Shabo's story
It was just announced on the national TV that the moon had been sighted and therefore the next day it was going to be Eid. Almost everyone in this high class family seemed to be excited. Behind this excitement was another reason too. A youth in the family was going to get married within the first week of eid. This joy was then natural for everyone.
One person in the house was unusually downcast. It was Shabana, the housemaid. She somehow did not appear to be affected by the news that it was eid the next day. And why would she be so? For her, the day would be no different. In fact, it would be more tiring than a regular day as she will have to work so much and wait upon so many guests.
She was sitting in the corner of room drowned in her thoughts as the family chatted about eid plans. It occurred to no one for quite a while that she was looking so depressed and had not spoken a word. It was only after a good half an hour that Salma Durrani, the head of the family realized Shabana was sitting just idle. "Shabo (her nickname in the household) go make tea for us and then press the clothes, the driver has already fetched them from the tailors."
Shabo did not take any time to get up and move out of the room to execute the order. In the kitchen, she mechanically prepared the tea. Mechanically, did she place the cups in front of everyone and so did she press the clothes.
The family had other servants too. But being a conservative one, no male was allowed to work inside the house. The three other maids who worked in the house had to go home in the evening. It was only Shabo who stayed back.
Shabo had no house. She had no family. She was born to her mother in this same house, one month after the mother ran away from her father after he suspected her of infidelity and attempted to murder her. Shabo had thus not seen her father in her life. She did not even know his name. Her mother died when she was only two. She stayed at another maids house until ten by which age Salma asked the maid to bring her in the house as she could help with some chores of the house.
Other people in the family included Salma's son Sadat Durrani and her two daughters Jameela Durrani and Nagin Durrani.
Sadat was about 25 years of age. He had just completed his masters in computer science and with the help of his uncle, who was a big shot in customs, he was able to secure a job as a lecturer in government university. Salma had inherited alot of money and Sadat did not need the meager amount of money yet he did not want waste his education and his mother agreed.
Shabo came to her dingy room and plunged aimlessly in her bed. She felt listless and empty. She wondered why it was so. She knew she was upset but she did not know why. Suddenly he mind swayed to a distant past event. It was almost ten years back, when she was 13 year of age and she was scolded by Sadat's mother because she was watching tv in Sadat's room together with him. It was only after that event that Sadat and Shabo had realized it was not ok for them to become friends. Not just because he was rich and she was poor, or she was maid and he was the master but because she was a girl and he was a guy.
Shabo tried to stop the train of her thought at that point, but somehow she was unable to do so. And past events started to run before her eyes like a movie on the screen. There were so many things which would, for one reason or the other, torment her. She could simply not escape the pain each and single memory was inflicting upon her.
(to be continued...)
Yeah exactly man, what has it really got to with QL?
what has this got to do with QL?
See the other chapters of the story. Track my posts.
It was Sadat’s servant who could be a good match for her, not Sadat himself. After she started thinking in this realistic way, her attitude toward Sadat changed. Sadat also noticed this and asked her if she was upset with him. She did not say anything"
- Cliffhanger... next chapter pls :0)
/And please don't make us wanna slap Shabo silly.
nice story ... continue the next episodes also.
It was rather usual for Shabo to stay a little longer in Sadat's room than she stayed at the rooms of Saima or her daughters. It was her duty to prepare tea for the family after dinner and she was then supposed to deliver one cup to everyone in their respective rooms. She used to serve Saima and her daughters first and then Sadat. Whenever she handed Sadat a cup, she would then stay there, standing near the door, on her toes, ever ready to pretend that she just came, in case someone else entered the room. Sadat also knew this, but he could not do anything about it. Thus he never offered her to sit. They usually talked in low tones, often it was asking about each other health and stuff, and whenever they heard someone walk outside, they raised their tone and started to talk about innocuous things such as the tea being not hot enough or something like that.
It was a habit for Shabo to sleep late at night although she went to bed rather early. Often she used to look out through the dingy window of her shabby room and see that the light in Sadat's room was still lit although everybody else was fast asleep. Many a time, she had wished to slip into his room, since he would not mind it, and watch a full movie, a luxury that fate had never offered her before.
Sadat used to study at night. He also sometimes wondered if Shabo can come to his room at night sometimes when everyone else was asleep. He would however be afraid of the idea since his mother was such a terse woman and would kill Shabo,if not him, in case she found out.
