Tahira x Ashar

Third Person POV

It was Tahira's cousin's holud and as the bride sat beside the groom in an intricate yellow embroidered lehenga, everyone around was busy, guests chattering while closer relatives
scuttled from one side of the field to another, carrying baskets of fresh orange marigold or amber hued jalebis.

Several gazebos stood on both sides of the field, each one neatly decorated with orange, magenta and yellow ribbons, colourful bangles and umbrellas. Mini fairylights hung from colourful ribbons, which will light up as soon as the dance performance
begins.

"Where's Mimi?" the bride approached Tahira, panting, dripples of sweat running down her cheeks, ruining her makeup.

Tahira took off her sunglasses and carefully took out a tissue from
her bag, before handling it to her cousin. "Wipe those tears or sweat, whatever it may be.
Because if you don't, you will end up looking like something that would obviously make Rahin bhai run away."

"Tahira, YOU ARE NOT GETTING,"

"Apu, chill. Look under your sofa on the stage. I'm pretty sure that you'll find your precious little notorious cat there."

The bride's mother in law ran behind the bride, lifting the bottom of her bright green saree with both hands, calling the bride, telling her to sit, trying to hide the scene from her friends and relatives, of the bride bending down and frantically searching for her cat, but the bride was too anxious to comprehend her mother in law's sign language.

Everything should have been interesting and fun, yet Tahira was still missing her friend.

She called Maha several times, after the woman's voice from the other side repeated, 'cannot connect' six times, the phone call was finally picked up by Maha, who quickly rushed inside the cottage of the resort, where the frequency was much better, to pick up her friend's phone call.

"How's bhaiya ji?" Tahira asked, in her usual sing-song voice, with a mischievous smile playing
on both ends of her lips. " I'd rather call Isahaq bhaiya ji instead of dulabhai cause dulabhai sounds a bit...what do you call that...cringey."

They laughed as they both teased each other.
"Now tell me, where are you? How long will it take for you to come here?"

There was silence for a moment, Tahira slowly swallowing up the words. "Knew it." Maha said something else from the
other side, to which Tahira's frown deepened, until she again spoke, more slowly and firmly this
time. "I know how strong your affection is towards him, even stronger than the bond of love
between you and me, but after 19 years of our friendship, I made the grave mistake of believing
that you would come and that I deserved the smallest bit of importance. But as you are getting
pleasure in seeing me swimming in the deepest depths of despair, I shall now realize my mistake and cut the phone."

She was extremely angry at Maha for not being at her cousin's holud and thus tried to sound even more
infuriated on the phone, "Some things should be spoken in formal English to depict the importance of the matter" After a moment of silence, Maha said some and immediately Tahira's eyes started gleaming with happiness,"To a jao na jaldi." ( so come quickly)

"Your voice sounds happier than usual today. What's up?" Maha's voice asked from the other
side.

"Yes indeed, I'm extremely happy today for 3 reasons. My boss is not here to put more work on my shoulders, which is already heavy with burden and thank god, for one day I don't have to think of files, data and clients. Secondly my mother, who is unusually happy today won't give me
a death stare with her bloodshot eyes for my foolish behavior.

Lastly, the guy whose presence
makes my conscience push me towards goodness and perfection won't be here."

"Let's see, whenever you are trying to run away from Ashar, he ends up staying there."

"Areh, what's the use of Ashar being here or not here? He won't ever be mine. He will end up marrying Sumehra anyways."

"No, Tahira. Don't be so disheartened. That day a friend told me that she saw Sumehra in a cafe, holding hands with another guy. I don't think Ashar will make this grave mistake of
marrying her. Maybe they've already broken up."

Tahira chuckled. Why does hearing about the darker side of someone made a heavy weight lift off her chest. Tahira wasn't like this. Is it the
people or time or tide that made her change so much?

"Coming, wait a second. Maha I need to hang up the call now. Call me as soon as you're here. Don't text. I won't be able to see the messages."

They have started playing, "Ishq di Chashne" as kids huddled up on stage ready for the first dance performance.

"Come beta," Tahira's uncle, Mr Showkat called her, to introduce her to his daughter's in laws.

"This is my brother Shaheed's one and only daughter, Tahira. She's doing internship at DNAelix, simultaneously studying in biomedical science from University of Engineering and Technology. She stood first in her university admission test, Alhamdulillah" her uncle said in a voice filled with pride.

"Doing internship at such a huge company already, wow and you are studying at the top most
university of this country. You must be really talented." her cousin's father in law's face lit up as
he said these words.

