Wonderment
It was a hot afternoon and Ashok Koul had just finished his class. He had just gone back to the staff room, drank a glass of water, and sat down on the couch to take a power nap when Jehangir khan patted him on his shoulder. As soon as Ashok, who was thinking about Nazia, saw Jehangir, he knew something was not right. Upon hearing the detestable news, Ashok stood up, took out his handkerchief from his pocket, wiping sweat from his forehead, left the room.
Nazia, who was washing clothes with other women at the local stream, too got the news. Vikas, who was passing by, told her about it. With tears trickling down her face, she put the detergent-soaked clothes in a bucket and ran towards her house. She put the bucket down under the porch, went straight to her room, and locked it from the inside. she felt as if the whole world has collapsed and she was falling into the abyss of nothingness. Nothing mattered to her, the knocks on the door, the assuring words of her father from the other side of the door, the wails of her mother. she was sitting motionless with her eyes stoically staring at the ceiling.
The police constable waving his stick in the air directed Shabir to stop his car. He stopped his car, took out the papers, and stoically walked up to the policeman, who in turn directed him to his senior. Shabir knew where it was headed; he had been through this before. He took out all but 300 rupees from his wallet, kept the money in his socks, and went to the senior cop, who wearing a fake Ray-ban and a Rado and watching videos on his phone was oblivious to what Shabir was doing. Shabir gave him the papers, who without looking at them gave them back and demanded 2000 rupees. Shabir took out 300, the officer accepted the money rather gladly and put it in his left breast pocket, and directed him to leave. Shabir started the engine, pushed the accelerator paddle drifted past the Old man’s cart, emitting thick smoke from the exhaust of his creaky old Maruti 800.
Asad was cleaning the samovar when his phone rang, Dr. Arshid was dead! Asad was shocked beyond belief, he had met him just yesterday after the Zuhr prayer and they had chatted for a long time. Asad had opened a handicrafts shop a couple of years ago at Lal chowk, and for the last couple of months, his business had gone down. He was seeking advice from Dr. Arshid, who other than a medical doctor was a successful businessman as well. The news of Dr. Arshad’s death strongly jolted Asad. He closed his shop and went to attend the funeral prayer of the deceased doctor.
Principal Madhu was in her office talking to Riyaz, the local contractor, about the construction of a wall on the backside of the school. Students, off late, had been climbing the five feet wall with ease to run away during recess. They were deciding whether to increase the height of the wall to seven or eight feet when the peon walked in gave the news to the principal. Some boys had escaped again
END OF Part 1
Part 2 to follow
