AQAAB
Twelve
"Come, I will first click a photograph of Mother and then she will click our photo," Ananya said chuckling.
Ananya, Tanishk and Ananya’s mother were standing on the main gate of the famous national park in the state of Virginia in the U.S., from where they were about to enter inside to spend one night in the park after buying tickets. Other tourists were coming as well. Vehicles would come one after the other and the tourists from different countries would gather various views in their eyes as well as their cameras. Some would get off for a stroll.
Seeing the three of them standing there, a woman approached them. She had probably heard Ananya, she said, smiling, "All three of you stand together, I will click your photo." She took the camera from Tanishk’s hands.
Ananya’s mother stood beside her with Tanishk on the other side of Ananya. Listening to that woman had made her happy. She clicked the photo and while giving back the camera, she said, "I know the importance of parents...they don’t live with us for long."
Her words made Ananya’s mother feel a rush of emotions.
When Tanishk had made plans for the tour of the U.S. with Ananya, he had also requested Mother to come with them. Tanishk said, "Anyway, Mother is not going to go there alone, she will travel with us. However her relations were with Masru Uncle, she will at least see where and with whom did her husband live after separating with her."
Since the time Ananya’s mother had come to know from Tanishk that Uncle had never been in a relationship with any woman after coming to the U.S., nor did he get married, respect for Masru Osse had increased in her eyes. And she had also started loving Tanishk as her son who had not only lived with her husband but was also her son-in-law now. And that kind of son-in-law who had driven away the sense of loneliness and had made affection take its place in her daughter’s mind forever to make her a family woman.
Tanishk showed them New York. They also saw the home where Tanishk lived with Masru Uncle after leaving Japan for the first time. Ananya and her mother would get lost in imagination while listening to Tanishk. They would be surprised about the relation between Tanishk and Masru Uncle that both of them left their country to come there and lived together for the rest of Masru Uncle’s life. Tanishk also showed them the salon on 56th Street where he had worked for a long time.
They also went to see the World Trade Center. Ananya’s mother placed a flower on the name of Masru on the pool’s wall and stood in front of it with her eyes closed and a scarf on her head. For those few moments, she became only Narishima and remembered her husband whom she had once loved. She felt remorse on the fact that she had grown apart from him.
Tanishk inquired about the Sheikh but he was told that he did not live there anymore. He had left the country to go somewhere else. Tanishk felt a void because he wanted to tell the Sheikh that he had grown a business in Kashmir only on his advice. He realized that he had never again met that friend of the Sheikh whose contact information he had with him while going there. Later on, Tanishk also received the information in a muffled voice from one of his former associates that the Sheikh had gone underground after the people associated with terrorist activities were being nabbed. After he went underground, nobody knew his whereabouts.
Since those days when news about the doubt and attack of the U.S. on Al-Qaeda and the killing of Osama bin Laden were coming, nobody had seen the Sheikh there. All of his places were either locked or Tanishk met only strangers there.
During his search for the Sheikh, Tanishk did not take Ananya or Mother along with him so that in case the Sheikh meets him, he does not utter something in front of his family which sounds suspicious. Now, this was Tanishk’s family. But however the Sheikh was, Tanishk wanted to meet him once.
Tanishk’s desire of talking to the Sheikh in Urdu and making him happy remained unfulfilled. Not he had not only learnt Urdu but he was fluent in it.
Almost all of the staff in the salon had changed and he found everyone to be a stranger there.
Tanishk liked this national park in Virginia. He found it mesmerizing that the trees changed colours here along with the seasons. Trees were the symbols of greenery. But Tanishk’s curiosity would arise when this greenery changed its mood with the seasons. The trees would turn orange from yellow and then they would turn red. With the coming of the winter, this red colour would change in brown and then the leaves would start falling. The trees would get naked. Their clothes would come off and when snow would fall with the rise of the winters, everything would turn white. The leafless branches and trunks would keep standing like innocent creatures buried in snow. Autumn would fill the paths and those colourful leaves which had once seen the springtime, would now fall silent and bury in the earth. In the snow, even the sound of someone walking over them would go mute. The greenery and the paths would turn lifeless and desolate. Tanishk liked seeing that even nature changed its colours with these lively trees squirming.
