“The two families are again together after two months, but this time for the last time; never to meet again or always to be together, here and there. Families talk about Shabir and Nazir who are absent. They eat dinner with potatoes and Sameena fed her baby milk.”
By Irfan Rashid
The thought of death has always been scary. The light of imagination has always been helping a man to pull himself out of fear. But few times when you do so, you may still die.
It is the time of festivity in the home of Shaban. He has become grandfather now. There is no instrument that can gauge happiness in Sameena as she saw her newly born daughter. As it is winter season, Sameena tries to wrap multifold blankets around her baby but doctor forbid her to limit only 4 otherwise baby will be suffocated.
But, doctor does not know, baby will die soon, of suffocation, not there, but somewhere else.
Sameena never knows her baby will die within two months. She also does not know her father, Shaban will die. Love makes death difficult, but fails to barricade from taking soul. She is also unaware about her mother Rukhsana’s death. Although Naseema is young sister of Sameena and loves her but no one can save Naseema also, as she will also die. The whole family will die in two months.
As the family is discharged from the tertiary maternal hospital of Kashmir, Lal Ded, Shaban hires a cab and reaches his village Laden, Chari Sharief, 40km away. The cab is stopped at the Nagam by the Indian Army who have cordoned the village after acting on a tip-off about militant presence in the area. But after peeping inside the cab through driver’s window, Army Major lets them go seeing a new born baby.
Major also does not know baby will die in two months; even the whole family will die.
On reaching their house, single-storey, covered by rusted roof with enough holes to let in one litre of rain water in one full day, they are welcomed by their relatives and their neighbour, Ghulam Nabi’s family. The house is on a street that runs along the base of a hill. This street is linked by a side-street to a shelf-like road higher up the hill and, in late summer, when the abundant dropped fruit of the wild cherry trees gets trodden on, the walking path up there are stained with red and dark-blue smears. In the mornings, the adolescents from down here can be going to pray regularly.
Ghulam Nabi’s wife, Zaina brings 50 paisa toffees and scatters over children waiting in yard. Riyaz, Bilal and Iqbal are three sons of Ghulam and Zaina who will return to see the face of baby in the evening after they complete their labour in neighbouring village. But their 6-year-old son, Faisal, is present here as he is presently in first class. Their son Shabir is working in Srinagar who once in a month comes home.
Shahida, Naseema, Bitta, Fareeda and Shageena are the five daughters of Ghulam and Zaina. They all are eager to return from different villages, as they are married. On reaching there, Shahida pulls one 100 rupee note from her pocket and keeps aside of the baby. One by one all kiss the baby on forehead and chubby cheeks.
Everyone is trying to grab the baby and keep her in lap for utmost time. Sameena gets baby for less time in day only when baby has to be fed the milk.
One week before the baby dies, she gets fever, a high fever and everyone was sure baby will die. But baby recuperates only to die a week later by suffocation. All the married daughters of Ghulam come to village to see the baby.
It is 29th March and a heavy rainfall begins in Kashmir and administration send warnings to every nook and corner to shift to safer places. On hearing this on radio, Shaban got worried and urged his members to get shifted to safer house, few metres diagonally steep down the hill.
The two families are again together after two months, but this time for the last time; never to meet again or always to be together, here and there. Families talk about Shabir and Nazir who are absent. They eat dinner with potatoes and Sameena fed her baby milk.
As there was no electricity in the village, so they slept at 10pm.
At 11:30pm, hillock behind the house collapses and falls onto the house where two families are. Everyone else is sleeping; Shabir and Nazir are also sleeping in Srinagar. All the villagers are sleeping. All the family members are sleeping till last breath, and then lay to sleep, forever.
(Irfan Rashid is pursuing MA Convergent Journalism from Central University of Kashmir)
