Winged Dreams

Chapter 3: The Wingless Fairy

19th September, 2015

The Messenger of Allah said:

"Allah has not Sent down a disease except that He Has also Sent down its cure."

(Bukhari and Muslim)

Chapter 3:

The Wingless Fairy

"We sell these pens at traffic signals so we can save money for school which we wish to attend one day. The other children laugh at us, but this is our only option."

"And why do you want to go to school?"

"So that we can become something in life and afford a house with a roof that does not threaten to fall over our heads."

"And then we will take Mama away from Baba and she won't have to receive his spanks every time he comes home drunk."

"And Mahalakshmi, what makes you want to go to school?"

"I want to go to school so that I can stand on my own feet and feed my sick parents and four younger siblings. I want to be educated so I will no more have to sell my body every night to a new man, and instead be able to find a respectful job."

Bilal and Naila sighed as they went through the recordings of the children from the slums. It was supposed to be a part of the documentary film that Bilal's team was going to make to raise funds for the school that was now under construction. The youngsters in this group were not full time social workers. Bilal had his steady job and so did all the other guys, but with the urge to help out those less privileged than them, they were working towards change. Most of them came from good families who had realized that the food on their plate was a dream of a starving person. And so, they worked towards doing the little they could.

It wasn't fair, Bilal always thought. He especially felt for little children who were forced to lose the essence of their joyful years. It wasn't fair that these children had to trade their childhood, witnessing such inhumane conditions at home and working under the sweltering sun on bare feet, in exchange for the money that wouldn't even last long. He wanted to educate every child on this planet, he believed education would give them the wings to strive for a better tomorrow.

And with this school project, this is what he aimed to achieve. While Bilal thought he wasn't doing anything great by this, every other person who heard about him thought otherwise.

And that is what the world had come to. What one person thought was his duty, the act was so rare that the other person looked at it as a wonder.

"You sure you don't want to go home first?" Naila asked as Bilal started editing the videos while immersed in thoughts. The two siblings had just landed from their 9 a.m. flight and instead of heading home, they were seated in their car as the driver drove them to the hospital directly from the airport.

"I don't want to keep Anam waiting for long," he replied thinking of the adorable little girl who was Shakeel's daughter. Both their families were very close friends and the news of Anam's leukemia had left them devastated. Her wish was their command, and when Anam said she wanted Bilal to get her a stuffed teddy bear and pastries from her favorite pastry house in Mumbai, it went without saying that her wish was soon going to be fulfilled.

"When you were buying that many pastries, for a minute I thought you were going to gift them all to me," Naila sighed dramatically and hoped Bilal would let her eat at least one already. "Can you believe how happy I felt at that thought?"

"You see that yellow thing in the sky? The world revolves around that and not you, Naila. Why would you even think I would buy you that many pastries?" Bilal joked and Naila narrowed her eyes at her brother's reply.