Eunoia

I was running late and stood tapping my foot on the floor impatiently. Nikhat would strangle me if I don't reach on time. Especially when I had to keep her sane during this 'crisis' as she addressed it.

My eyes were at the door of the bakery, waiting for Baba's arrival. It was Saturday and as the routine I was in Baba's bakery. It was situated three plots away from our house. And so most of the customers were familiar.

This morning I was helping Baba to revamp some arrangements in the bakery when he suddenly left to fetch a few things from our house urgently. He instructed me to stay at the counter and assist any customers during the time, assuring to come back soon. But now I will be facing Nikhat Ali's wrath because Baba was being unusually late.

My gaze again drifted from the clock to the entrance. As usual Yusuf, the delivery guy and Baba's helper in the bakery sat outside on the small bench indulged in his phone. His concentration and stressful face were the sign that he is playing that damn game.

This is how you will see Yusuf 24/7, in that phone of his. Whenever Baba asigns him to do a work he listens to the instructions half-heartedly. You should see the frustration on his face after being interrupted from the precious date with his phone in such moments. After doing the chore, almost messing up whatever it is, he will regain his previous position with his phone clutched in his hands.

Yusuf is about a year older than me, fresh out of uni but has some more papers to clear. So he works here for the timebeing.

A few more impatient minutes later Baba finally entered the bakery and I didn't waste a second in running out from there after saying my salam and complaining about his unpunctuality.

I tried to reach Nikhat's house quickly, it was only a street away. I reached her house and rang the doorbell. As the door swung open it revealed Nikhat's mother Shahida aunty.

"Assalamu Alaykum," I greeted.

"Wa Alaykumassalam. Thankful that you are here Naura. The girl is freaking out and is two seconds away from turning the house upside down."

I laughed cautiously because if Nikhat saw our exchange then her annoyance will built up. "Let me go to her room then." I said while entering the house and started walking towards her room as aunty nodded.

I knocked on her door and a faint 'come in' was heard instantly.

"Well well well," This girl is in her dramatic mood again. But when is she not? "About time you remembered I exist" Nikhat's back faced me as she sat in the spinning chair adjacent to her studying table.

How did she know I am the one on the other side without seeing me?

I whispered salam and then she turned around very dramatically in slow motion. She leaned her back against the chair and sits cross-legged. With a glare she returns the salam and started studying me as if I was a hostage brought infront of the cruel kidnapper.

She gestured towards her bed, telling me to sit down voicelessly.

"Stop acting like you are in a james bond movie." I rolled my eyes while positioning myself on the bed.

"I was counting till 10."

"Umm why?"

"Because if you didn't arrive till then you would be officially cancelled. But luck is on your side. You arrived as soon as I reached 8."

"Whatever. Now explain everything."

"My Naura. I can't take this anymore. Why did it happen to me?" As expect she whined all along. "This was so--"

"Wait there. Nothing actually happened. It was just a suggestion. And I asked for an explanation of the events, give me that," I said sternly.

Nikhat huffed and started explaining "you know Hamza right?"

I nodded "your cousin who apparently looks like Robert Pattinson from the side, is a successful engineer and the girl who marries him would be lucky."

All the while Nikhat was glaring at me. "Was this description necessary, especially in this scenario?" She crossed her arms, offended.

"In my defence that is how you described him. I haven't seen the guy yet. So obviously my description comes from your perspective."

"Anyway Baba called last night. Apparently Usman chachu, my father's cousin who is Hamza's father phoned him for a marriage proposal. They thought I was perfect fit for Hamza when they saw me at a wedding a month back. The past month they did a lot of thinking and asked some poeple from our close family to know more about me than they already know. And as expected all they heard were good things about me."

With a smirk at the last sentence she continues "and they want to make me their daughter-in-law. Hamza is supposedly okay with that. Can you believe it?" She cried out

"Honestly I can't, how did they hear good things about you? Why did all of the people they asked lie?" I controlled my laughter.

"Urghhh" nikhat groaned. "Its ovbious they can't get a better daughter-in-law than me. Ofcourse people would talk good about me, because I am the epitome of charming and well-mannered."

"Only outside your house. Add that too."

