The Old Wooden Door

He was trudging along the road while his mind remained occupied with a thought. He was trying to figure out what he gained and what he lost throughout his life.

It had been 10 years since he saw his mother's radiant face. Today he mustered courage to get his home where he had left behind two sisters and a brother. Had he not fallen in love with Pari, he would have been the member of this reputed family of the city. He married her against his parents' will & he leapt in the dark. Why some alliances aren't considered divine though it is said that marriages are made in heaven. Asif was lost in his thought while his feet kept forwarding towards the place where he was born, his ancestral house.

He had seen Pari at the balcony of her house for the first time. She didn't have excessively beautiful face but a serene and soothing face to the beholder. It was the first time when he felt solace in someone's presence.

Now Asif abruptly shun his thought and found himself at an old wooden door. He rang the door bell and after a couple of minutes, the door opened ajar, behind was a woman who asked Asif who he wanted to meet. What would he answer who he wanted to meet? Then a voice came behind asking the woman, 'Razia, who's there?' Asif could never forget the very voice, unmistakably it was his mother. 'Is Mr. Zaki there?', he asked. The lady's face suddenly fell and said, 'He passed away last month.' It was the last thing that Asif expected. Now the door of reconciliation with his family was shut forever. 'I...I am sorry.' He faltered and with even stronger resolution, he got to the way he came from. He didn't want his siblings interpret his arrival as a claim for his share in the inheritance.

The denouncing words of Mr. Zaki, his father, were chasing him, 'It is the last face of yours I even wouldn't like to see before my soul departs; get lost from here, you won't get any share of the property but after my death.' Asif knew that his name was buried in ignominy.

He was now very well off as a result of his father's stern decision. Again Asif came over the same question on what he achieved and what slipped away from his life. People say what you gain isn't only the result of your hard work but also the payoff the parents' blessings. Being thankful, Asif raised his both hands and supplicated, 'May Allah enter his soul to Jannah!' Back at the station, passengers were jostling to get into their coaches; Asif had to wait for his train to get back to Delhi.