“If she is not going to marry me , She is not
going to marry anyone else” Ali thought
to himself , the crowd of friends , the noise of the club , the dancing , the fancy
lights , all were not enough to make Ali , think of something else , than
Aliha.
He just got up and went out into the open , when
one of his friends asked him , he said that he needed some fresh air.
Ali rushed out of the door , like
a person who gets out of water after
holding his breath for too long.
He walked towards his car , it was
a red Honda City , he opened the door
and sat inside . As the thought of Aliha , passed through him , he gave out a
loud scream , held the steering wheel with both of his hands and gave a strong
jerk , like he wanted to pull off the steering from its root.
“I am going to kill your husband , I am going to kill you and then I am going to
kill myself” , Aliha deleted the last sms
of Ali , but not before reading it. Ali had been been sending these SMSs
to ALiha , since she broke up with him , but Ali was the person who didn’t know how to let go. He asked for her
to come back , he begged her and when everything failed he started to harass
her , 100 was the least number of SMSs he would sent out to her, Aliha was by now engaged to be married , Aliha’s fiancé
was a great person , but at the end of the day , he was a man , a man who had
grown up in a conservative mindset ,
where a woman who falls in love before marriage is immoral , doesn’t matter ,
how pure and innocent that love had been.
She was afraid to tell his fiancé
, she was afraid to tell her parents , she confided in the only friend she had
and that was Mehwish , but she had also been married and gone abroad to Saudia
and with time she had lost contact with her.
Rehan was Aliha’s fiancée , he had fallen in love
with Aliha , the moment he saw her , he knew about the Ali , but the light he
saw in Aliha , he couldn’t in anybody else , he knew , her soul was pure , he
had one day , read one of Ali’s messages
in her cell phone , he was worried , but he decided to do what he felt
right , let Aliha solve her own problem , in his way , he was making Aliha
strong.
As Aliha woke up , there were 45
miss calls and 100 SMSs from a new number , Aliha had blocked Ali’s numbers
before , but he knew her number and when one was blocked , he would go and buy
new SIMs and start calling. Aliha
couldn’t change her number , because all
her family members would get suspicious , also Ali was venting off by sending
her SMSs and calls , she was afraid , what he
would do , if Aliha closed this path also.
Aliha , passed the big steel gate
of the University , she had come to collect her Degree of Mass communication ,
as she was passing through the long buildings and never ending lanes , she got
lost in the wonderful story she had lived , it was another world afer all , a
world without worries , without care , a place where she was somebody , where
everything was possible and then she graduated , stepped into the real world ,
now in the real world she wasn’t able to handle one person, the one person ,
whom in the university , she thought was everything for her.
“Life…. and all its plans”
As she was lost in her memories ,
she was jolted back to the real world by the distinctive ringtone of her nokia
2031 , she opened up her brown leather handbag and in the middle of everything
was the candy shaped phone , whose LCD screen was blinking and telling her that
it was Ali who was calling her , maybe
it was the strange air of the university , that she had found her strength and
courage , she wasn’t afraid any more and she was tired , irritated and wanted
to give it one more try to end the matters in harmony.
“ yes , Ali , I am in the
university , meet me at the cafeteria around 2 , I will be waiting for you”
Aliha , said all this in one go
and cut off the phone , she let go the remaining air in her lungs and took a
deep breath , somehow , she was strong
and the strength gave her freedom and the air seem fresher.
Ali couldn’t believe his ears ,
he got up from his bed and started looking for his shoes , they were at the
corner of the room , he put them on hurriedly and told the driver to take out
his car.
“where are you going” , his
mother seem worried , with him being so much in a hurry , his behavior for the
past few weeks have been suspicious to her , she had inquired about him from
few of his friends , but his friends were more faithful to Ali , they didn’t
tell her mother about the drinks and the parties and abosultely nothing about
the girl.
“I will be back , soon ,
Allah….hafiz” she heard the last part of the sentence simultaneously with the
slamming of the house main door. A few
minutes later there was loud roar of the engine and the car rushed out through
the garage and was gone.
“ whats worng with the boy” Ali
father was reading the morning news paper , DIG Aslam Khan was huge man with a
huge voice , huge enough to distract the worries , Hina held for her son to the
comment of Mr. Aslam and as a typical mother trying to protect her son she said
“ nothing , maybe he is going to meet his friend”
The phone gave its distinctive
ring again , Aliha was almost alone in the cafeteria now , it was 3:00 pm now ,
she took out the cell phone and it was her fiancée , Rehan.
“ where are you” , It was Aliha’s
mother.
“I am in the university , I am
waiting for some one” she took a small pause “ I don’t think he will come , I
am going home now”
“who is this HE” , the worry of
the mother shifted from her being late to the he she had referred to in her
sentence.
“HE ,is a nobody” , Aliha’s
irritation was quite clear in the reply , she had given her mother , if mothers
aren’t supposed to trust their daughters , who else she could rely on later on
in life.
“you know , Rehan is coming
around 5 to pick you up and you are still in the university , waiting for a
nobody”
“don’t worry , I will be at home
around 4”
Aliha got up and started to walk
towards the main exit.
