It was December 1977, when a child opened his eyes to this world, and after his birth, his house was filled with cheerfulness and merriness. His house was filled with happiness and, rejoicing his delighted mother said that after his birth, things have started to change. Arman’s mother -Shahana Ali, married at the age of 16, to Mr. Mohd. Wadud, was 40 years old…!!She was married to a man who was 24 years elder to her and was almost her father’s age. They got married. Because, she belonged to a very poor family. Her parents were penniless, so much so, that if they had food for lunch, they could not be sure, whether they’ll have food for dinner. At this situation, Shahana’s parents got a proposal from such an affluent family, who belonged to one of the richest families in town..But he had left his possessions and belongings. He owned a house, and at that time, possessing a house, and that too the biggest house in town, was enough a reason for making this marriage possible Shahana’s parents, accepted this offer, and got her married, without asking her, because at that time, having girls was considered a great sin, whatever religion it was, whether they were judged as mother goddess or respected like having heavens at the mother’s feet, no matter what it was, it happens whatever is written in destiny....
Shahana got married, and she came to her husband’s house. Shahana’s husband was from a royal family but was a very kind man, so he allowed Shahana’s parents to also live with them. And they started living together. He owned big possessions, but he was not interested in his property, and he had left all his belongings!He had lived the beautiful part of his life completely…So, he only had a house of his own, where he lived, he had separated from his family. But he got wheat for whole year; they had lots of wealth and agricultural land. This was a support from one brother to another. Now, the problem was not of earning daily bread, but they were bothered of growing up their kids.After marriage, they had three children, eldest daughter Sehba , and two sons, Shehzaan , and Rehaan . And now, Abdul Wadud’s health was deteriorating.He developed cancer, which was incurable, there was no remedy to it, and even if there was, they could not get it treated, because they could not afford it. Now Shahana was 22, and started working as a teacher, in a private school.Because, her husband was bed-ridden now. He was not in a condition to work. But life is cruel, ant it keeps on moving! It halts only when breath of life comes to an end. Otherwise, there’s always a struggle to win between us and life. And for this reason, we continue living….!Shahana had to look after her house completely now including her kids and her husband. When she was still making an effort to take care of everything, life slapped her once more, her husband died. A young girl of 22, having 3 children, was left alone in this cruel world ….
We can turn the pages of history and see that mighty always curbs the weak, and everyone’s trying to rule the world by wiping out each other. Ever since the origination of life, curbing the week has been considered to open the doors of success.Shahana, has to take care of her children, give them good health, as well as protect herself from the hungry wolves wandering in our society. This was, very difficult, at least, for a lonely woman. And, all this happened at the time, when widow’s life use to be made hell for her whole life. There was no one to help her, or console her, and even if somebody tried to sympathize with her, it was not accepted in our society, or by the principles ruling our society. Shahana continued with her job, along with taking care of her children. Even at her work place, behavior of others with her, was not very good. People, considering her unfortunate, use to stay at a distance from her, or they should be cursed with her bad luck !Shahana use to live at her husband Mr. Wadud’s house, which after his death was now on her name. This was the only good thing that Shahana’s husband did for Shahana, in his whole life. Even on this, people all around her, the white collar people of the society, had their wicked eyes on her house. He was Shahana’s sister in law’s husband, Tazdeek khan.
He registered a case for that house in the court, and claimed that, it belonged to her wife, which has been seized by Shahana forcefully…Shahana, now had to tackle with many problems, raising her kids, walking up and down the court, and above all, the problems confronted by a widow in the society...
It is very difficult for a woman to undertake all this, but she continued living with it. Tazdeek sent intimidators to her house; he frightened her, harassed her and threatened her to death. He use to send people to her house at night to frighten her innocent kids. Her kids use to get frightened at each whisper…..Her kids always craved for an angel in their lives. That someday, someone would come and put an end to all their hardships….Jahangir khan was from a magnificent family, but he always kept himself away from his luxurious and lavish life, because he was not fascinated by his forefathers’ property….He was a self dependent man, even though belonging to such an affluent family, he paid his college fees himself ! He was a calm, candid, modest and an unpretentious man. He was pure at heart, and always spoke what his heartfelt…
For some extra income, Shahana wanted to learn Arabic, because she might get a better job after knowing Arabic. Because in 1960’s, nawabs were ruling Bhopal, and majority of population comprised of Muslims. Arabic was taught in schools, so Shahana thought of learning Arabic by getting a trainer…A friend of Jahangir was an English teacher in the same school,…Maulana Azad School, where Shahana worked. This might be a coincidence…Shahana spoke to one of her fellow colleagues, to search for an Arabic trainer….Shastri told Jahangir that there’s one widow who wants to learn Arabic. Jahangir was also in need of money, because even while living in his house, he was independent, and self-supporting. He use to work as a home tutor to make some money...
So, he agreed with Shastri, and went to Shahana’s house. When he first saw Shahana, he couldn’t believe that she was a married woman, and that too a widow..
‘How come such a young girl became widow and can life be so cruel?!’ he was still thinking, when-
Shahana- ‘who are you?’
Jahangir told about himself and said-‘I am Jahangir, you told Mr. Shastri, that you are searching for an Arabic teacher….’
Shahana- Oh! Come, come inside.
Although, Shahana’s house was very big, but at that time, houses use to be big, but crude and unpolished. Shahana occupied only two rooms…One was kitchen, and the other was for all other purposes. Rest of the house was raw. There was an empty expanse area, a big porch and rest of the rooms had raw roof. There was not enough space for Jahangir to sit.
There was a chair; one of its hand rest was broken, and legs, about to collapse! If somebody sat on that chair, he would not be able to talk, rather would be concentrating on balancing himself… Although Jahangir sat on that chair, but he was talking less and focusing more on balancing…They decided to start the classes from next day at 5’o clock. And then, Jahangir started teaching Arabic from the other day.
As time passed by, he started spending more time with Shahana, and gradually came to know her more closely. Jahangir was now coming more across with Shahana’s problems….And unintentionally, not wanting to, but still, he came close to Shahana, it was love or sympathy, even he was not able to understand….At one side, he could see Shahana’s miserable life, and on the other side was the reputation of his royal family, because he belonged to an eminent family of the town.Even wanting to, he could not help Shahana in any way….Every day, he could see, one or the other problems faced by her, sometimes the dearth of money, now and then lawyer’s demand for money, and he could also see Shahana getting helpless for some daily requisites…when we see others smiling and laughing, we think that everything’s perfect in their lives,
and we are the only ones facing problems.But, when we return from our thoughts, we again see our problems standing firmly there itself, and for which, we have to hunt for solutions…
And sometimes we have to do such things, which are not accepted by our own heart and mind. …Now, people of the society also started talking about them, as Shahana was a widow, but young!. As she was all alone, people started pointing out to her…When four people gather around anywhere, in a neighborhood, in their offices, in a tea shop, or at any stall, they need a subject matter to make fun of , along with their sip of tea or while smoking!
These are those people, who might have the same situation at their homes, what they are talking about. The only difference is that they can curtain up their homes, while that person cannot..!As those people are left unveiled, by their helpless situation, and unfortunate destiny. This continued for a long time. Gradually, Jahangir started spending more time with Shahana. Now, Shahana could also realize that Jahangir was more close to her….She also had to anyhow survive and live her life full of hardships. But she was a widow! And with that tag, she was not allowed to live her life of her choice. But now, her heart also started beating for someone…
Note : ( I'm working on a story, some of pages I'am leaving here…please send reviews...) mail me:- aamir_2512@yahoo.com,zed2512@gmail.com
