Stranger on Flight

Chapter 15✔

After that encouraging enlightening session with her Nani, Zoya had steered her life around. She now realized that everything was about perspective. A month in Lahore had awakened her soul. While she was still there, she had begun receiving good news.

Her marital status was about to change. YES, she got a proposal. Her mother informed her that there was this family that came to ask for her hand. The guy was settled in London. Her mother had informed her that they were very eager to get everything fixed but her father had politely informed them that they would have to ask Zoya before saying 'Yes'. The new Zoya didn't find any reason to object. Yes, she liked the jerk face, but she also believed that who so ever the guy her parents selected would be the best for her.

The old Zoya would have questioned who the guy was, what he did. Old Zoya would have overthought it, made comparison of the guy with the jerk face and hurt herself. But new Zoya who believed in Qadr and Allah's will, had just said that she accepted as long as her parents were okay with it. She had flaws and she shouldn't be looking for perfection. Dil bara hona chahiye, height beshak choti ho (his heart should be big, height can be ignored), she had told her mother when her mother had asked if she was interested in what the guy looked like. Zoya had even jested with her mother asking her to tell the aunty, that her toe was slightly smaller than her second toe.

[If you don't know there is this superstition in subcontinent that well the girls with bigger second toe are stubborn women who dominate in the marriage. Which is why sometimes the mother, checks girl's feet to ensure that her toes are in order. STRANGE LITTLE FELLOW WE HAVE AROUND.]

To which her mother had laughed and said, "Zoya they know everything about you. Aur larke k Ammi keh rahi the, Zoya jesi hai humain pasand hai.( Guys's mother said that she likes you just the way you are.) That you are just perfect for her son. Balancing him out, nicely."

Maybe the lady knows me from university! Zoya thought as she dismissed the notion of the lady knowing this much about her.

Currently sitting in her university Zoya was checking the assignments which had been turned in by her students. She stared at the screen hard trying to figure out if the students had copied the codes instead of writing their own.

Just by changing your roll numbers and the variables do they think they could fool me. I have been a student once. I know the trick. She thought as she checked for the mistakes in both of them which were not so surprisingly same. Opening the excel sheet she was about to mark both of them zero when the peon knocked on her door, earning her attention.

"Come in", she replied without looking up.

"Zoya bibi there is someone here to meet you." Akbar chacha informed her.
"Akbar Chacha did you ask him whose guardian he is?" Zoya asked. She had to be sure that the man who was standing outside was the guardian of her people and hadn't come in search of Mrs. Hussain who taught Islamiat to freshies. Mostly people confused her with Ms. Hussain and were directed here to her office.

"Jee Zoya bibi, unhoon nay apka naam liya!(Yes, he took your name)" Akbar chacha replied. She looked up now, staring at the confused faced of Akbar chacha which was a mirror of hers.

Who could that be to call me with name? Fellow batch mate?
But I have lost contact with every one of them and no one knows I teach here except Hashim, Fazeela, Alizey and Kainat.
Maybe it was Ahsan. Didn't he ask me where I was, last month. Maybe he had come to pay me a visit.

Zoya concluded. She was still very curious who it was who had come to meet her at office hours in university instead of coming to her home. Adjusting her dupatta, she got up from her seat. Passing a grateful smile to Akbar Chacha, she went out the sliding door.

Zoya stared at the empty lawn and those yellow sunflowers which were just planted outside the faculty block. There was no one in the waiting area so, she had decided to look outside. Just in case that person had went outside to catch a fresh breath.

It is stupid though. Who in their right mind would leave the comfort of the well-conditioned waiting hall and come out in this heat.
Ab itni bhi garmi nai hai Zoya! (It's not that hot ) Stop acting like those burgers!