Light Upon Light

#41 The Reality Check

السلام عليكم ورحمته الله وبركاته

Hey folks. This chapter took a long time to come out. Writer's block at its finest. It might seem a little fillerish. But do tell me what you think.

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#41 The Reality Check

Two weeks at Nani's went by faster than I thought it would. Di and I had a pleasant stay at Dar-e-Rahma, with lots of girl time, Nani's mission Fatten Juni and Nanu's talks on getting a headstart on career guidance. We occupied the room I stayed in when I came to Dar-e-Rahma initially. The mix of white vintage furniture with antique browns, pale curtains and that adorable little desk by the window was my quarters away from my room at Ashiana. Di fell in love with the room at first sight as well.

Safa and Sana were a riot to hangout with. They kept dragging us out every other day to their favorite haunts in town. There was a new coffee joint which had opened right next to Mamu's old fashioned bookstore. I loved spending time in the latter and got a few titles to add to my growing collection of books. While Di enjoyed chit chat with my cousins, I took to frequenting Nanu's quaint little library. The room occupied almost one whole length of the ground floor at Dar-e-Rahma. Three walls of the room were lined with towering heavy wooden book shelves bolted to the floor that ended at the ceiling. The fourth wall had a beautiful distribution of bay windows which lit up the room. Nanu has his office in between two of those windows at the far end of the room. The others had comfy chairs placed beneath them, making for ideal reading spots.

'Always holed up in here, just like your Nanu,' complained Nani one day when she found me dozing on a chair with my legs thrown over an arm and a fluffy cushion propping my head up on the other. My history text had fallen on the carpeted floor.

Throughout our stay Di and I were never left to ourselves for a minute. We only went up to the bedroom to sleep and change our outfits when required. The kitchen and courtyard were the centers of activity with the women moving from one to the other between mealtimes. Nanu was usually in his library when home and Mamu left early and returned late. Dar-e-Rahma was home to the women and even Di didn't fuss with hijab as she normally did in Ashiana. Evenings were for games of badminton and Mami was a star player.

Di was left with me only at night and I had a sneaky suspicion she was taking every measure to discontinue our interrupted conversation. Three days into our stay and Di's evasive tactics still in play, I was tired of finding a moment to have a private talk with her. I decided to turn to my trusty elder brother for advice and information.

Pleasantries aside, I jumped into the subject on our Skype call. I was isolated in the library, Nanu had lectures and nobody else turned up in here.

'When did you last talk to Bhai?'

'Last night. Why?' Samir's tone instantly morphed into one of morbid curiosity.

I explained the little tension between Di and Bhai that took place the day we came here. And also the conversation Di and I had which was never completed. And the way Di had snapped at Samar and  me. Samir listened in silence until I was done with my rants.

'Chill Juni! Relax … what if you're making it all up in that crazy head of yours?'

' Samir!' I whined stamping my foot on the carpet, narrowly missing a painful stubbing of my toe on the strong wooden edge of a shelf.

'Sorry sorry. Couldn't resist taking a dig at your craziness. But your intuition is probably right. Shoaib didn't mention anything to me though. So you can rest assured that I have no secrets to spill.'