This happened for almost some years. Both Shabo and Sadat were in their late teens now. Sadat just passed his matric examination and got admission into one of the best colleges in the country. He had to leave for college.
It was only when he had left that Shabo realized the intensity of her feelings. Although she had not even once properly spoken to Sadat, she was still very different when he was at home. She realized how devastated she felt that he had left. One day, a few weeks after Sadat's departure, Saima started to cry saying she missed her son. Shabo felt like crying with her, but had to press her tears back. In her room, at night, however, she cried so much she had to turn her pillow to sleep on it.
Sadat came home after four months. They were all waiting so impatiently. All of them had bought gifts for him. Shabo did not buy a gift. Not because she did not want, but because one needs money to buy something. And also because she did not know if she would have the courage to give a gift.
On seeing Sadat back, Shabo was struck by a storm of emotions. Yet, she had to appear perfectly unaffected. She managed to make an indifferent face, and say to him without meeting his eyes, "salam saab" (hello sir). Sadat hardly said anything in reply, perhaps because he was already talking to his family, or perhaps he did not want anyone an impression that he was on any friendly terms with Shabo.
hahaha
i'm just curious to know, and impatient!
I could respond to your posts but that would digress me from the story. I know you are keen to know just what happens in the end, but do you not know how the surprise is spoilt once it is told beforehand?
it's dragging ... time is an ennemy: it can heal wounds, but it can also make love fade. out of sight out of heart.
That night when Shabo prepared tea and took it Sadat’s room, she did not have the courage to stay to watch the TV by standing near the door. She did not even hand the cup over to Sadat. She just put it on his table and without giving him a look she sheepishly returned. But before she had left, Sadat spoke to her. “Shabo, mujhay thum yad ati ho” (I missed you). Shabo was literally made speechless by these words. She had not imagined that it was only her who was missing him, but the converse too was true. She wanted to run away from the room coz she felt so extremely shy. Somehow her legs would just not carry her. Sadat asked her to stay with him for a while, but she said no, she had to go.
That night both Sadat and Shabo did not sleep at all. The light in Sadat room was lit all night and Shabo kept gazing at it. How she wished she could just go and tell him that she too was waking. How she wished she could just stay for sometime with him.
Sadat’s two weeks vacation was nearing its end. He and Shabo had yet not spoken any properly. But by this time both had understood something was there between the two of them. On his last day, Sadat gave Shabo his cell phone number, and asked her to call him when he was in college. Shabo did not know how to dial. She did not even know that it was ever so dangerous to call from the house’s landline. There were so many extensions, and the number would be billed later. It won’t be difficult to tell who had been calling at that hour of the night!
She went to a public call office and asked the person there to dial a number for her. He did so. “The bell is ringing”, the man told her handing her the phone receiver. As soon as Sadat picked, and she heard him say hello, the tongue literally got tied and her mouth dried. She just put the phone down and left, and was about to run away, only to be stopped by the man who said, “bibi paisay tho daithi jain” (wont you be paying).
She was not able to call him; despite her intensely wanting to do so, all four months and Sadat came back. This time they spoke a little more. Sadat asked her why she had not called, and she told she felt too shy to talk to him. Sadat told her he wanted to talk to her sometimes when no one is around, or when all are asleep--- at night. She would not agree—at first at least.
It was only in those days that the driver asked Sadat’s mother if he could marry Shabo. Shabo heard Saima’s reaction to the driver’s suit. “ I know Ramazan is a good man, but he is too old for Shabo. I wish he was younger. I want someone for her, who can work as a servant for us, who can be her husband. I wont mind letting Shabo and her husband stay in the ‘kandar’ (deserted house) in our farm. I still remember the great service Shabo’s mother delivered to us.”
This episode forced Shabo to change her way of thinking. Rather it made her be awakened. She realized how inappropriate and irrational it was for her to think of Sadat in such a way. It was Sadat’s servant who could be a good match for her, not Sadat himself. After she started thinking in this realistic way, her attitude toward Sadat changed. Sadat also noticed this and asked her if she was upset with him. She did not say anything.
Even I noticed that "Both Shabo and Sadat were in their late thirties now. Sadat just passed his matric examination"
late thirthies? and just passed Matric?
TFS,,,,
Next episode pls...
you finished treating your patients>
wow! sensational. thanks!
is that a femme fatale in the making?
deprived from affection since childhood, having huge assets (good looking, rational thinking, observation, and survivalist mind set...) poor sadat, for me he doesn't have a chance.
yalla,,, next episode!