"Who studies in this country nowadays?" the mother in law scoffed. "When abroad offers so
much, staying here is just a waste of time, given that universities here are so gross. My son would never even step inside a public university in this country. The walls..."

As the lady continued, Tahira's chest swelled with fury. She must say something.  "Aunty, I feel like the best universities of this country are much better than lots of universities
abroad. Here you fight with merit as your sword, whereas studying abroad only requires money."

Talking about money, Tahira got transported to a different world, a past she wanted to erase from her memories forever, the past that cut the intertwined threads bonding their families. After her grandfather died, her eldest uncle, Mr. Showkat took over the family business and declared
himself as the CEO. Although her father did most of the work, Mr. Showkat earned more money
from the same company and now when the property got divided, he received a greater share.

No one ever protested about this. Her father, a man of morality, didn't even start a quarrel with
his brother about this as he was afraid that this may ruin their relationship. However, this
incident has etched a mark on Tahira's heart that she won't be able to remove.

"Girls nowadays have become so discourteous," the mother in law said slowly. Tahira looked at
her grandmother, who sat on the wheelchair, face expressionless before changing glances with
her uncle. No one protested. Was she really this alone in this world?

Tahira, the girl whose only fault lies in the fact that she cannot control her anger, ran to her father. Mr. Shaheed who was talking to an old family friend. Seeing her eyebrows knitted together, he told the man, "Bhai, 2 mins."

Tahira pulled her father to one side of the field, away from the loud music and hustle, before telling him what happened. "Baba, even Dadi didn't say
anything. Is this why you spend all your money on her medicines and chemos, the reason why you couldn't send me abroad for undergraduate, so that she can sit there and watch her granddaughter getting insulted for no reason?"

"Tahira, your mother and I raised you to be respectful towards elders. I didn't expect this from you, you cannot speak about your Dadi like this."

Tahira walked away. Why was everyone doing this to her? The music, colours everything seemed too loud for her ears, too bright for her eyes. Suddenly she noticed Ashar's mother
walking in with a gigantic grin on her lips, orange silk saree neatly draped. "Assalamu Alaikum Faiha apa." the mother in law exclaimed in a voice lined with honey, while hugging Ashar's
mother.

Ashar stood beside her mother, looking striking in a peacock blue punjabi. He waved at Tahira, who wiping her tears, waved him back. She had long ago forgiven him for not wishing her on her birthday.

Sometimes making a person feel that you're angry at him gives you an
immeasurable amount of joy, the reason doesn't matter. She couldn't ever tell him why she was
angry at him.

Ashar's mother ignored the mother in law and approached Tahira, wrapping her arms around in a tight hug. "Amr meyetake ajke dekte koto sundor lagchhe MashaAllah." (my girl is looking so beautiful) before showing her off
to the mother in law as if Tahira was a prized possession.

She indeed looked like a princess in
her fuchsia and orange zardozi lehenga. "This is my Ashar's friend. She's a real gem, so brilliant, kind and well mannered." Tahira noticed as the mother in law swallowed hard, unable to speak.

Later on, she heard that Ashar's father was her cousin's father in law's boss, the reason why the mother in law was busy flattering Ashar's mother.

After her cousin called Tahira to stage for a photograph, she couldn't resist. As they posed, the bride muttered, "You know my friend Kevin from Canada, he has a crush on you."

Tahira was pretty surprised but didn't pay much attention to it, until after a few minutes while Tahira was
talking with Ashar and Maha, her 9 year old cousin Fahad came and told her that Kevin was calling her.

Hearing this Ashar looked at her questionably, until she explained the entire thing to him.

"Fahad, tell him that she's already engaged."

Maha and Tahira were both shocked upon hearing his response, but were glad to think that Kevin won't bother Tahira.

"Hi, Kevin. Are you sad?" one of the meddlesome aunties asked Kevin.

"I had a crush on my friend's cousin. Her name is Tahira, but she's already engaged." Kevin sighed.

"To whom?" the aunty asked with wide eyes. "To that guy," Kevin replied, pointing at Ashar.

No wonder how the gossip will spread all over the place within the whole place like the flow of morning tea.

"You didn't have breakfast today right?" Ashar asked in a concerned voice.

Tahira didn't want to tell him that she didn't, so she politely smiled, but beyond her chest, the heart that throbbed inside secretly hoped that Ashar would do something.

Will he bring food for her? Will he feed
her? Immediately after noticing how stupid this entire thing sounded, she silenced the voices inside her.

"Come with me, quick."

"Ashar look I'll eat, nah?"

