Marhaba

Taufeeq Miyan and his wife, Mariam were a childless couple. He was a librarian and his wife used to teach embroidery to local girls.

Their daughter never had a bonhomie with the library as she hated the smell of old books, the tarnished old covers of the book, hated the apparently accumulated dust upon them; she called it a stench and the shelves adorned with books as shrouds.

Her parents did the best to make her educated. As time flew, she wanted herself to be dismantled from the shackles of a rustic life. She was hardworking and studied judiciously and hence, her hardwork paid;she bagged a scholarship for higher education. She left her home to pursue her dreams, never to look back again. She was so engrossed that she had forgotten about her ailing parents. She bagged a job, no doubt and helped her parents monetarily but she never ever paid a single visit to them after leaving her rustic abode. Her parents pined for her, longed to see her, embrace her in their bosom!

...And as they say, "time shall show you your true position", she had to return to her place, to discover a truth which was even petrifying than thriller books or tragic poetry! She returned after years with her work pressure and consequent depression.

The books welcomed her and sang in unison, "Marhaba", "Marhaba", to their abode, though she abhorred them! She was christened as Marhaba (welcome in Arabic) by her bibliophile father; she was far from contiguity with the books as she believed in modern education.The last gift from her father was the bunch of keys to his rustic library. She found the book where the tale of a girl-child called Marhaba was etched who was abandoned inside a library (her adoption certificate), the keeper embraced her and named her as Marhaba.

Her adoptive father's library was the umbilical cord to her connection to books and them!