As She was about to exit the main
gate , something , some thought stopped her.
She took out her cell phone and
typed the words “ thanks , for not showing up , I hope you never show up in my
life again” and send it to Ali.
She went out of the gate and took
a taxi to her home.
The sun wasn’t that bright , but
Ali’s drunken eyes , couldn’t bear the light , it felt like the rays were
burning his eyeballs , as he stepped out of his house , he put on his
sunglasses.
It looked as if Ali hadn’t taken
a shower for a week now , he took out his phone , there were a few miss calls
and one message from Aliya , the girl he was engaged too , for one month now ,
he cleared the screen off all the notifications and then again , put in his
back pocket.
Aliya was his mothers favourite ,
she had seen her in a wedding and inquired about her, she was somewhat like ali
, a little rebellious , a little different , strong , bold and yes beautiful ,
but Ali wasn’t interested in her , but he wanted to move on with his life.
During the past two , years , there was certain soreness in his heart , he
couldn’t let go. It was difficult to deal with it at first , but human beings
they say are the most adaptable of all creatures , they can get accustomed to
all kinds of pain , be it the body or the soul. It was this soreness , that he had found himself indulged in drinking,
Since his father was the DIG ,
money was no issue , he had all the money at his disposal.
Ali , just thinking of Aliya as
the ray of hope that could bring change in his life had said yes.
Aliya , was more status conscious
, She saw that Ali was smart , they almost were equal financially , so she also
had said yes to him.
This was the perfect union, not
based on the compatibility of the souls but of other mortal worldly desires.
Aliya after calling at least
three times to Ali , types an SMS , asking him where he was ,
“ if he doesn’t respond , I think ill call saify” She thought to herself as she pushed
the sent button on the phone.
Ali , heard the SMS alert on his
phone , but decided to ignore it , “ give me a pack of dunhill lights”
He asked the shop vendor ,
He got out of the shop , opened
the sealed cigarette packet and light a smoke , he got into his black corolla ,
he didn’t start the engine , but simply kept on puffing off smoke. He saw the
vehicles rush by him , now the sun had become tired and was starting to hide
away in the curtains of the night, Ali just sat in his car at the side arm of
the road , looking at the cars , bikes and buses pass by him , finally a loud
horn of the passenger bus brought him to the world. Ali had till now smoked 4
of the cigarettes and his car was filled with smoke. Ali dialed a number ,
there was a long pause and then some woman picked up the phone ,
“hello “ , the woman answered
“Can I talk to
Sunya”
There was a long pause again
“Hello , how are you”
There was a seductive girlish
voice on the other end of the line , one could easily hear and fall in love
with it.
“ I want to meet you” said Ali
“ ok , when are you coming”
“ I will come by 9:00 to pick you
up”
“ok , 9:00 is good , so where
will be going”
“you leave that to me “
“you know , I have to tell Aunty
, she can get worried”
Ali , gave a slight sarcastic laugh , that was loud
enough to give the message to sunya , that how absurd her statement was , Sunya
nights were spent with unknown men , and aunty had no issue in that as long as
they paid the price against her. However , the safety of sunya had never been
an issue when she was with him , he had never loved again , but love had taught him to be gentle.
“you know , you are always safe
with me”
Sunya was 22 years old , was an average height of 5.7 ft , she had a
glowing white skin and long hair and a round face , her voice , was the most
unique thing about her , it carried the innocence of a child , unlike her
profession. Sunya was also studying and had just completed her Bachelors in
fine Arts , she wanted to become an actress , she had also done some minor
roles in dramas , which mostly went unnoticed.
Sunya had fallen for Ali on their
second visit , in a hotel room , while he was sleeping beside her , she kept
looking at him and somehow , that day she had ventured into unknown ,she had
discovered love and how it felt to fall in love with someone.
Ecstatic
Gulit is a very strong emotion
and different people are consumed by it in different ways , for Ali it was hate
, isolation
Some time people leave and with
them leaves the energy, through which our wolrds used to light up , they leave
with all the joys of our world and this was the case with Aliha , when she left
Ali , Ali knew , his world would never be the same without her , Ali loved his
life , his own small world , it was perfect for him and he was not going to let
anybody change that.
“do you know , where Ali is”
behind the other end of the line was Aliya , Sunya knew where he was , but love
had made her selfish , she saw the world in Ali , and no one how generous they
may be , wont give their entire world to someone. Sunya didn’t want to lie ,
she didn’t want to tell the truth either ,
Sunya didn’t even know if Ali loved her the way she loved him , or was
she just a body , to him , a body without soul.
“don’t call me , ill call you , I
think I might know where he can be” Sunya without letting Aliya say anything
disconnected the call.
The waves were crashing at the
shore and the splashes of water were coming up to Ali as well.
His eyes were swollen , they
showed that he had not slept for nights , his phone kept ringing , he just
couldn’t take it any more , this time when he took out his phone , was not to
answer or disconnect but simply to throw it away into the sea.
