person whose departure left an eternal void in her life; her mother.

The last time she missed her mother this bad was years ago when Pasha Sab scolded 8 years old Umeed for not eating the food that chaachi made and demanding something else that she liked saying “Tumhari maa nahi hai ab jo tumhary nakhry uthaye. Jo mil raha hai chup chaap khaa lo”.

The realization of this harsh reality made baby Umeed cry for days, until she learned how to live with this void, until she built those walls around her. Today it felt like reliving that pain again. All this while, she thought her wounds had healed, until today when they started hurting again. That is how it is, time does not heal the wounds, it just makes you used to them. And a single trigger throws you back in the same pain you thought you had overcome.

It wasn’t that she wasn’t happy but the fact that the most important person in her life wouldn’t be there at the most important moment of her life was making her feel that excruciating pain which couldn’t be described in words. She would give up anything in that moment to experience that one warm hug and duaas of her mother. She did not want to start her new life on a sad note, but missing her mother wasn’t something she could control.