Upsurge; Rising after a Fall…
By: Mansoor Ahmad Shaikh
Early morning, Nashfa is preparing for a new life with a spark in her eyes to get over all the frightful stuff that she has come across in recent past. While, with a lot of jumbled things in her life, she decided not to touch those broken glasses and shift the focus to positive domains, it seemed difficult to her as she has never been accustomed to the take on the outside world on her own, all alone. Unable to make friends, because of the bitter experiences of the past, she made an attempt to focus on radical things. But who gets to know what future is hiding for us in folds of time.
With a positive attitude, a big smile and a beautiful appearance, she tends to make a beautiful start towards her journey. Everyone in the family is happy to see her rise after a drastic loss in her life. It was unexpected for people to see her rise like that, but a sunset is followed by a sunrise and a storm by a beautiful sunny day. In life, I believe it’s important to survive, survival is bending down without breaking. But, Nashfa was broken due to some past experiences and was overcoming to those harsh experiences of life. This was a big step for her, as most of the people thought that she won’t be able to rise after such a dreadful experience.
The first day at the University proved to be very exhausting, but Nashfa seems to be happy and as she reaches home, she finds it filled with joy and all overwhelmingly awaiting to hear the tale of her experience of the day. Her Mother is ready with her favorite sweets and the spark in her eyes is the ray of hope to the family. That Nashfa is going to stand again despite all the pain that once crushed her, gives them immense happiness and contentment-Family is after all family!
In the midst of all, a thought of the past agony crossed her memory and nearly tore her apart. But she stood like a courageous soul defying the onslaught and maintaining a strong smile on her face until she hastily went upstairs to her room, closed the door and hugged the pillow to give went to volley of tears that had accumulated in her eyes. She has often done so in the past!
Wiping her tears, she had a glance of the picture on the wall of her room and she was lost in it. It was the picture of Little Nashfa holding firmly to the finger of her Super Hero, ABU- her father!
‘Abu wanted me to study well and to crack the toughest exams’ she whispered to herself!
Flashback
‘Abu I can’t find my geometry box’ Nashfa asked in a hurried voice as she was getting late. ‘I’ve kept it right on the table near your grammar books,’ her father replied. ‘Basit has been very annoying to me, as he used my tooth brush in the morning accidently. I wasted time in argument with him’ Nashfa now asked her Ammi who looked around and scolded both saying that they were no more children and that they now have to stop fighting on every menial issue.
Nashfa wanted to leave quickly and dodge her mother who wanted her to have an omelet since she wasn’t even carrying her lunch pot. But she couldn’t avoid her father- her super hero- who made it sure that she ate the omelet no matter how much she yelled that she was getting late.
Her exam days were nearing fast and she wanted her father to help her as per the promise. ‘Abu you promised me to help in these reasoning based questions, please help now,’ she asked her father who had already submitted a leave from his office to keep himself unavailable and to dedicate quality time to her daughter.
This gave Ammi a chance to castigate when she said, “you never managed time for me, but look how happy you are helping your daughter.” On this the man of the home would throw a few tantrums and embrace his wife saying that it was his daughters first hit at the competitive exams and that when she qualifies, he shall throw a big party. They both smiled and were happy when Nashfa intervened- ‘hello, is the romance over, can we know start’- they all laughted joyfully!
Finally the day came when the results were supposed to be declared. She felt a strangeness in her heart and was quite anxious about the results. Her parents had wished her luck when she left to hear the results.
She ran her eyes over the result gazette and could clearly read:
Nashfa Bint Hammad Score: 118 points Percentile: 98.33 Rank:1
Giggling with joy, running towards her home to inform her father, with great zest, that she had topped, Nashfa was literary on top of the world.
But as she neared her home, she could see people assembled on the roadside, she didn’t think much but since she had to cross the crowd, she overheard something and saw a lifeless body lying on the road. A speeding car had hit her Abu and here he was lying, blood drenched, lifeless, numb! Nashfa couldn’t believe her eyes and was shocked beyond imagination- she felt a portion of her had died along her father- she was devastated! \
Flashback ends..
Suddenly Nashfa heard a knock at her door. It broke the chain of memories and brought her back to reality. She stood up, walked up to the door and swung it open!
