Aangan - Hari Hari (Discontinued)

Alvida Part 4

It was a usual day in the house with Dadi just shouting randomly on everyone and Jameel Ji trying to find Aliya everywhere. When suddenly Jameel ji had come up to me with rage in his eyes asking me to come upstairs and I did. First thing he said was that Aliya rejected him because of me and all I could mutter was its not my concern. And the next thing I know is I'm pinned to the wall with his hand around my neck telling me how he never loved me .At that point God knows how I got the strength to look him in the eye and tell him that I loved him.Just looking into his eyes and not seeing that love just bought tears out of my no matter how hard I tried not to and at that moment I swear his face changed as if realising what he was doing and he took his hand off so quickly as if it burned.I though maybe he did love me as he could not bear whenever he would see my tears but right at that moment he told me to stop being dramatic in front of Aliya and stop lying to her as well. There I was again with my heart at his expense.

If all this was not enough my chacha came all angry talking about how my Aba was a thief and cheat , how he stole their money and now when they need him he's more busy in buying stuff for his new wife while he should be thankful of him to keep his daughter -me here. A week after that I saw my Aba arrive .I just looked at him and had these mixed feelings , do I cry , laugh, shout , get angry or hug him.And I went with the latter , I ran towards him , but he just raised his hand and asked me where my chacha was , he not once spared a glance at me . After that it was just them loosing all their dignity and taking digs at each other . All the family was gathered in the aangan listening to this circus , suddenly Aba comes out and say "chammi you will now stay here even for another minute" , I felt as if I stopped breathing but I think I was maybe happy but still somewhere in my heart I wanted my family to protest and tell my Aba no she's our kid but off course no one even made a sound.

I had 20 minutes to pack and Aliya came to help me , she hugged me and said she would miss me and I told her I would too. I was walking out when I heard Jameel ji shout wait and I turned so fast that my neck could have snapped , he handed me a green diary and said you left this. This was the diary I gave him with the poetry I wrote for him to read and he handed me my love back . It seemed like he wanted no memory of me there at all. What really surprised me was how Shakeel ran to hug me and actually cried asking me to stay and how much he will miss me.At that point we decided we'll write to each other and I gave him all the money I had as a token of love.

But I told myself Chammi maybe Allah is giving you another chance to start life ahead so I was optimistic and left everything to Allah. We got in that buggy and left for my new destination.Most of that 5 hour journey was spend with him muttering stuff about chacha but never once addressed me but I convinced myself that it would take time for us to get used to it .

After those long hours we arrived there , it looked almost identical to my house I mean chacha's house but with better furnishing. Out came this women dressed in a yellow sari all decked up with her long dyed hair braided to the side .Greetings were exchanged and I was told to freshen up . I don't think my stepmother as Aba said really appreciated me coming there suddenly. I could hear her telling my Aba that I can't stay here too long and what about their expenses .From then on wards I realised one should always appreciate what they have , yes at chacha's place I sometimes felt alone but never once I though that they wanted to get rid of me or hated me to their core . But my stepmother left no stone upturned to let me know how unwanted I was . She did not want me there because I was a spitting image of my mother and my Aba would suddenly start to remember my dead mother.My Aba also has a son named Irfan , my stepbrother who was studying somewhere out of city .Hence, the money was for his education and expenses. Its not like she abuses me but she made me fell small and unloved .

It took Aba time to get used to me , I was trying to gain his love , so I would go to his shop to help him and I think I was succeeding , It was small things like asking me if I want something or how was my day .He even asked me if I wanted to study . But my stepmother could not fathom that she would try everything to sabotage the relationship I was trying to build.

In all this I was still getting the occasional letters from Shakeel , he would tell me howJameel Ji had is doing BA and how much he himself and bua misses me.This would just brighten my day and I asked him not to tell me too much about Jameel Ji as all I wanted was to forget him. I could see Aba was not his usual self , always sweaty and tired .He was becoming ill day be day .

On one occasion my stepmother read one of the letters Shakeel sent me in which he wrote how funny it was that I called both chacha and my Aba thieves and what did she do , she exaggerated it and showed it to Aba. Aba felt almost betrayed even though I tried to explain to him that I didn't think of him like that I was just teasing Shakeel .But she kept on adding fuel to this topic everyday and Aba started having the same distant look for me , he considered this a betrayal and showed him that apparently my loyalty was with chacha . From there forward there was no reading poetry to him or helping with his shop . I was again at the start of the journey we made that day - unwanted.

Then the matters got worse when Irfan bhai entered..

Note : hopefully it's not too long , in a couple of chapters it would go to the present time with some chapters from jameel's pov, if anyone is still interested in this . I would also want to know if any of you would like to see any interaction between Safdar and chammi as well. Let me now if you liked or disliked any bits from the story please , it really helps to not only improve but also encourages to write more .

Thank you Aima