"You'll eat I definitely know that, but it will be so late that your tummy will cry and you'll get a stomach upset," Hearing the word tummy and the way Ashar was speaking to her as if she was a little baby, made the butterflies inside her ribcage waltz one more time.

He took him to eating place, which was nearly empty, except Tahira's cousin Raiha, who sat at one corner, eyes fixed on the number dancing on the screen of her tab. The infant was alone, moving arms and legs and singing Baby shadudu perfectly in sync with the melody coming out
of her tab.

"Sit here, don't go anywhere, I'll be back within a minute." He disappeared and then as he said within two minutes he was back, a bowl of biryani carefully placed on his palm.

"There's no basin here for you to wash your hands, so the spoon is the only option."

"As your hands are completely covered in haldi, I'm in fact the only option." Saying this he chuckled, then after realizing his mistake, he tried to put up a stern face to which he failed
terribly, which made him look more stupid, making Tahira start laughing harder.

"Now stop laughing and open your mouth,"

"All this time my mouth was open, right? You cannot laugh without opening your mouth," saying which
Tahira started laughing once more.

"See, I don't want you to get a stomach ache, I noticed how happy you were the entire day, how
can you let a lame empty stomach ruin your happiness. See I don't compliment people generally
but I'm complimenting you, Tahira because you're a genius and the most brilliant girl I've ever
met. But if you go on eating nothing for several hours, you'll get sick. This is not the first time I've
seen you doing this..."

"Ok sir, not in the mood of hearing lectures. I'm eating."

Finally after several sighs from Ashar, she had to make this man spoon feed her, while she sat quietly.

Nobody muttered a word, Ashar wanted to tell her many things, yet he didn't know how to.

She looked at the person in front of him, good looking, caring, kind, gentle, talented, smart, responsible, religious and all the good words you can fit inside a single sentence. ' Yes, yes' the voice muttered inside her. This is the man I want to be with, this is the person I want to cook
tandoori and naan for me, feed me exactly like this when I'm busy, ask me whether I've eaten anything. This is my prince charming of my dreams I want to chase sunsets with, do tawaf
around the Kaaba with his presence beside me, walk in the pavements of New York holding his hand, stand on the top floor of Eiffel tower, in a flowy red dress, with the world beneath our feet, the wind brushing our cheeks with..."

"Appi, bhaiya is feeding you?" Little Raiha came running, the tab still in her hands, the glow of the screen illuminating her face.

"Do you want to eat too?" Ashar interrupted, pointing the spoon towards Raiha's face.

She immediately devoured it and with a smiling face requested Ashar for more. "Let me have it too."

Ashar said while eating a mouthful of the mouth watering biryani himself. "Let you and me quickly finish this, before anyone comes, okay?"

With a grinning face Raiha nodded. She had hopefully forgotten about the scene she saw a moment ago.

Although they both succeeded in rubbing off this memory from Raiha's mind, they failed to notice that at a distance, Zamar, who was the groom's friend was standing and capturing this entire incident on his camera, with a sly smile on his face. He indeed loved capturing moments
of people he liked to ship, so that one day, if by any chance they end up together, he can boast around and  tell everyone that he has the superpower of predicting the future.

✨

Maha appeared beside Zamar and shook her head at his antics.
Zamar saw her action and grinned widely, motioning towards Tahira and Ashar with his eyes.

When Maha saw the scene , her mouth fell open in surprise and she let out a little squeal.

"They would make a cute couple." Zamar observed, a sly smile playing on his lips.

"You and your matchmaking!" Maha shook her head as she laughed, " Did you take a picture?"

"What do you think?" Zamar cocked his head to the side in a knowing manner and showed Maha the shot, as they both stared at it with matching grins.

"Forward it to me, this will be a great gift for my friend." Maha spoke, her mind already conjuring up what Tahira's reaction would be.

"Sure, but first let's take a picture together. It's a pleasant surprise to see you here!" 

Maha didn't know that Zamar on the other hand was forming another evil plan, ready to torment Isahaq.

After forwarding Ashar and Tahira's picture to Maha, Zamar sent a picture of him and Maha eating laddoos to Isahaq along with the text,
"You missed out big time brother."

Author's Note

There you go, long awaited Tahira and Ashar chapter by Pebbleinanocean

This chapter and the next one will be focused on this couple and is written by my friend.

Here, I only wrote the last scene of Zamar and Maha lol

Vote and comment your thoughts.

P.S. thoughts on Ashar ?

I can hear my friend cackling in an evil tone as she reads y'all's reactions because she lovesss causing suspense smh 👀