The taste of her tears
Sofi Nasir
An evening of street lights, the cold atmosphere, the noisy traffic on roads, thousands of people returning to their homes, a young woman and her two daughters inside a torn blanket sitting lonely against the cold wall of the footpath. The scenario that was taken foregranted on a footpath goes heartbreaking.
A woman along a footpath, budging her steps and hiding her tears in her eyes. As she passed, it was clear on her face that she was feeling sad. She had hugged her two children to her chest and was very sad at the time of dusk .As I looked back, the woman stole her eyes from me. I was wondering how to talk to this woman and find out the secret of her grief.
I left to get my mind off the idea. Going a little farther, when I again turned back, I saw this woman lying down on the same footpath with her two daughters hugged to her chest and she covered them inside a torn blanket. I came close and asked, “Mam, why are you here? It is bitter cold, the two babies will suffer”. But the poor lady was sitting in a state of quietude. Her quietude did not make me want to leave from there.
“Mam, it is too cold and it is night appearing, you can’t be safe outside the home in this bitter cold. You have been blessed with two beautiful daughters, you aren’t alone. Allah and your daughters are with you, Please return back to your home”, I asked in the voice of consolidation. She was numb, quite and with a red nose. The tears were ready to fall from her eyelashes and already tears had made their way through her cheeks. Still she wasn’t responding.
After the maxima of her control, she put her head down, touched her eyes with bandaged fingers and began to shed emotional tears. One by one tears fell on her daughter’s cheeks and she left her mother’s nipple and tried to wipe the tears from her mother’s cheeks. The scene in front of my eyes was truly heartbreaking.
Ahhh…! Her nose blocked, numb and her emotional eyes were saying her inner feelings. The woman asking me gently, “Can you say me, where is the Hazrat-e-bal, there is the room of my sister, I will spend some days there, Please”. “Sure, I will “, I replied. I threw the torn blanket and picked up one of her daughters, hugged the baby and we left to find out the room of her sister. “Ahhh…!, the room is here”, both of us sighed a relief.
A room on the third floor, broken windows, cold atmosphere, the cracky sounds coming out of old furniture and we stepped into the room, holding two blankets for daughters and I said, “Wait.”
10 minutes later, I bought some candles from outside and we lit two of them. This brought a sense of relief to her face and the two daughters fell asleep by the warm “Allah-Allah” lyrics sung by their mother.
“Aftab, My husband thrashes me routinely. He tore our marriage album, hit me with a bat, threw my suitcase, clothes and everything out of the house. Someday he gags me, slaps me on my face, pulls my hair tightly, kicks me and calls me a burden on him. He abuses me, my parents and these two daughters. He never eats food cooked by me, hates my face and always tries to fight on stupid things. But today it was the climax of my endurance because he demanded rent of me and my daughter’s room and ordered me to vacate the room of his house “, she replied to me amid the flow of her tears.
My eyes got wet after she showed the marks of beating on her hands, arms, neck and forehead. My heart wanted to be there for as long as possible to console the mother, but the influx of phone calls from the family was only reason to leave from the heart breaking tears of the poor lady. “Ok, I will leave this time, it is already late, I will keep coming to help you until you achieve stability here, call me if you need anything”, I replied.
Days later, Mehnur got a job in a local school and she managed to run her small family. At regular intervals, I kept meeting Mehnur and her two daughters. I managed to play with her two daughters, “Sunnat and Jannat” so they don’t feel less in love. But while Mehnur was cooking food for her family, the behavior of her husband remained the reason of her tears. Hiding her tears while she lit the gas stove and there was no answer for the question, “Mom, When will Abba Jaan bring Teddy bears for us”?
Months later, while holding a Sunday newspaper in her hand, she got to know her husband got judicial custody for two years in some company case. While it remained the point of curiosity for me to see her unlucky husband, I went to see her husband on meeting day for 10 minutes in Jail. I was not permitted to see him but in the register I saw his photo and the jailor told me that he is the only one who receives special food as compared to others.
On meeting day, every jailed man got a chance to talk to his family but unfortunately he couldn’t because of his own deeds. Day by day he had realised he had did something wrong but Mehnur left no contact for her husband and time goes by. He decided to meet his wife and two daughters as soon as he gets bail from the court.
Three years later, he finally got a bail from the court and he was excited to meet his daughters and wife. After spending six days in finding the address of his family, he got to know about his wife is residing in Hazrat-e-bal in the flat of her sister.
Two teddy bears and a bunch of flowers in his hand, he rushed to the address to see his family. Asking the warden excitedly, “Mam, I need to talk to my wife and my daughter’s residing in your flat”. The warden was quite for two minutes and gave him an address written as, “Third lane, 25, 26 & 35”. “We are sorry sir, we were unable to send you food for 2 days, your two daughters met an accident ten days before and two days after, your wife Mehnur also passed away due to cardiac arrest. She has left a message for you Sir”, replied the Mam.
The two teddy bears and the bunch of flowers fell down from his hands. Aftab, her husband, with tears in his eyes is reading the message of her lost wife, ” I am sorry for inconvenience in your food for last two days of my hospitality, I am sorry for being burden on you, my room in your house was expensive. These three small rooms inside the land are free of cost for me and my daughters, and are quite comfortable”.
Moral. Value and protect everything you have in your life, you don’t know if it will be with you after a while. Aftab regained consciousness after a couple of minutes and the regret of Mehnur’s tears never let him live in the peace.
