Here in the city of Yamal people are bounded by their strict routines ,some areas of the city resemble the sights of a barren and abandoned land as of a desert .The city has been under a chilly weather, usually this area is known for being moderate .Rumors predicting snowfall were to be heard almost everywhere by everyone this year .Due to the harsh freezing weather the educational departments had announced the start of winter holidays earlier this year.
"CHIDRENS SEEMED HAPPY I GUESS"
A month had passed since the holidays had begun, I enjoyed being away from studies and my annoying loud classroom .Today my parents had decided to visit my grandfather .He was suffering from pneumonia, due to sudden exposure to early morning breezes .Everyone started their preparations ,Well leaving me since I'm always ready .Soon we left our house and in an interval of about 20min we had reached our destination ,We entered the house but every member of the family looked to be in a good mental and physical state .After meeting
everyone and fulfilling the formalities I had start to turn toward grandpa's room.
"VOICES OF SEVERE COUGHS INCREASED AS THE DISTANCE DECREASED, HITTING MY EAR DRUMS ALONG WITH SOME REGRETFUL
CRYS"
"Anyone there?", I asked but got no response .Since it was obvious that
grandfather was in there I opened the door and entered the room .I saw him reading a book ,Since it wan't in English so for me there was nothing to get at .It stood no surprise as he had mastered many languages such as Arabic ,Urdu, Persian and more that I am also
unaware of.
The thing that was pinching me at the moment was the thought or you can say curiosity that why was he flooding tears over a book? .He tried to stand up for meeting me but his physical strength didn't give him
that choice .To make things a bit comfortable I decreased the distance in between us ,There were still tears in his eyes resembling regret .I couldn't help but ask the reasoning for it,
"WHY CRY FATHER, DOES YOUR CHEST HURT , AREN'T THE MEDICINE EFFECTIVE ENOUGH?"
Just like every old stubborn man he changed the course of the topic and wiped his tears off him, in the meanwhile the curiosity inside me
increased and I looked at the book he was reading.
"KATBAH", I had read .It was the title of the book , in fact the only thing written in English on it's cover.
Later on ,When I reached home randomly a thought jumped into my head while doing some so called idiotic acts.
"OK ,OK I ADMIT I WAS EATING EGGS DIPPED INTO NODDLES"
It tasted awful anyways the title of the book had popped into my head and made me curious once again ,
"WHAT COULD THAT BOOK HAD BEEN ABOUT ANYWAYS ,WHY WAS GRANDFATHER CRYING OVER IT ?,MAYBE SOMETHING THAT IS RELATED TO HEAVENS OR MAYBE SOMETHING THAT REMINDS OF THE AFTERLIFE?"
I did what every responsible modern age student would do, Yes I opened my browser and searched the title of the book ."IT's IN URDU!", I had dug more deeply and found some contents about the book that were translated.
"KATBAH WAS A BOOK WRITTEN BY AN URDU AUTHOR "GhulamAbbas" .THE BOOK REVOLVED AROUND A CHARACTER NAMED "Shareef Husain" .A PERSON WHO ONLY WORKED WHEN WAS HYPED OR MOTIVATED ABOUT SOMETHING;BUT HIS HYPE OR MOTIVATION NEVER LASTED TOO LONG DUE TO WHICH HE LEAD A UNSUCCESFULL LIFE."
I wasn't the type of person who felt words written on pages but this time it was different I experienced a moment of silence after reading the contents of the book .My heart suddenly felt like there was no difference in my and Shareef Husain's life.
"I ALWAYS WASTED TIME AND STILL DO ,I WAS GOOD WITH STUDIES BUT DIDN'T ACTUALLY TRY PLANNING MY WAYS AND IF DID IT WAS LIKE Shareef Husain's PLANNING.SOONER OR LATER I JUST USED TO QUIT."
"WOULD I DID IN REGRET TOO, ACHIEVING NOTHING?"
These thoughts had circulated in my head for several days ,In my spare times I would get a recap of the book leading me to question my way of life and even my very existence in the world .But due to laziness I never made a change in my life ,And after a month these thoughts had faded.