When Tanishk arrived at JFK Airport with Ananya and her mother then he was as happy from outside as halfhearted he was from inside. It is said that a person is connected through his mind to that city for the rest of his life in which he spends his adolescence. Tanishk had become a teenager from a child and then had turned into a young man here. With this city, the memories of the stages of his young age were entangled. He used to be excited to touch this city’s air with his sights in the rushing train or taxi.
After checking in at the airport, the niggle at the back of his mind was now wearing off. The luggage had entered the aeroplane. Security check was also done. Mother was sitting in the lobby with a small bag containing eatables in her hands. Ananya and Tanishk were taking a stroll in the long airport corridor. Both of them were in their traditional Kashmiri attire.
Tanishk saw that Ananya had entered a shop. There was still an hour left in the take-off and they had completed all the formalities. Tanishk stood outside the shop to wait for Ananya to come back. He could see her from the glass. She was searching for a novel in a book shop to read it on the journey. Tanishk had no interest in books but he was happy that if she buys something to read in the journey then she would be busy and Tanishk will get some time to sleep peacefully.
Then Ananya opened the glass door to come outside, chuckling. She had a book in one of her hands. Probably a novel. Tanishk grabbed her hand carelessly and with the other, he took the book from her and looked at it. The novel was - ‘Aqaab’.
"What does it mean?" Tanishk asked naively.
"Why, you come back late at night after spending time with Maulvi Sahab, I am told that you are learning Urdu-Hindi...still you don’t understand it? Aqaab means eagle."
"Oh, so now humans will sit with you and you will be lost in the thoughts of birds?" Tanishk said innocently.
"Don’t you know that the birds might fly high in the sky but their flight takes them back to the ground in search of food and water?"
"Then what’s the difference between humans and birds?" Tanishk asked.
"Why would there be any difference, both of them are nature’s gifts."
"That’s what I am asking ma’am, how did you think of birds in the middle of humans?"
"Let’s see what have humans learnt from birds and what have they taught them? To tell you the truth, the eyes of this aqaab on the cover page attracted me."
"I think that these aeroplanes were made only after seeing these birds fly. Terrorist activities must have flourished after watching these birds descend from the sky to attack a smaller bird. The dead animals on earth bring these hungry birds on the ground. Birds don’t land on the ground only to satiate their hunger, didn’t you see in the museum of World Trade Center that how did the descending aeroplanes end the lives of thousands of innocents who were working on the ground?"
"Oh, where have you taken this topic Tanishk. Anyway, the aeroplanes did not come themselves to spread fire and wreak havoc, they were brought there by madness and bloody desires of humans. Even these are aeroplanes which we will board to reach our home. To fly in the sky is an old ambition of humans."
"And perhaps to apply brakes on those ambitions is the habit of time," Tanishk said.
"That’s also necessary..." as if Ananya had not known to accept defeat.
"What, the suppression of human’s ambitions?" Tanishk asked.
"Yes, sure. If time won’t do that then one man will buy the rights to live on the whole planet, man’s ambitions know no bounds. The Earth has enough for everyone but perhaps it has not enough for that one man’s ambitions? No matter how many lines do people draw on the ground, but humanity will be needed in all these blocks."
Tanishk stopped. Suddenly Ananya handed over her book and purse to him and opened the restroom’s door in front of her to enter inside. Tanishk kept strolling there.
Tanishk came a bit ahead while walking, Ananya was taking a long time. Perhaps in a hurry of checking out from the hotel, her bowels could not evacuate.
Tanishk was watching some stuff hanging in a shop when he felt a soft touch on his fingers which were resting on the glass counter. He looked there alarmingly and moved his hand a bit forward, thinking that someone might have put his hand over his by mistake. Without looking there, he kept staring at the stuff in the almirah.
Tanishk remembered very well that here, usually, people don’t look at each other. The reason behind it was that people from every country and race are present here. They don’t know about each other’s nature and manners. A small mistake can cause someone to be doubtful or develop a wrong perception so usually, people don’t make eye contact. If they make eye contact by mistake or coincidence then they either look away or smile to give a positive response so that the other person does not feel insulted or angry. Some people greet in their country’s way so that the stranger thinks that this person is not harming him.
But Tanishk again felt the pressure of fingers on his hand. Now he suddenly looked at the stranger who was trying to touch him.
