A Journey Of Faith

One

"Ami, please believe me. Harish is a very good person. He respects people a lot and earns well too. He will keep our Ayesha very happy." Ayesha's elder sister has found a good match for Ayesha and she is trying to convince her mother for this proposal.

"You are right beta, but don't you think that he is too old? Our Ayesha is just 19 and he is 34. Why is there so much hurry for her marriage? She has just completed the first year of her graduation." Ayesha's mother tells her daughter who was not agreeing to this marriage.

"Mother, you know that we don't have a father or a brother who can take care of us. If something happens to you tomorrow, what will happen to Ayesha? And you know I love Ayesha so much, then why would I think wrong about her and Harish is my brother-in-law. I have seen him myself. I have seen how he is for 2 years. Only after that I am asking you for Ayesha. You should see him once, meet him. If you want, then you should decide after that whether you accept this relationship or not, whatever decision will be taken, it will be yours... " Maria assures her mother and walks away.

*****

Maria's POV

Harish is a nice person so I chose him for Ayesha. After my father's death it seemed as if our world had collapsed, everything was over for us. All our property was taken over by my father's friends and business associates. All we got was a house. And now this house was our only support for the rest of our lives. We have gained a lot from this house. For us four women, this world was no less than a jungle. Every day someone or the other would come to trouble us. But thanks to Allah, we got very good neighbors who supported us a lot.

One of our neighbours suggested to us that why don't we start tuition in our house. I liked her suggestion and we started our tuition. Our tuition started with the three children of that aunty. As time passed, my mother started worrying about my marriage and started looking for a good match for me. But I was always afraid that I would get a match that would stop me from taking care of my family, so I waited for a match that would understand me and my problems. And finally search for my mother ended. I had to talk to the person with whom this relationship was going to happen. I told him clearly that I will continue this tuition because I have the responsibility of my mother and my sisters and that person was a very good heart. So he gave me permission. I had already married off my younger sister before my marriage. So, now I had the sole responsibility of my mother and my younger sister Ayesha.

When I went to my in-laws' house, I saw that they were good people. There was no tension of anything there. There the daughter-in-law was not oppressed, rather they were very good people who allowed me to take up the responsibilities of my family. And in the same house I met Harish who was my youngest brother-in-law. I was the second daughter-in-law. So I was respected a lot there because I was the most educated and my nature was also very good with them. I had only one sister in law who was very good. She was not like the other sister law who used to toucher their bhabhis. I did not know Harish that well. He used to come home very rarely. Because he used to devote a lot of time to his work and sometimes he used to eat, drink or sleep at his shop itself.

When he used to come home, he did not need a nice bed, feathers to sleep in, nothing like that. He used to sleep wherever he found a place. I liked his nature of adjusting to everything and that is why since then I was thinking of him for my sister. Harish was not my real brother-in-law. He was the son of my uncle-in-law. When I proposed the marriage of my sister and Harish to my sister-in-law through my husband, she flatly refused at first because she considered Harish to be a very lowly person. She did not want her brother to compete with Harish, so she flatly refused this relationship. After that I lost hope of this. It has been 2 years since my marriage and then one day there was a Ramzan feast at our house. There my sister-in-law saw my sister Ayesha and she liked her like this and after some time she directly asked me to get Ayesha and Harish married.