BEYOND THE REALMS #wattys2018

Chapter 22

After breakfast, Zainab told Nazifa to show the house to Alisa, and take her outside. In truth Zainab wanted Alisa to forget the pain that was clearly evident in her eyes, despite her desperate attempts to hide it. She could sense some un-easiness in Alisa and she wanted to divert her mind. Nazifa was more than happy to oblige because of the fact that she had got a company in Alisa and she had liked her from the first instance; secondly it was her chance to go out... she had already been thinking to go to the market nearby, because although Narauli is a village, but it's one and only market is actually quite fun, and Nazifa never missed fun. So she happily told her plan to her mother and Alisa, and they both agreed with her.

After breakfast, Alisa helped Nazifa and Zainab in clearing the table, and then Nazifa took her to the top floor of the house, because Alisa had seen only the ground floor and the courtyard. When they reached upstairs, there was a huge hall, and along its side walls, were shelves, carrying easily thousands of books. Nazifa told Alisa that Zayn and their father was fond of reading, hence there was a huge collection of books in their house. A recliner chair and a small coffee table were placed in one corner. Opposite to the book shelves were two rooms side by side. Nazifa told Alisa that one room belonged to Zayn and the other to her. She took her to her room first. The walls were of baked bricks like that of the whole house, but her room was decorated with bright colors...exactly as per her personality. The tapestries were orange and red. In the center of the room, there was a queen sized, four poster, wrought iron bed with a canopy. The canopy was made of white net with golden thread work. The bed spread was in orange and red colors too, going along with the overall theme of her room. On one side was her dressing table, and it was the most cluttered dressing tables that Alisa had ever seen! There was everything-from lip colors to nail paints to perfumes to hair products...on the table...It looked as if everything was trying to find a little space in that clutter!

In one end of the room, there was a writing desk and all Alisa could see were notes, files, text books and stationery items jumbled up on that table. Nazifa saw her widened eyes and laughed heartily and told her that she could not study without such chaos! Her ability to laugh at herself made Alisa smile too.

Then Nazifa took her to Zayn's room. Alisa found herself a little hesitant before entering his room, but Nazifa tugged her along. The first thing that hit her senses was the fragrance of the exotic masculine perfume, that Zayn was apparently fond of wearing, lingering in the air even after hours of his departure from the room. Zayn's room was exactly the opposite of Nazifa's room. It was very simply decorated. His tapestries were white and fawn colored, his bed was of plain dark wood. On one side, there was a small dressing room which led to his bathroom. Unlike Nazifa's, his dressing table had just two or three items. There was a cozy couch lying near the window niche and a small coffee table was in front of it. On the wall facing the couch was a mounted T.V. screen.

Alisa found everything from their furniture to tapestries to even bed covers as very modern in comparison to the old settings of the house. When she commented on that, Nazifa told her,

"The house was re-furbished when Zayn bhaiyyu came back to live here."

When Alisa looked at her questioningly, Nazifa continued,

"Actually Zayn bhaiyyu went to New Delhi to study, and later he was all set to leave India and go to USA where he wanted to do Masters and settle down. But our father got ill and he had to return here and take over his business. So when he made up his mind to live here, he wanted to change the look of the house, since he had developed the taste of big city houses and also because he's quite artistic, so he re-decorated the entire house keeping in mind the taste and choice of each of us." And then she smiled and said,

"Alisa, he is a multi-talented person. He's actually a mechanical engineer but he runs the farming business efficiently and the way he decorated our house, people loved it. Vishu bhai also got his office and house decorated by him. Bhaiyyu sometimes say that he will start it as a business...you know...decorating people's houses." Nazifa finished, her voice and smile indicating her pride for her brother. Alisa smiled, her eyes shining with a reluctant admiration and then Nazifa took her hand and led her out of the room. There was another smaller hall which had a small kitchenette on one corner, and crossing that hall, they came out on the terrace. It was huge...the floor was of bricks and there was a lounging chair and a low table lying there. On one corner, there were some plants and a rope running from one end to the other, with small plastic colorful pegs hanging on it. It was for drying the clothes after they were washed. Nazifa took her towards the railing and pointed down. They were exactly above the courtyard of their house and Alisa could see a maid, clad in sari, washing dishes in the hose downstairs. And then her gaze shifted to her right and she saw green fields that were outside the house. Her gaze followed the outer main gate and she saw another courtyard... massive and huge... Nazifa saw where she was looking and pointed towards it,

"That is Hafeez Manzil, Alisa." Alisa's eyes widened at the size of that courtyard! It was so big that it could accommodate three badminton courts in it!

She was looking towards the courtyard of Hafeez Manzil when she had an uneasy feeling that she was being watched. A tingle crept up her spine, making her feel suddenly chilled, and she jerked back her gaze and looked here and there, but there was no one beside Nazifa....and Nazifa's eyes were riveted on the Hafeez Manzil too...

She looked down; there was only the maid who was working on the dishes diligently and her eyes were not watching Alisa...she most probably didn't even know that there was anyone upstairs in the terrace. Alisa felt strange, she tried to take it as her vagary and swiftly got away from the railing and turned around. Her gaze caught the lounging chair and table and Nazifa, who had followed her, told her that it was Zayn's chair and that he loved to come and sit there in the nights. Alisa recalled that last night also, Zayn mentioned that he was here...

Seeing Alisa's frown and her thoughtful expression, Nazifa shook her shoulder and brought her back in the present. After a little while, they decided to go back downstairs.