The Doorbell
As Shamshad had anticipated Rukhsana had already laid out the breakfast, boiled eggs, chapattis and a kettle full of Nun Chai , waiting for him to come. Every day the husband and wife will take their time sipping tea and watching Good Morning J&K till it was time for Shamshad to leave for the Government Boys High School he taught Social Science at. Before leaving he will write down the topics he was going to teach in various classes. Quickly brush up the study material he taught from. Even though after many years of teaching the same subject he didn’t need to do it yet he did it out of sincerity towards his job. He liked his work and his students liked him. He had made History and Civics fun for his students. Apart from dictating and explaining highly informative notes he encouraged discussion in the classroom where students discussed current affairs in light similar happenings in the past. Presiding over such discussions and giving his final words made him happy and satisfied. Both he and his students looked forward going to school. He will spend his last free class playing badminton on the school ground with one of the teachers and returned home happy and cheerful. Rukhsana no matter how tired or dissatisfied she was with her kitchen garden and no matter how much of nagging she would do for no fault of Shamshad he will cheer her up too. They will spend the rest of day happily watching TV.
Everyday just after lunch Rukhsana’s next door neighbor Sameena will visit her. Even though of same age as her Sameena looked considerably younger. Sameena always took extra care to look presentable. Rukhsana on the other hand only cared about her kitchen garden. She was fair, had golden hair and beautiful eyes. She was not fat but no matter what the season she always wore a sweater and a black phiran over it which made her look bulky. Shamshad had never seen her without this phiran except at the marriage of a relative once. Had it been not for ablutions for prayers she might have never even washed her face. Shamshad and Rukhsana were cousins and she still thought of him like that. Shamshad was always reading books or watching news thus he never minded the terribly bad tasting food or her coarse manner of speaking to him.
Sameena and Rukhsana will have tea and snacks while watching repeat telecast of Comedy Nights with Kapil or Crime Patrol. Whenever Guthi complained about her husband not loving her for a couple of seconds the smile from Sameena’s face will be completely wiped off. Sometimes she wished that Rukhsana see her like that but soon she realized it will do no good because Rukhsana always seemed far away from the things around her lost in her own thoughts. She will not even mention leave alone inquiring about the fights between Sameena and Rashid which her husband will often come to diffuse. With such apathy seeking any sort of help from Rukhsana was out of question.
Raashid, Sameena’s husband owned one of the biggest cloth shops in the town. Rashid was handsome, tall, always well dressed. His charm and natural flair of salesmanship made him one of those businessmen whose shops are never without customers. He had but one problem and that is he thought that there is some limited time offer from The Almighty in which customers will come and suddenly the very next day people will stop wearing clothes or people will start exuding silk and cotton from their sweat pores that will cover their bodies. Well, not exactly this but it was like he thought that each customer is a blessing from Allah and closing the shop while the customers are still coming will somehow mean closing door on these blessings. Also he had trust issues so didn’t rely on the help at the shop to leave early for home. It had really reached to a level of insanity. Thus Raashid always reached home late content but tired. Sameena never made an issue out of this because she knew it will even ruin the rest of the time they have got together even though she was burning with anger within. What made her mad wasn’t just his late arrival but eating hurriedly and dozing off to sleep even quicker. He neither appreciated the food she made or the dress she wore. She felt no better than a maid. What worried her more was that his health was getting affected. She wanted to talk to him sometimes about random things like a marriage in the family, what dish to cook, her day or just random gossip but he was always too tired. She felt lonely and doing nothing except watching TV all day bored her. But she kept patience hoping things will change.
One afternoon Rukhsana and Shamshad were having their Nun Chai watching news. A boy was killed was what the news said. Killed, murdered, martyred, poisoned and then shot were several versions of loss of human life which Shamshad like others will hear in coming days. The name of this boy would often surface in the discussions in his class after many months of this incident. There will be a strike tomorrow Rukhsana who is often lost said it with some enthusiasm. Next day and in some places right then a curfew was imposed. With each passing day there were more killings and curfew got extended. After a week or so loss of lives became something like sudden gust of wind or sun going behind a cloud temporarily, suddenly you feel too much cold and then again as the sun appears you forget the chill. People couldn’t leave homes. After the curfew was removed strikes ensued for months. The first couple of weeks of staying at home were enjoyed by Shamshad although the news bulletin in the evening mentioning the killed, maimed and blinded made him depressed. He passed time watching movies and series he had got from his tech savvy students which he had been planning to watch the from a long time. He also helped Rukhsana with kitchen garden. Rukhsana liked that he was assisting her but just by the second week she was fed up. When he was away at school she held the entire authority of the house. Some house work that was there she liked to do it on her own time. Shamshad had started interfering too much in her domain. Half of the chili bed which she was growing hoping to sun dry them for winters was picked up by him for making green chutney. He will ask for tea after every two hours which left him with no hunger and the food she prepared was bound to be criticized, although it deserved criticism anyway. She knew it was no point arguing with him but with each passing day his behavior was becoming unbearable. The only consolation was watching old Bollywood movies till late night. Because of sleeping late Shamshad missed the congregation in the morning and thus the morning walk. He became lazier with each passing day. He felt his life was getting wasted. Each time he watched the debates, rather the noise on the TV he missed his classroom. He had so much to say but he seemed gagged. He tried to speak with Rukhsana about it but felt weird doing it once and never tried again. She was just wishing for strike to get over. Lazy, bored, fed up of things made him cranky. ‘Even Raashid didn’t fight with Sameena anymore atleast he will get to take a “class” even if there were only two students in It.’, thought Shamshad.
He decided to pay them a visit. He saw Raashid in the garden sitting on a chair wearing grey tracksuit sipping lemon water. He didn’t seem to recognize him at all. Rashid had lost some weight, the dark circles were gone. He had dyed his hair dark brown. He seemed couple of years younger and he didn’t yawn as he saw him do often.
“What do you think is going to happen?” asked Raashid
Shamshad answered with facts, history, economics, laws which Raashid hardly understood but Shamshad felt a bit refreshed.
Raashid just to change the topic called out to Sameena for tea. Sameena dressed as usual as if she was at some special event soon brought tea and some nice cakes. Sameena for the first time was happy not angry as she would be when Shamshad needed to visit them. She told Shmashad how she had motivated Raashid to work-out and framed a diet plan for him. Shamshad though not by nature a jealous person felt a pinch in his heart. He was disturbed by the calm and understanding he always advised them to build. Besides, the tea was fantastic. Rukhsana never made such good tea, not even close. When he reached home he noticed Rukhsana was wearing a Phiran in such hot weather.
Next day just around ten o’clock Shamshad was arguing with Rukhsana for first time in all these years about her dressing, her terrible cooking, her obsession with the vegetable garden. She said something about his mother he said something about her father. Missing the badminton games at school he must have been dying to hit a shot. He was about to hit one with his hand on her face that just then someone....