The harsh weather in our area had also started to settle down .The opening of educational institutes was also announced .I still had 8 days to go before the break ended .Like every brilliant lazy student I wanted these holidays to last longer but I guess that is never an option, So I decided to have a little fun in the reaming 8 days I had.
"WHAT SHOULD I DO? SWIM? NAH NOWAY I CAN'T SWIM , GO TO HIKE BUT WITH WHOM "and during this ultra usage of my brain I got reminded about a cousin of mine .So it was decided and I started to pack .I was luckily also given permission from my parents.
"EVERYTIME I HAD TO LEAVE FOR A LONG INTERVAL OF TIME I GET STUCK IN A COMPLICATED AND STRESSFUL THOUGHT.MY MOTHER HAD BLOOD PRESSURE (BP) ISSUES AND I WAS THE ONLY ONE IN THE FAMILY WHO COULD OPERATE THE APPARATUS FOR CHEEKING HER CONDITION.SO WHENEVER I USED TO GET OUT THE CONDITION OF HER STATS MADE ME WORRY ALOT."
I declared to myself that once I return I'll teach the little ones on how to cheek blood pressure stats this way I would at least not worry about it for the time period I'm away .The next morning I woke up with excitement and also started to pack some important stuff.
"DON'T YOU DARE SAY CANDIES AREN'T IMPORTANT! "
By 8AM I had left the house and arrived at the nearest bus stop in our area.
"THIS WORLD WE ALL LIVE IN HAS GOTTEN GREEDY AND HAS MOVED TOWARDS MATERIALISIM.AT THAT BUS STOP THERE WERE TYPES OF BUSES LIKE PREMIUM, BUSINESS CLASS AND LOCALS.THE LOCAL AND SOME OF THE PREMIUM BUSES HAD NO MAINTANANCE DONE TO THEM AND NOT TO A SURPRISE THERE WAS NO ONE TO KEEP SAFETY CHEEKS UPON THESE BUSES.DUE TO THE URGE OF SAVING MONEY THESE CRUEL DRIVERS HAD ALWAYS RISKED THEIR PASSENGERS LIVES."
I had chosen a bus with a repayable look and hopped into it .The journey started in a bit and about 12AM I had reached my destination .I had waited a while on the other side for my relatives to arrive and pick me up as I was not familiar with this area too much.
Once we all had reached the house formal greetings were done, For some time all members stood out in the open hall and chatted standing once all to display was done I entered in and looked around for Rehan.
[Oh sorry I forgot to tell ,My cousins name is Rehan and we know each other for a very long long time.]
Me: "How are you ?".
Rehan: "I'm doing well and what about you?"
Me: "Has been long."
Rehan:"Maybe (giggles)."
We talked for a while and I discussed how my break was almost to an end ,So we discussed some ideas and at last talked to camp on a nearby mount .It was decided that we will be camping in a time interval of 3 days .On day one we would focus upon reaching our destination ,On day two we would spend pure time exploring and have some quality time and day three would be focused upon our return .We both were excited but instead of sleeping we both talked the entire night out ,All we talked was pointless but surely made our time wonderful for the moment .The morning soon arrived when we had to leave.
Rehan(mother): "Wake up sleepy heads ,you had a plan for today."
[If she had said it's school time I wouldn't have heard it. (hehe)]
Me: "For some reason the sun seems to shine with a warmly touch
here."
Rehan: "Don't know but I guess it's same for me today .Anyways get
ready and quick!"
It was morning and both were ready, At least this is what we told in home but the cigarettes were still missing.
We had left and reached our destination by a local ride after some time we were close but the way from there was to travelled on footsteps .It didn't take long for us to realize we were slow and I mean seriously slow.
Rehan: "If you would have gotten that belly of your in shape we would
be this slow."
Me: "Says the slimmest one amongst us. (laughs)"
Until we had reached the top we just went on blaming each other and laughing crazy, Now that i think about it the people were looking at us as if we were crazy.
[If there would be a law to arrest the idiots of the city, We would be
arrested .We were crazy (hahahaha)]
Me: "I guess a camp is to be set by dawn, and we are still not done .Is it ok ?"
Rehan: "Don't tell me that you don't know how to set up a camp."