"On a more serious note, I won't go out and pull out a knife at any desi aunty who brings a rishta. So they see me as miss goody two shoes," As we laughed Nikhat said "jokes apart, what I can't believe is Hamza has sent a proposal. I haven't even talked to the lad properly mainly because eventhough we are part of the same family, our parents are'nt that close.. And I see him as a brother only."

"If you guys marry you can joke about that." I clapped my hands at the idea and snorted. When Nikhat glared again I stopped.

"Okay so tell me are you interested in him?"

"Absolutely no no. I can't see him as mine. Aside from the fact that I consider him as a brotherly figure, he is the main one involved in that infamous smoking incident."

"What incident are you talking about?" I was confused.

"You don't remember, do you? I narrated the whole incident to you the next day itself." Nikhat exasperated.

Grinning sheepishly I asked her to narrate it once again. My forgetful brain showing no signs of working.

The whole family has come together after long and decided to have a barbecue party at the Ali residence. The bond of the family and funny chatters filled the lively ambience. Nikhat couldn't help but admit that she missed the extended part of her family while she was overjoyed with the night.

The dinner was ready and as the girls rushed towards the table Usman chaachu asks "where are the boys?"

Seeing as though no one was aware of their whereabouts Nikhat's mother Shahida sents her to find them. After a little while of searching for the boys, in a deserted corner of the backyard she saw the sight.

Her elder brother Ishaaq along with Hamza and another cousin named Azam relishing the moment with each other, taking puffs of the cigarette that their hands held.

Nikhat was beyond infuriated. She stormed towards the gang of three and as she neared them, their panicked faces came into view. It would have been wise to secretly call the elders and show them the site, but anger got the best of Nikhat as always and atlast she very forcefully took the cigarette from Ishaaq's hand and threw it far away in an unknown direction.

"WHAT DO YOU GUYS THINK YOU ARE DOING?" Nikhat yelled.

"Do you know how ashamed you should feel now? Is this what our parents taught us?! Ishaaq bhaiyya how the hell did you become so negligent?" The boys tried to quiten her but Nikhat went on firing them with words that reeked of anger.

After a few more seconds of Nikhat scolding them Hamza finally told her to stop, not so nicely.

"Why are you getting ticked off? We weren't murdering someone or something like that?"

If slapping was not disliked in Islam, Hamza's face would have the imprints of her hands.

"Did you really ask me that? You are doing something that isn't acceptable at all and you freaking ask me that?! You guys are sinning you idiots!" She wanted to say more.

"Are you mad or what? Where in the Quran is it said that smoking is haram?" Nikhat's mouth gaped open as Ishaaq spoke the words.

"Don't even think of fighting me on this. Escpecially since it is a topic I've researched. Islam clearly says how anything that causes harm to the human body is strictly prohibited. And you guys are not toddlers you know the destruction caused by cigarettes. So do you think it is permissible to smoke while you are killing yourselfs?!"

"But that--" Hamza was about to oppose.

"Allah hates smoking," Nikhat interrupted "Are you pleased with yourselves when you do something that Allah hates? If he tells you that he hates something how do you guys even think of doing it? On the day of judgement when your bodies' will talk of all the harm you did to it, will you be able to do anything rather than regret?"

''Your parents, they have always warned you of such harms that prevails in the society. Do you think they will be happy if they saw this scene? Do you think you would be able to live with the guilt of knowing how you put your parents through such a sorrow? How can you guys kill yourselves for just a moment of pleasure?!"

Nikht was seeing red by then. The last sentence that came from Hamza's mouth clicked her buttons.

"But everyone else these days smoke." Hamza dared to use that line.

"SO WHAT? Society isn't always right. The world is full of wrongs. If Islam says something is wrong it is obviously wrong. Even outside the religious boundary, smoking is considered unhealthy and heavily intoxic by the whole world. Smoking is harmful and you guys are wrong."

"You are old enough to realize there is good and bad in this world and something does not become right just because everyone does it. What if--"

"What is going on?"

The four youngsters panicked when they heard Usman chaachu's voice. The site before him was something he unlooked for. He had heard enough of the conversation to comprehend the situation.

And the rest of the night is history.

"Oh yeah now I remember everything!" I exclaimed.

"No use though. I finished narrating it all," Nikk rolled her eyes "Anyways the point is Ishaaq and Azam successfully quit smoking after the incident because hell broke loose in our houses. But a week ago Ishaaq let it slip of how Hamza still smokes. So apparently he isn't the dream boy I described him as."

