Intekhaab✔️

Chapter 26 - Yakhni (یخنی)

"Safiya safiya,
Safiya Safiya,
senorita Safiya
Safiya Safiya,
Bialo con migo
Safiya safiya
te quiero te quiero
Safiya safiya
Ayee ...kya karahi ho?" laiba asked after singing a Bollywood song (Maria Maria, from the movie Partner), she replaced the Maria with Safiya.

Whilst chopping a few vegetables Safiya gave Laiba a weird smile. Laiba and Safiya were like total opposites. Laiba being the loud jumpy one and Safiya being the silent one.

At first they thought they wouldn't he talking well, but soon they managed to grow quite close, living together drew them closer. Laiba thought of herself as Safiyas older sister however, they all knew Safiya is the more mature one out of the two.

"Me bus soup banrahi thi, Muma ko thora bukhaar tha tho socha..yakhni banalu" Safiya responded.

Both the girls after allot of insistence started calling Qirat Muma too.

"Ary wah. Mujhe bhi seekhna hai, mujhe kabhi kuch pakana hi nahi aya. Ek bar do din ka shokh chara tha, aur haat jalgaya tha tho Abba ne kitchen me jana hi band karadiya tha Mera haha" laiba chuckled missing her father a little.

"Me sikhaon?" Safiya's eyes gleamed.

And laiba frantically nodded her head up and down.

"Ek cheez karte he tum banao aj, me dekhti hu or phir kal banane ki koshish karti hu"

"Acha, Lekin kal tho me university me hongi, tho ap akele banalogi?"

"Han ham yar I'm a very fast learner, very smart, very intelligent, very...bus abh apne mu se apni kya tareef karu" laiba humbled herself.

"Haha theek"

safiya commented and continued cooking the soup whilst talking Laiba through it like a tutorial. At first laiba thought it would be easy, it's just soup. Turns out it wasn't as simple. She paused Safiya ran up and brought a notepad and pen down. She wrote the recipe down for herself in simple steps that would be easy for her to follow along.

After making the soup Safiya took it to Qirat, followed by Laiba. All three of them sat an enjoyed it.

"Umm it's delicious, mashallah" Qirat smiled at Safiya in appreciation.

"Omg safiyyaaa..you're a magician, dekhna kal me bhi bilkul esa hi banaongi" laiba took another sip of the soup.

"Muma, baba kidhar hein? Me unhe bhi dedu soup?"

"Jee Jee bilkul" Qirat agreed.

"Haw Safiya sarey number lejao tum" laiba sarcastically joked.

"M..me.."

"Ary I'm joking relax. Haha" Laiba reassured Safiya who didn't get the joke.
——

The next day laiba rummaged through the notes she made yesterday and tried to reenact whatever Safiya was doing yesterday. It looked so easy when Safiya did it. But now it was such a struggle.

The entire kitchen was a mess, three members of the haveli staff helped clean the kitchen and Laiba kept messing it trying to cook.

After an hour or so laiba thought she finally got the hang of it. And left the pressure cooker on low heat just like Safiya did yesterday. Guiltily smiling at the kitchen staff she thanked them and moved out. She'd come back in 5 minutes to take out the soup.

She quickly fixed her self up a little, sorting her hair and changing her clothes, because even though she had an apron she managed to get her clothes stained too.

She went down to see the whole family sat in a sitting room, on the sofas surrounding the coffee table. Just having some family time together. Bilal and Safiya had just come back from university, Arif and Zaakir from work and they all came and joined Qirat who sat there trying to knit some clothes for Pareesa's daughter.

"Asalamulaykum,
khawateen-o-hazrat muthawajah hon, kyuke abh apke saamne pesh kiya jaraha hai; Laiba ka mashoor-e-zamana Chicken soup!..of course. Iseh pesh karne se pehle me apne ustaad ki ijazat Lena chahungi" and she dramtically joined her hands together bowing in-front of Safiya.

Safiya chuckled and looked here and there. Bilal looked at Safiya and nod his head as a substitute to a smile expressing his happiness, seeing her happy. Whilst Arif nodded his head in a negative chuckling aloud looking at his wife's antics.
The adults too enjoyed Laibas and Safiyas bond and Laibas overacting.

Next, Laiba ran to the kitchen and made an appearance in the sitting room followed by some staff holding a tray full of bowls of soup.

"Pehle yeh ap hi kahye we don't want to die" arif chuckled.

Everyone there was well aware of Laibas cooking abilities so were hesitant to try the soup. She looked for support at the rest of the family, against her husbands statement. Looking at their hesitant faces she knew they were all doubtful.

She was proud of her hard work. And before anyone else said anything she took a spoonful of the soup and sipped it. She had to agree it wasn't half as good as Safiyas, but it was edible, which still is an achievement.

Proudly drinking all of her soup she gave them all a look of pride. They all apologetically smiled her way. And lifted their bowls. She was smiling in victory and everyone tried the soup, they too found it good coming from her and kept eating to encourage her.

Suddenly she felt an uneasy feeling in her stomach.
'Shit' it must be the soup she thought.

"STOP!" She suddenly screamed aloud.

"It's not good!..eurrkh urkhh" she put a hand over her mouth which made nauseous sounds and she ran away to the nearest bathroom.

They all let go of the soup and Arif ran after her, to make sure she's alright. Safiya to got up to go after her but sat back seeing Arif go.

After an hour or so when they all came down to dinner on the table. Laiba still didn't feel good, she still didn't want to eat, she drank that soup so damn fast and had so much that it made her sick. So she just sat at the dining table as everyone eat and spoke.

"Acha hua hum logo ne zyada nahi piya, hume marne ki hi koi Sazish hogi iski" Bilal commented looking at Laiba who made a grumpy face at him.

"Zehar tho beta sirf thumare pyaley me tha" laiba rolled her eyes in response.

Safiya looked up at Bilal, she'd never seen him making jokes before. She smiled liking the friendship Laiba and Bilal shared.

"Mamujaan dekho ek tho mene itni mehnat ki uspe yeh sila mila mujhe..ke abh me taanein sunu woh bhi Bilal ke ukh!"

"Bilal" Zaakir said in a warning way.

Later that night they all retreated to their rooms. Laiba kept going forth and back to the bathroom, she still felt sick. At first Arif kept teasing about her disastrous food but then he got concerned seeing her like this. Maybe some serious food poisoning had happened and she may need medicine. Seeing the time he saw that their doctors practice would be shut so he decided to take her to hospital for a check up.

Once at the hospital they got to find the reason behind her condition.
"Congratulations you're two weeks pregnant" the doctor came back after reading their report.