[At this moment I thought he would act all tough and keep on making fun of me .but I guess luck was on my side or maybe there was no luck (haha).He also had no knowledge of setting up the camp and it was starting to get chilly out here]
Me: "Don't you worry, I can break a camp can I not set it up?(can I?)
Rehan: "If you can't then we'll de frozen!"
Ok so it isn't a big of a deal, at least I didn't think of it at that moment .I begun by taking rods of similar size and attached them and it looked like it worked .In the end I had 4 rods remaining but no idea of where they go to so I hid them .Rehan came with confidence to cheek the camp and entered in.
[At this moment the entire camp collapsed on him, it's a moment worth watching right? .He cursed me a lot but I couldn't have cared much ,Due to the collapsing I found where the reaming rods belonged to.They were supporting rods that were to be fixed to maintain the distance between each individual rod.]
Well then I started to put the camp together again ,and this time it was
finally done.
The first day had been entirely declared upon climbing this beauty made by the god.by night we had started to set up our camps.
[I know ,I know we are lazy]
The camp was done setting up and I sent Rehan to bring up something to burn .I was sitting on a log neat to the camp and guess what I heard
"CATCH THOSE FILTHY KIDS!, Don't let them get away"
I stood and went a bit closer the sight of this interruption there I spotted about 12 men chasing two kids these kids were not properly equipped with clothing that suited the temperature .It was 3 degrees and was predicted to drop till or below 0 degrees .Soon these kids had to pass by our camp as it was the only route .I had decided to hide these kids from the men when they were close and it happened the way I planned it .I had these kids hidden in the camp and when the men
left I approached them . .Obviously it couldn't be resisted so I had gone ahead asking them "Why here of all places ? Where are your parents?"
[These kids were sibling's having no parents , they usually used to steal goods from the local market for their survival .This time their case went extreme till these heights.]
Once those people were out of sight I had demanded the kids to show themselves, The younger girl was shivering due to these temperatures and the boys was shedding tears even colder then this cruel climate .I gave them some cloths, Of course it was big in size as they were too small .I decided to wait for Rehan he had gone to collect some wood, Soon Rehan arrived and I explained him the current situation .Rehan started to question these kids some questions like "Why do you steal?"
, "Which one of you stole the goods? " etc etc.
[The younger girl was responsible for stealing the goods]
At this moment Rehan said something to them that made me personally question the concept of what is right and what is wrong.Rehan told them that a person's soul remains alive till his respect is constant .I stopped Rehan to speak any further as it was not the proper time to .
"The thing is we all are born in different houses with different stability levels and when I put Rehan's statement in mind it's not acceptable to me .How can respect do any good if you are dead?"
"THE ONE THING THAT WAS CLEAR WAS THAT WE KNEW OUR SOUL WOULD DIE THE MOMENT WE WOULD IGNORE SUCH YOUNG ANGELS"
The issue that was arising now was that we at the time had a single small tent ,It could fit two people with almost no mobility in the camp .But....
[SOME MOMENTS IN LIFE MAKE US REALIZE HOW GREEDY AND SELFISH WE ARE .THIS MOMENT STOOD NO DIFFERENT WE WANTED TO HELP BUT AT THE SAME TIME "ARE WE CAPABLE OF SLEEPING IN THIS
FREEZING WEATHER?"]
As time passed I kept on looking at the boy and the way he used to do things .We had given these kids permission to eat as they want but still this kid used to ask permissions for everything he took .It made clear
that he couldn't steal ,He was the type Rehan was teaching them .In few moments I realized that the factor of respect makes a person unique ,even though if something bad were to happen to him he wouldn't die begging or in regret .I planned something at this moment ,don't rush I'll tell soon it's a surprise .I went near Rehan and sat down.
Me: "You know today is quite a beautiful day ,The morning was warm too, wasn't it?"
Rehan: "Even the night is warm, Isn't it?"
We had started a fire and set the kids to sleep inside ,Even though the temperature had dropped to low but it felt warm .Warm from inside the soul .That boy kept on sighting us after some short periods of time ,I guess he couldn't feel comfortable keeping someone out in the cold so I started to crack jokes with Rehan and soon he slept too .Maybe
some deeds really make the impossible possible!