"Ya Allah this is a lot. So what does uncle and aunty have to say about the proposal? They know about his habits right?"

"They are under the impression that he stopped along with the other two. I can't blame them though. Even I found out a week ago. But Mama is against the proposal because she wants me to complete my studies."

"Which isn't actually a problem for you" i winked at her.

Nikhat grinned back. She was a hopeless romantic who wanted her husband to arrive as soon as possible. The only reason she didn't get married right after school is for the sake of an educational qualification. And honestly I am so excited to dress up on my best friend's wedding and as desi aunties say "have her wedding biryani".

But again society has something to say about that as well. They sometimes belittle her prioritising marriage. They consider her as unambitious and often compares her to myself.

The people are bonkers, they criticize my dream of working and her of not to. That's when I realized that no matter what you want to achieve people will talk and undervalue you.
They'll always have an uncalled opinion for everything. It's better to turn a blind eye over them.

"Let me finish you dumbass," Nikhat started "But Baba is willing to proceed with it. But if I say no, nobody will force me or something. But Ali sahab would obviously have some arguments that he think will lead me to say yes. But Hamza is not the one for me. However if Baba says the overrated and should-be-banned line of 'you can change him after marriage' I will lose it."

"Call me if that dialogue is said so that we can protest against it together. Seriously! How do you expect a girl who just entered his life to change him, when his own parents whom he has been seeing from day one can't fix him. We are wives not someone appointed as caretaker of a baby that should be nurtured."

"Exactly girl."

And just like that we moved on to further topics and Nikhat forgot her worries. A while later when Shahida aunty entered the room we assured her that Nikhat is sane now. I spent the whole afternoon in the Ali household.

_____

Monday arrived sooner than it should. I was grumpy in the morning because mama complained that I don't help her in the kitchen. She also added how Sanam, the youngest one among us can cook better than me and Zayba.

Well the fault isn't ours that Sanam loves cooking. Even I used to love cooking, but most of my cooking escapades ended up in me receiving mama's scolding because I didn't do something in her accord. The number of times I've argued that each person has their way of working is infinite.

I entered the college with Nikhat beside me.

Yes, we attended the same school and now the same university as well. However we study different things because Nikhat hates maths and loves history.

No wonder she is this boring, she would kill me if she hears this.

I hate history.

We sauntered inside the building slowly because the classes didn't start till another 10 minutes. Nikhat was blabbering about how annoying Ishaaq was the day before. Laughing along with her, I was adjusting my coral coloured hijab when we heard noises from the adjacent corridor.

We looked at each other questioningly and walked towards the source of the noise, to where everyone was running off too. From afar we saw one of the most usual scenes in our college.

Daniyal Ahmed was picking up a fight with some other kid, again. I recognized the other one to be Asad whose last name I didn't know. They were fighting rather loudly about something that I couldn't care less about.

Daniyal was the famous troublemaker in the whole campus. His reputation remains as the most notorious, sarcastic and spoilt rich student in here. Talking back to teachers, pranking others and usual fights like these made him more famous. And why do they not expel him after all?

Being the son of a member of the administrative board has it's own perks as you see.

"Let's go from here. It's Daniyal and his usual stupidness," Nikhat said and I nodded. We both weren't interested in watching the scenes. We both didn't know Daniyal personally mainly because he hung out with students who were almost like him, the troublemakers. Anyhow we stayed away from all of them.

We reached the other hallway to see Haniya and Keerthi outside my class. They are the friends we made in here and hangs out with them occasionally. Haniya studied the same course as I did, while Keerthi did psychology.

"Your friend is again in a fight," Nikhat announced to Keerthi displeased.

Daniyal was a very friendly guy and had many friends in the university. Keerthi had the same trait and gradually the two of them were good friends.

"Asad did something. I don't know much about it," Keerthi explained and we started conversing about other things.

Nikhat walked off to her class when the bell rang. We were entering mine when Daniyal stormed off infront of me to the direction of his class. He looked just like how someone would after a fight.

Dishelved, irked and riled up.

I rolled my eyes and turned, entering my class.

Little did I know.

Eunoia: (n.) beautiful thinking; a well mind.

_____

Hope you guys like the chapter. xx

Thoughts on Daniyal?