Apple of your eye- Part 13

Mohi-ud-deen stomped around the room like a hungry tiger. A deal was to be made with the fanatic leader. The leader wanted to smuggle some weapons that he would use to terrorize his neighbouring allies. Mohi-ud-deen was perfect source for all the illegal activities. The villainous person approached Mohi-ud-deen suitable for all their mean action. They came from all walks of life to induce any activity that was harmful to human.

Mohi-ud-deen called Shaukeen several times. The bugger gave the same answer- they would be coming within few minutes. But the few minutes had turned into hours. Sometimes it was difficult for him to trust even the right man. Did Shaukeen form any ties with his enemies? Did he change his plans of bringing the leader here? Before he could form any such assumptions, Shaukeen arrived with the package a.k.a the leader.

The leader greeted Mohi-ud-deen with warm hug. He was quite old with wrinkled skin and long white beard. He was small figure.To anyone he would seem to be a peaceful person unlike his aggressive interior. “ Sir, it’s pleasure for me to have you at my humble abode. I have heard about your kind contributions to society…”, Mohi-ud-deen said politely , trying very best to please the leader.

“ Don’t talk shit!  This sweet talk doesn’t suit anyone in this room. So tell me what can you do for me?”, the leader said firm not politely. Mohi-ud-deen understood his client. He was no nonsense person. “ Well sir, I do have a plan.”, he said, discussing his plans. But they discussed with Shaukeen waiting outside. Mohi-ud-deen made sure there was no one listening to their secrets. However he failed to notice that there was someone else who was listening to their talks and sending their secrets to the world outside.

It was first day of her lesson. Abhinav wasn’t prepared to teach her. He was only an average kid during school and college. His scores weren’t high like his cousins around him. His affair with books were short lived. When he picked up book to revise the past lessons, he fell asleep while reading two pages. He was nervous yet excited to meet her. Love made you do things that you thought you weren’t capable.

He looked at his watch. He was two minutes late. He saw her waiting for him. She wore white floral design salwar. Her milky complexion with slight red cheeks made him forget everything. He waved at her and she smiled. He walked with his heart in his hand and mind lost in thoughts about her. Love made even the strongest person weak . He was soldier and he should be brave. But love made him weak in his knees. Her one stare at him was more than enough to make him clumsy in next moment.

( To be continued)

Apple of your eye- Part 12

She opened her mouth to say something. Later she stopped. However she couldn’t control her tendencies to speak out. “ Love! I don’t call this love. This is just one of your tricks to play with girls. I am not that sort of girl!”, she said. Her words and naive expressions made him laugh. “ Can you give me a reason for your annoyance towards me?”, he asked.

“ Don’t act too innocent! You broke all my dreams and hopes!”, she cried. “ I know that you loved your school. I also know that some army officials misbehaved with you. I am sorry for the fault that you never did. But don’t simply blame actions of someone else over me. I am here only for you. Give me a chance to show the person that I really am.”, he pleaded his innocence.

Chance! Never! Why should she give him a chance to spoil her life again? “ You have done more than enough damage to my life. Thank you!”, she said turning her back at him. When she started to leave, he said, “ Ok! I won’t force you to change your mind. But at least forgive me by allowing me you to teach you. I would like to tutor you.” “ Tutoring! You will tutor me!  Why?”, she cried.

“ Well! I told you that I care about your well being. If studies is where your happiness lies, I will help you with that.”, he replied. She had no control over her excitement and exclaimed in delightment, “ Tutoring is all fine. But how are you going to do it?”, she asked. “ Don’t worry about that! I have come up with a plan. Your only task is to let me know whether you accept my offer or not.”, he sorted her doubt.

After deep thought, she agreed to him. However she still didn’t trust him. A door was finally opened and she couldn’t risk for this door to get closed. At last she would start studying and build her once broken dreams. Positive energy flow

ed into her , giving her life back. She started creating blocks of desires of making her own name in this big bad world.

But positivity is always followed by negative thoughts and fears. What ifs started affecting her mind. She started imagining all kind of life blocks. What if her dear uncle got the hint of what she was doing behind his back? What if this is wrong? What if the jawan was bluffing? She rebuffed those thoughts in thin air and plunged into the valley of new hopes. “ So when will you start tutoring?”, she asked.

( To be continued)

Apple of your eye- Part 11

His emotions were mixed. The accusations were too strong to be true. Her words rang repeatedly in his ears. He felt invisible amongst the crowd. What was the reason for which she was blaming him? Why was she so cold towards him? As she was leaving, he grabbed her hand and pulled her towards him. His force was strong that she almost swirled before she was too close to him.

