Agony

Where is she now? The window was ajar and she could mirror her reflection through it. The twittering and chirping of the birds, the soul-stirring fragrance of the blooming flowers, the passing, glowing morning and more than these the truth like cherishing innocent face saying some unfamiliar words in rotten tone. She strives to make the sense but the words get dissolved into whispers, and the whispers are not more than the sound of the air passing through the dry grass. How could she understand the sound; perhaps it was not the combination of alphabetic words? The problem is she feels something…but what? The quest to catch the essence of the rattling sound is stimulating in her the element of restlessness and uneasiness. The very next thought is devastating, and shockingly she let herself free to be ruled by this wild idea. A few second’s reflection, and she throws herself out of the window to get an access to a disappeared naïve face.

 The early sun rays of the autumn are kissing the hills of Sawat. The luxury car is on its way to MalamJabba. The back seat is captured by an emerald-green eyed beauty, having hair rich with shade of mahagony. A straight nose with full lips was enough to brand her as the picture of perfection. At once the car stops with a jerk.

 Something falls with the noise of “Dhup”. A grey-haired stocky skivvy of the family runs towards the bedroom of her “Wara Bibi” with a shout Oh! “Khudaya”, not again. Wara Bibi, Wara Bibi. What does she see? Her Wara Bibi is not in bed again. She is on the floor in an unconscious effort to catch something. She cries, approaches her, puts her head to her chest and pats her back lovingly. Then she uses all her energies, lifts her Wara Bibi and lays her on the bed. Her Wara Bibi is a bit pacified now.

Girl: Where that child is?

Maid: Which one Wara Bibi?

Girl: That shining and innocent faced child, who had a smile in his eyes.

Maid: Which one and where Wara Bibi? Please gain your senses. You are at home in your bed.

Girl: Hmmmnnn….. (She opened her eyes and looked around) “Oh! My Goodness! It’s awful; I could not get rid of it.”

Maid: Wara Bibi, are you all right?  It’s the third time till yesterday that you have cried like this and in an unconscious stance hysterically have tried to catch something. Khan Saeb and Mashara Bibi are really worried. They are making a plan to call for Dr. Saeb.

Girl: Oh! No, there is no need to call for Dr. Uncle. I am all right. Where are Pillar and More?

Maid: Jee, they are there in the T.V lounge with Cap. Saeb.

(She goes upstairs. She does not want to meet anyone. Why? She doesn't know but one thing she knows very well that something is constantly irritating her and she has a strong desire to recollect her yesterday’s journey to Malam Jabba).

The car stops suddenly. The girl on the back seat inquires;

Girl: What’s the problem?

Driver: Gull Bibi, there is someone in the middle of the road.

(She at once opened the door and to her shock, there was more than a beautiful face sunned in blood right in the middle of the road. The sight was enough to make her unconscious and she was about to collapse when she heard a rattling sound. The small blood-sunned lips were asking for something. She tried to know what the sound was, but failed. She says to her driver, ‘Akram please try to listen what the injured angel wants to say.’ Akram moves forward, stoops down, sits on haunch and puts the blood-sunned head in his lap, tries to connect his ear to his lips. The murmurings are dying now. Akram gathered all his spirit to conceive the sense of the words)

Driver: Gull Bibi…… (Akram succeeds a bit to gather the idea. The boy is repeatedly saying my Sister, my sister……The murmur is suddenly stopped. Akram feels the pulse and lowers his head) ‘He is dead Gull Bibi.’

Girl: (She was now curious to follow the words my sister…..my sister…..) She cried, Akram searched for his sister. He leaves the boy lying there on the road and starts to search for the girl. To his surprise, a few yards down the main road, an innocent girl of six is lying unconscious. Akram lifted her up but he had to put her down again because a shower of blood flew right from her chest. Akram could see the half-crunched “Khanjar” (knife) in her breast. He tried to feel her pulse but couldn’t) “Sorry Gull Bibi she is dead too.” (But she was not ready to listen to this heart-rending news. She had fallen down on the road unconsciously) Oh Khudaya Paka! (He tries to resuscitate her. She regains her senses and tells him to investigate what has happened.)

Driver: Akram follows the footsteps and reaches the nearby top of a small hill. There was a beautiful little bungalow. The main gate of the bungalow was wide opened. He entered the bungalow and could not stop his shrieks.

The shrieks, she moves towards the window of her room. The sight of the deep valley from her window was not as pleasant as it used to be. She could feel the whole valley lost in melancholy. The haunting scene of blood-stained bodies on the road was not leaving her alone. A continuous feeling of horror and pathos was roaming around. She wanted to sleep but sleep was far away from her eyes. Since yesterday night every time she has been in the bed, she awakes with a hysteric shout. Every time she chases someone in sleep but cannot recall to whom she chases after getting up. She closes her eyes and strives to recognize the face. A flash and she lose herself again. 

Akram could not bear the sight. The body of a woman almost of thirties was lying on the porch. A knife was stabbed in her belly and the reddish maroon clotted blood was presenting a horrendous picture. Akram restored himself, covered the body with a cloth and came back to his Gull Bibi. She was lacking the strength to stand. She was sitting beside the car and her yellow pale complexion was enough to show that she was extremely horrified.

Girl: Did you get any information about the children, who they were?

Driver: Their house was on that top but now there is no one alive in that house.

Girl: What do you mean?

Driver: I mean the house is empty and a woman’s dead body is lying there in the porch.

Girl: Wai Khudaya! She cried again. The cry brought her to the room again. She failed to recognize the face. She rushed downstairs to her parents. Captain Sharjeel was telling her parents that yesterday the terrorists in retaliation killed a family living on the mountains. The family consisted of husband and wife and two children. The act of killing was ruthlessly terrifying. A boy of ten tried to escape along with his younger sister of six. But he was approached by the cruel killers. They stabbed him in the belly. He pushed his sister downward the valley with a hope that she might slip out of the range of the cruel brutes, but at the bottom of the mountain she was taken by the killers and they stabbed her in the chest.

Ah! The barbaric act of killing the innocent will bring a disaster for them. She stopped at the stairs, turned back, reached the room, locked the door and sat on the bed. The word “Ah” was visible on her face with all gloom. Now she was getting an approach to the face; the very face calling her in dreams again and again. The face murmuring something; it was of that boy lying on the road sunned in blood and crying not for his life but the life of his sister. How many brothers might be vulnerable to death for saving their sisters? And how many of those brothers would pass through the same traumatic agony? Who shall put it to an end?