Daastan E Ishq - داستانِ عشق

D&N 2

"don't go"

"Papa please"

"Please, I'll be good. Take me with you"

"Papa"

Once upon a time, not very long ago lived a little girl. Her eyes warm as the setting sun, her hair a luscious fall of brown waves. But, there was something about the way those eyes were always empty that scared the people around her.

She stood on the doorstep of her grandfather's haveli waiting for her papa to come and get her, but that's what they thought she was doing. In reality it was a punishment she gave herself every day standing in the doorway staring at the stranded driveway, not a single sign of her papa coming back.

Her family wasn't perfect but she hoped maybe papa will make it all better, atleast that's what all he cousins ever said about their father's.

Papa will make it better.
Papa will come and get me.
Papa will know what to do.

Papa never came.
He never came back after that eventful day.
Papa didn't care.

Soon her frame grew and her short knotted hair grew long and untangled. Her features hardened and her naive heart turned stone when her theories were proven wrong.

She grew up thinking maybe he didn't want children all together, maybe he had his own turmoil to resolve maybe he just needed time after what happened to mama.

8 years.

She spent 8 years trying to understand why her father didn't like her the way her uncle's liked her cousins. She was good in her studies, she had a whole bookcase full of trophies and medals, a wall full of certificates, she never did anything wrong. She had good friends, never talked back and rarely ever threw tantrums but even after all of this her papa never seemed to care.

He never asked how she was doing, never called her and he most definitely didn't visit her after the last time when she had thrown a tantrum for the first time in her life which only resulted in her bruised wrists, a high fever and the image of her father turning into a beast in her mind.

That was back when she was five. Her uncle's loved her though. They cared for her, her aunt's always showered her with presents and kisses and sweet gestures when they came to visit, her grandparents always took her side- not that she did anything to be defended anyways- her cousins were hostile towards her before because of the way their parents treated her like she was made of glass but that day even they turned their heads away from their rich uncle from Canada who had come to settle back in Pakistan.

"Namal" someone had whispered in her ears when they realized she had been paralyzed on spot.

"Namal" again their was this ringing in her ears. When Namal turned thirteen she had a nervous breakdown, her anger, self harm and emotional restraints had broken and she couldn't breathe as she sobbed on the floor of bedroom, palm bleeding

Her papa was back.

And he wasn't alone.

Namal knew from what she heard through the wind that her father had married again, he had started a family that Namal didn't know of, she wondered if she'll ever meet her other mother but then she guessed otherwise.

She refrained from clenching her jaw since her teeth had already been causing her too much pain in her temples and behind her ears, her eyes skimmed over the faces of the people who were smiling back at her family.

A woman, a beautiful woman Namal concluded, atleast better than what Namal remembered of her mother, Razia never really took care of herself, she was always smelling, her hair were knotted and at last she was hanging from the ceiling fan while Namal slept on the bed under her corpse. It wasn't a pretty sight to wake up to in the middle of the night but it was what it was.