There was an emotional tension between them. They wanted to remain close to each other but even the closeness between them scared them. She tried to release from his clutches. But it was too tight. She checked for curious eyes of the crowd. Fortunately, the crowd was too busy with bargaining to see their juicy chemistry. Or maybe they were timid to prevent the mishappenings in their society. “ Let go of my hand”, she cried.

“ No I won’t! Not until I speak my heart out.”, he said in thin voice. The feelings which he had kept too long had erupted from nowhere. She looked at him with strange curiosity. “ Your accusations may be true or may be baseless. I don’t know the reason for your strong despise towards me. But I would want to clarify one thing- I have always been attracted to you from day one. Your welfare is the only thing that I care about and anything that affects you is my concern.”, he said firm yet gently.

She was stunned by his sudden revelation. Her welfare was his concern! What did he mean by that? “ Welfare! Attraction! Are you trying to tell me that you are in love with me ?”,she asked. He was silent for sometime until he found right words. He released her hands. She didn’t run and simply stood , staring at him for answer.

“ Yes if caring for someone without any reason , then I am in love with you. I love you unconditionally and I know it’s strange. But that’s how love is. You have no control over your heart. Before you try to hold your heart tight, it has been stolen already. Your feelings are centered around the only person your heart has set towards. I know you have no such feelings, And force is something I avoid most times.”, he continued.

Love! She never had thought about it until he had come into her life. She had simply rebuffed that feeling as some sort of distraction. She did feel the same way but she didn’t know whether she could trust him with her heart. She also didn’t know whether she was in love or infatuated towards him. She looked at him with confusion and disillusioned of her own feelings.

( To  be continued)

Apple of your eye- Part 10

Her dreams were mostly about miracles where her uncle would allow her to go to school and meet her friends. But when she would wake up to bright sunny day , her dreams would be washed by sunlight. Her days would be spent on mundane work at home- washing clothing , dusting and cleaning the house and then preparing the three meals in a day.

Life had become routine. Adventures and hopes of exploring the world was lost. Time passed slowly , making the pain unbearable. She had come to accept he fate. However destiny had some other plans for her.

She walked to the market with her cousin as her body guard. He was ten years old with mind of genius. He never let her go out of his sight for one minute. She purchased the necessary groceries except one last thing- sweet corn. Her mother had planned to prepare a side digs with sweet corn as the main ingredient.

 As she looked for the corn, she lost her tiny brother in the crowd. It was Friday and the prayer hours was almost over. People had started crowding the market , making her impossible to walk with her cousin. She had forgotten about him when she bought the corn at the price she had bargained for. When she turned to see her brother, she  saw Abhinav towering her.

He was indeed tall - a feature she was oblivious. She became very concious at his presence next to her. Her heart jumped out and for  a second she thought she had got a heart attack. She wanted to run away and never see him again. But her feet refused to let her leave.

He looked at her with delight. " Hi! I heard you left school. I... Well! Is everything okay?", he asked with geninue concern.  She  misunderstood geninue to saracasm. "Everything is not okay! Because of you, I have lost my hopes and dreams! I wish I didn't see you at all.", she said with all the anger. He simply heard with broken heart.

(To  be continued )

Apple of your eye-Part 9

His huge eyes told everything. He was going to tear her apart. Mercy and sympathy were words unknown to me. Every localite was a terrorist to him irrespective of  their nil involvement in any inhuman activities. He smirked and then he spoke, “ You! Are you trying to get away just like that?”

She stared at him with no words coming out of her mouth. What was she supposed to reply back?   Enough was enough ! She had to retaliate back, “ Yes! I am not the only one who is leaving the area. My friends will leave with me and you won’t question me.” Her words poked him like bee’s sting. “ How dare you speak to me like this?  Do you have any idea whom you are talking to, young lady ?” , he growled at her.  “ Then you have no idea whom you are talking to ? I am Mohi-ud-deen’s niece.”, she gave him back.

He had always witnessed weak begging calls from the localities like her. But never ever had he witnessed anyone giving him back. “ Arrest these girls”, he ordered one of his juniors. They followed his orders without questioning. Alas! Their fun filled picnic turned out to be sour and they ended up at the jail.

News of their arrest spread like wild fire. Mohi-ud -deen rushed to see his niece. Although he got her bailed, he didn’t speak to her throughout the journey. On the other hand, she felt guilty of actions that she should have been proud. When they reached home, she knelt down before her uncle asking for forgiveness. “ I always wished for your safety, child. What you did by lying to your parents about the trip was far more wrong in your part? Because of this, I can’t show my face to anyone. Anyway what is done cannot be changed. From now on, you will not go to school and help your mother with household work.”, he said cold and firm as usual.