Segmund good to see u back with your stories. Please continue
Segmund good to see u back with your stories. Please continue
awwwww
O rose, thou art sick,
The invisible worm,
That flies in the night
And the howling storm,
Has found out thy bed,
Of crimson joy,
And his dark, secret love
Does thy life destroy...
Somehow Sadat had from the start fancied Shabo. He was too young to realize it was not ok. They were in fact friends. He knew his mother did not like this and he always kept his social distance from Shabo when his mother was around. In private, however, he always liked her, gave her candies and sometimes even let her play super mario on his computer.
Shabo too could feel that Sadat liked her. Although, she was never physically fascinated by him yet she could not help liking him since he was so nice to her. She was bound to be. She had never seen the love of a parent, no one ever had been nice to her. For her, love or compassion, was a new experience. And she could not resist it.
She used to think about Sadat and how nice he was.
AWESOME....W8ing 4 d continution..!!!
Oh! welcome back Segmund! I think I missed the ending of your last story, (those guys chatting on the net, with arranged marriage kinda thingy
. Lol)
Thank you for liking the story guys. :)I will now try to write a few more paragraphs before zuhr.
where are the other stories FS? and i like this one too.... requested to speed up ur writing
TFS.............:)
segmund...nice story...:)
I have to go back and read your old stories which I read half....
Nice one :)
very well written i'd say!! you just dont know ur language, well, u mastered it! nice plotting,and character. More direct dialogue will make it more exciting !
cant wait for the next chapter !!
Thank you dear. :)
Shabo was unusually pretty. It is probably not a good idea for a poor girl such as she was to be so beautiful. For it can create problems. Ever since she was a child, she had been hearing comments on how good looking she was. But those who made these comments never stopped short of going on further to say that although she was pretty, her beauty was no good to her. She was not able to get any education, she would have to work as a maid and she wont be able to marry a decent man in all likelihood.
While still drowned in her thoughts, she recalled how one of the drivers, almost three times her age had asked Salma to give Shabo to him in marriage. She recalled how the driver used to give scary and hungry looks to her everytime he saw her. Her breathing became a little faster as she remembered the night when there had been a death of a relative and all the people were out of the house, and the same driver had indecently approached her, tried to assualt her, only to be rescued by timely arrival of family back in the house.
She then thought about her childhood and how she had been traumatized emotionally. She remembered how the brother in law of the maid with whom she stayed tried to take the wrong advantage of her presence in the house. She could not clearly recall what happened exactly since she was too young a child at the time to understand everything but she knew the man had been doing something objectionable, since he would never do, whatever he used to do, in front of anyone else.
All these memories and many more were enough to scare away the sleep from Shabo's eyes. It was past mid-night and she was broad awake. This emotional baggage that she carried in her young heart was always with her, it never disturbed her so much as it did tonight. Perhaps there was something else to all this. Why in particular today was she so upset?
She took deep sighs every now and then at the recollection of a disturbing memory. Finally, she fell asleep.
She had a terrible nightmare. She dreamt that it was the wedding day of Sadat and all was going well. She was wearing the new dress which Saima had been kind enough to order for her. She was serving food to the guests when someone yelled behind her. "She is the one!" When she turned back, she saw a middle aged lady in high dudgeon to assault her. The woman grabbed Shabo's hair and struck her to the ground. She could hear the whole crowd shouting and cursing her with every bad name in the book.
When she woke up, she found herself drenched in sweat gasping for breath. She was intensely relieved that it had just been dream. Yet as she could not help fresh tears filling her sleepless eyes and rolling down her cheeks. The nightmare, although it was a nightmare, yet had a touch with her reality. As a matter of fact, there was definitely something wrong.
(to be continued...)
Message is already conveyed,I guess
touching story!
Oh it's been a long time since you posted your last literary piece Segmund. Nice to read one of those stories again:)
Yallah, get on with the continuation haha
I did not share the story as in from someone else or a book. I just started writing it and wrote the part of it I could before being disallowed by sleep to write further. I really want to write but I have a tough schedule. So I shall be writing the story as time permits. Thank you. :)
please continue the story.......
please please please
nice story but pls continue posting, i need to know the ending?
When the next
TFS :)
it's like reading the book you shared with me Yazleb...
ahahhahaa!
please continue Segmund.
can we have the continue fast please!!! i NEED to know the next part ......thanks for sharing :-)