Short Love Stories✔️

12. Tangled threads

"Fari aunty, why nobody has come to check upon us?" Eishal said , clutching her stomach to fade the roaring voice of hunger.

I should've atleast done my breakfast.

"Keep calm eishal, they will come." Fari said patting her head.

If fari wasn't there,eishal would've been scared to death . Fari's presence was like a mother to her.

"Should I tell you my love story ." Seeing eishal's paled face and tears brimming eyes ,she thought to do something to divert her mind .

"Your love story?" Suddenly eishal looked intrigued.

"Yes mine , do you want to hear it." Fari asked , even though she knew eishal was more than ready to hear her.

"Of course aunty." She came in front of fari and sat down with attentive look.

"I was the first girl of my clan to step out of the village and attend college. Azam was my classmate. Handsom , intelligent yet humble man........but all these things didn't attract me towards him. Which drew my attention towards him was  the way he spoke to girls ,the way he treated them equally, the way he encouraged them and the way he called them his equals unlike the men of my family." She stopped, a distant look on her face ,as if she was recalling all those memories of her past.

                  ***************

"Excuse me miss..." She stopped on her track hearing his familiar deep respectful voice .

"Yes ." She turned towards him with quizzical look.

"Have you seen the notice board today?" He asked her and she knew why he was there.

For the coming project ,they were paired. Even though she liked him ,she couldn't bring herself to work with a boy for almost half a month. She was brought up in way that her mind wouldn't accept it. So, she talked with her class teacher and asked him to give her another female partner.

"About that , I spoke with Aslam sir and he said he will try to change the pairing of us." She hastily spoke not wanting to stand in the middle of the corridor with the college's heartthrob and drew attention.

"Oh okay cool." He spoke and marched away from her ,but she felt something flashed in his dark black orbs.

Is he hurt?

Shaking away the thought she went towards the parking where her driver was waiting for her.

               ****************

* Faria , everyone is comfortable with the pairing. They don't want to change their partner . I can't do anything now and besides , Azam is our top student,why wouldn't you want to work with him?" Sir Aslam's question caught her off-guard and a pair of leg froze just outside the door.

"It's not like that sir. You very well know how my family is? " Aslam was friend to her uncle and he used to visit the haweli every now and then and on his insistence and security , Faria was  studying there.

"I know but you aren't doing anything wrong. It's work and take it as work. Try to harbour some confidence. You are studying and it means you are learning to take desicion of your own, learning doesn't teaches you to act like a puppet." Sir aslam was very much against the way haweli's men treated women.   He wanted someone to make them understand that women are not inferior to them . He was sure ,the change would come with education among the women of that haweli.

"Did you get my point." Not finding any asnwer from her ,he asked her .

" Ye....yes sir." She stuttered , nervous with the fact that what would happen if her baba jaan would come to know about it.