Chapter 1 Zulfiqar
CHAPTER 1 ZULFIQAR
I remember it being the middle of summer, one of the hottest days of the year where if we had training like when we used to as candidates I would have melted like the candidates were today. In which year even my old age seems to can’t remember yet the day lives so vividly in my mind. That day my friend whom I had known since I was accepted in the army, was sitting right in front of me with two cups of tea and a chess board. He had already killed most of my pawns and my queen but I was always more of a rook and knight kind of a guy so it didn’t really matter to me also I had already killed his rook and knight so it evens it out. It had been ages since we had time to play chess, we used to do this often when we were younger but as our ranks increased so did our responsibility. One thing that had decreased was our off time which was mostly spent with family but even then we made time for our matches. Now it might as well be out last match in these sacred grounds where we had spent most of our time now as our retirement drew near. We were now at an age where we had started thinking of our children’s marriage. I was about to put my friend’s king in check when my friend said “Zulfiqar how long do u think our friendship will last?”
“as long as we keep in touch “, I replied while focusing on my play
Then my friend Sikandar had one of his most brilliant ideas as he likes to call them “lets marry our children so that we can become in laws” he said while noticing what I was doing not like he can do anything about it as I place my knight in a position where his king is in check but my knight is free from his bishop and queen. “yeah that does sound like a good idea but how “making him aware that my both daughters were already married and he only had a son so yeah that idea got pushed down. One of my daughters already had children a pair of cute little twins but I rarely saw them and they lived in Lahore so it was pretty hard to go there during off time and make time for everything else but I promise I will spend more time with them after my retirement.
Years went by we retired and were even granted plots in DHA Lahore at the time we were living next to each other in a small town near Jhelum which also happened to be my birth town. It was 2004 and I had just married my second oldest child so it was a good thing that we received this plot what me and Sikandar did was build just one big house for our whole family. We also had space to build a horse stable and a training grounds along with a beautiful garden our wives wanted to build there we planted a sprout of mango tree which we had hoped would grow as much as our love and friendship had over the years. It was a lovely home with a lot of good memories and now slowly it had started seeing our grandchildren. In 2005 my first grand kid was born Muqeet his father Tauqeer names him. I must say Tauqeer always had a good eye for names. Muqeet had brought something to this house which none of us even knew it was missing and that was joy of every kind.
When my own kids were born was out protecting the borders of my nations but now I had the time to enjoy what I had missed through my grandkids. Sure sometimes were a bit difficult especially when he started crying in the middle of the night but other times he would smile at me like I’m his world and he was mine. Now I just wanted to marry off my two youngest too so that this happiness could multiply.
It was 2006 the middle of Autumn and also almost end of Ramadan , it was 10 am when Sikandar called me telling me they were rushing his daughter in law to the hospital and that we should all wait for good news. My 2nd daughter in law was worried about her sister even though she was heavily pregnant herself she still went to the hospital but as Allah says he is indeed the best of planners my daughter in law also went into labor at 11 am and at that exact time my best friend’s grandson was born the hour before this was a very hard time for both sikandar’s son and daughter in law but now they had calm down and I was here thinking how do I calm down my own 28 year son who is thinking about his wife even though we told him everything will be okay and that he should focus on his promotion meeting. He seriously wanted to leave everything and come to the hospital if not for Nusrat threatening him.
At 11:47 zhur had started and since it was a Friday everyone started going to prepare for Friday prayer then 20 minutes later my precious grand daughter was born. After we all came back from prayer I distributed sweets to the hospital as I had decided I would do this on birth of my every grandchild plus give them a gift , for Muqeet I gave him a cult a brown and black beauty and Parveen gave him a gold chain. For this child I also bought a filly a white stud with black socks. Sikandar did the same he bought the twin cult of the one I bought it was black horse with white socks completely opposite which should have been my first sign of what was about to come.
Seeing both the babies laying in the nursery brought back the memory of that conversation of marring our children and this time I was the one with this absolutely ‘original’ idea of marrying your grandkids once they are old enough so I went to talk to Sikandar and obviously he was on board. Then we went to our wives who asked us to ask the actual parents so when Hamddad had come we asked all four of them about our plan Nusrat and Farida were so on board with the idea that they didn’t even give their men a chance to talk and they were so in love with their wives that I’m sure that they wouldn’t mind. Heck look at them could anyone say they were in an arranged marriage they are so whipped by their wives.
Or maybe I was wrong since I my lovely son started fighting with his wife in the 24 hours their daughter was born on what u might think it was her name Hamddad wanted to name her Maham but Nusrat wanted to name her Dua which I personally think is a pretty good name. While Sikandar named the boy Haris and no one on their side complained I wish my side was also just as calm. In the end Hamddad won and my grand daughter was named Maham. After coming home Sugru and Parveen both gave the newly born babies two gold rings to fit their fingers to certify their engagement. I love my grandkids now I have three of them of course Sikandar’s grandkids are mine and mine are already mine.
These three were 3 and 2 years old when we received even more joy, my oldest son had his 1st daughter whom he named Amna she became Maham’s best friend even before she could talk. Well I guess being stuck with 4 boys is pretty tuff, especially if she starts acting and talking like a boy herself. By she turned 3 it was like I had 5 boys and 3 girls although the ratio of girls and boys was the same. When Maham turned 4 she found a new habit which wasn’t very preferred by Nusrat and it was tree climbing she also wanted to start ridding her horse along side her brothers but Parveen differed to the request saying it was dangerous for a four year old to start ridding and plus she should learn how to do her hair or play with dolls stuff that girls like but Maham wasn’t welcoming the idea I think. At 6 Maham and Haris started competing on everything they were second graders and competed on, who had better grades who rode the horse better, who was better at climbing trees , who was the better swimmer , who was better at fencing and things like that. I started thinking that their puberty hit at a younger age but isn’t it two early. Just imagine these two turning every family gathering in a WWE match while the relatives shipped them ( that what it is called right shipping I tried to sound as much as a cool grandpa as I could) . I think we picked the wrong people to marry.