His hair was red. He was wearing black glasses. His body was covered with a long overcoat. The stranger was at the other side of the counter which probably meant that he was the shopkeeper and also the owner of the shop. Magnificent and luxurious. Though all the shops at this airport were magnificent and luxurious. Seeing that stranger, Tanishk could not guess at once that which language the stranger might speak. Still, he looked at him and said ‘hi’ in a muffled voice.
Now the stranger grabbed both of his hands excitedly and hugged him in the middle of the airport’s commotion. Tanishk was hesitant with this warmth and stepped back. But the stranger didn’t give him any chance to move away and hugged him again.
Tanishk was taken aback and he looked behind as he hoped that Ananya might be coming there. But he could not see her. Tanishk looked at the stranger again. None of them had spoken until now. But now the stranger’s lips opened and he said, "With the change in season, it is difficult to recognise trees under the impact of the fall colour."
Oh! Tanishk felt a current in his body. He jumped up. What mistake he had committed. He could not recognise the Sheikh in these clothes and get-up. He did not even imagine that he would meet the Sheikh like this with a changed appearance. The Sheikh pulled a chair forward and made Tanishk sit on it.
Now in his fluent Urdu, Tanishk quickly told him everything about his home, family and Ananya. The Sheikh told him his story in a muffled voice that how he had to leave the country. He was also affected in the nabbing after the Twin Towers attacks. He had to pay a huge fine and was also arrested for some time. After the dust settled, he was here again with a new name and address as a European.
Tanishk was looking with surprise. Now his attention was towards Ananya, he got up to walk towards the restroom. He told the Sheikh that Ananya’s mother was also there with them.
The Sheikh offered Tanishk to stay but neither he had the time nor the patience to pay attention to the Sheikh’s offer. He got up to look for Ananya. As Tanishk came out, two ladies passed him while talking to each other. Tanishk heard them.
"All men are the same…"
"They never care…"
"See, the wife is so troubled inside…?"
Tanishk almost ran towards the restroom. Ananya was pushing the door to come outside. Seeing Tanishk, she gestured towards him with both of her hands and walked forward. Tanishk asked, "What happened?"
Ananya was silent. But her eyes had reddened. They were wet as well.
"Oh, what happened? You are unwell...speak," he said to Ananya. Tanishk looked at her worryingly and then pulled her towards his chest. Ananya was still silent. Tanishk took out a handkerchief from his pocket and tried to give it to her but when she did not take it, he dabbed it on her cheeks as if he wanted to wipe the tear which had fallen from her eye.
"What had you eaten in the morning?" Tanishk asked.
Ananya was silent.
"Why didn’t you call me, what happened, you should have told me if there was a problem," Tanishk asked many questions in one breath. Ananya kept walking with him silently. Another woman was coming from the restroom towards them. She was looking at Tanishk and Ananya. Tanishk was surprised. She came near them and said, "Take care…"
"What happened?" Now Tanishk asked the woman.
"She is not okay..." the woman said and went ahead.
"What happened Ananya, tell me something, how are you feeling now?"
Ananya did not say anything. Now her silence was worrying Tanishk. He was asking her again and again but she was silent. Talking to each other, two more women passed them. One of them was looking behind towards Ananya. But Ananya kept walking in the lobby beside Tanishk with her head down.
"They never know...hahaha..." the woman’s laugh was heard.
The second woman joined her with a muffled laugh. Tanishk watched them go with a plain childlike face. When the woman found Tanishk looking at her, she started smiling. Then she moved ahead, walking quickly. Even then, Tanishk could hear her voice, "They are unable to guess that what have they done, they keep asking...what happened?...what happened? Poor males..." the woman laughed heartily.
Now Tanishk and Ananya had reached that section of the lobby where Mother was sitting on a chair. Mother got up suddenly with the bag in her hand. She looked at Ananya deeply. The announcement was happening. From the desk in front of them, a lady was asking everybody to move towards the aeroplane…
Mother looked towards Ananya. Ananya said in a low voice…”vomiting”...the sound of Ananya’s words entered Tanishk’s ears like a wave. So Ananya vomited, he thought.
Tanishk walked ahead slowly with Ananya on one side.
A few steps ahead, a large bird stood with its iron wings open as if it was ready to make two corners of the world meet each other with its confident flight.
Tanishk said in his mind, “Aqaab”...and looked at the changing colours on Ananya’s face...the seasons were changing.
The End