Her world came crashing down in few seconds. Her dreams disappeared in thin air. Her hard work over past years seemed like waste.  She had never questioned her uncle’s decision and even when he had broken her dreams, she didn’t question him either. She accepted it as her punishment.

She did all the household without complain. Her contact with outside world had become nil. She still felt guilty and wished that she hadn’t gone to the woods. But as her uncle had said . nothing could be changed now. She would look out the window when she was free. Outside world looked like wonderful dream which she couldn’t achieve.

( To be continued)

Apple of your eye- Part 8

Aafreen was surprised to see Shaukeen. Was he the same guy she saw on that unfateful day ? It can’t be! It must be her imagination. She was wasting time on mediocre thoughts. She should be spending her precious minutes with productive activities. Instead she found herself constantly doubting things around her and thinking about the jawan.. Jawan!!  

This was hundredth time she was taking his name. Why? Distraction such as love was not for her. She had dreams too big to achieve. She wasn’t like other girls who only focused on how to impress boys. She didn’t want to end up being just a housewife. She wanted to carve niche for herself just like her uncle. But past few days , her mind was under the spell of her heart.

She planned to visit her friends in order to ward off thoughts. After a lot of discussion on places to hang out, they came up with idea of picnic in a lonesome woods. They had planned some crazy amazing fun things which they were restricted. They termed it as ‘experimentation out of blue’.

Within few hours, the girls reached their planned destiny. During the whole journey, they were chatting on all the possibilities of doubling their so called fun activities. They planned out with cycling through the woods, chasing each other around and then finally exploring the restricted places. Everything went smoothly. They played like carefree bunch of girls. Aafreen had almost forgot herself with her friends around her.  But happiness always stayed for sometime.

From nowhere they found themselves surrounded by group of army officials. And they didn't come to check on them or arrest them. These men looked at the girls like as if they were untouched  candies waiting for them.  The girls were scared and stood like immovable creatures. These men watched their every moment.

After thinking a lot, she walked towards the army with loads of courage. Fear was still paralyzing her legs though she didn’t listen to her fears. Her friends stared at her with disbelief. Her upbringing had taught her to stand up against the evil. And she was never going to stand and simply stare at the army. Instead she was going to fight for her friends and her safety. A burly looking man came in front of her. He seemed like the head of the army. His presence had bought down whatever courage she had. Her body trembled with fear. What looked brave move became her stupid mistake.

( To be continued)

Apple of your eye-Part 7

Craziness was his other name. His passion was revenge in name of God. He believed in extremist values. His youth was the main reason for his impatience. Unlike elders slow paced moderates policies, he believed in fast and quick actions.

He was Moh-ud-deen's favorite fool. He performed all the dirty works for Moh-ud-deen. He was called by the world as Shaukeen Ahmed a.k.a right arm of Moh-ud-deen. Love, care and affection were alien words to him. He was born listening to words of misery and hatred. His mother was killed when he was nine and his father was arrested on wrong charges of deceit and murder. Thus when he first met Moh-ud-deen, his radical thoughts attracted young Shaukeen and there he made him as his master.

His instructions were like words coming from God. Anything that played against his master's rules were immediately removed from the way. But everything would have worked well today if the army had not been prepared. He was not ready to face the wrath of master. Unfortunately he had no choice.

" I am really angry with you! I have never left down like this. I want results. God will never forgive you.", he said while storming into the room. His words were firm and cold like stones. It pierced Shaukeen's heart. Shaukeen couldn't face the truth that he had let down his master and Allah was not going to be pleased. " If and only if Rehman could outweigh that jawan, we would have killed the girl. Because of that jawan, we lost many of our men",Shaukeen said.

" Forget the girl! You failed to research about the area. You missed the important information- That area was surrounded by army and obviously they could act fast on our attack. And that jawan! I only want you to do one small work- get anything and every information on that jawan. This time! Remember! No mistakes! Got that! Now you may dismiss.",  Moh-ud-deen instructed and Shaukeen listened to him like a disciplined little child.

He walked out of the blue room with his face bent down. He didn't see  Aafreen coming in the opposite direction and he almost hit her. No one tripped or fell or got hurt. He raised to see who that person was . He was bit shocked and more confused as he felt that he had seen the girl. The girl looked at him with same confusion and left him alone.

(To be continued)