mundane life
“Khushbu, breakfast is ready!!!! Come down quickly you are gonna be late!!!” Ammi yells in her stern yet melodic voice. oh I wish I had a voice like hers.
“Yes ammi comminggg!!!” I yell back in a shrill pitch of a girl.
Oh yes, Im a hijabi. I think as I set my hijab neatly and pin it. The troubles of choosing the cloth! I have always been religious and my pious belief in hijab has made me strong despite the crude comments I face. Its something I believe in and will forever stick to.
Picking up my back pack I get ready for the uni in a plain grey tunic and black legging paired up with a cute black flip flops from GINGER.
I enter the dining area with a wide smile on my face as I greet my father and brother for lunch. Both ready to set off for work as it may seem by their clothes.
Father, abbu , whom I call is a stern person but always on my aid from ammi's wrath. Mahmood Ahmed, My father is a Bank manager in one of the banks in the city and earns enough to keep the house brim with food ,Alhamdullilah. My mother is a home maker like in any other Pakistani house though her love for us sure keeps us bound extraordinarily.
I sit beside my twenty five year old brother with a brain of five year old. He is a software engineer in another city but here he is for his week end and will be back today to work. He is tall , lean and tanned like abbu. He has got his features from abbu, the manly nose , the heavy eyebrows , the eyes and thin lips .While, I am more like ammi with chocolate brown eyes, the long straight nose and the small lips. But my regrets? My hair. My mother has curly hair while my brother and father have a regular straight hair , while mine are straight with no waves what so ever . It annoys me but I figured it would require less maintenance.
I serve myself with Paratha and omelette , the traditional , Pakistani breakfast. I search for yogurt but couldn't find so I just steal the bowl full of yogurt from bhai's plate. He gives me an annoyed look and asks for it back but I just lick my spoon and dip it in his untouched yogurt . Gross? I know , but i am used to playing dirty with him.... what can i say? we are siblings.
With a scowl he asks ammi for another bowl of yogurt.
" That's gross khushbu!" he murmurs while I giggle.
" yeah well it sure is but wasn't it what you did yesterday? " I give him a smug look.Looking over the childish exchange abbu simply shakes his head and laughs.
While, oh while , there is ammi who glares down at me asking me to behave like a proper lady and what not. Do I listen? Naah! its a daily thing . I bite into the last piece of the Paratha swish the in down with water and get up to leave.
“Ammi, I’m done. Allahafiz” I say and take my bag pack to go to college.
“Allahafiz beta(child) , close the door while going” she says while I shut the Door. I take a deep breath of fresh air and start walking towards the bus stop at the end of the block.
I keep walking when my best friend Fatima starts to walk by my side and the usual starts as we talk about the clothes and girly stuff. Mostly a face scrub she has recently bought and is acting out all sales girl just for me to try use it. Nonethless , the strange atmosphere still hangs as we pass strangers in costly cars that I have been noticing for a week now. They are buff and all business like. Some seem foreigners while some seem from here. Its weird and creepy for they notice us walk all the way to the bus stop. They have hawk like eyes pretending to be discrete at start but not so much as of now. The community head as been reported of their sightings but he gives some sort of excuses on them being FBI.
Any of this creepy stuff doesn't let us stray from our daily chores. We move on with our routine trying to avoid their presense.Well, as much as we can since their buffy suit clad bodies are hard to miss.
It's quarter to nine while fatima and I wait to board the bus. As the day goes by , my mood turns sour with every other class i go through. I am in the final year of my bachelors in technology , majoring in electronics and communications. Well, I was cluesless in the start as to take computer science or electronics so I went with electronics and communications for later, I could join any stream I felt like to and here I am in my seventh semester and still clueless . Pretty average in studies and nothing extravagent is what I would say about myself.
It's seven in the evening and has been a while since I have been home. Freshed up and clean from shower I resume watching Grey's anatomy from yesterday's episode on my laptop when I hear My phone beep. Its bhai.
“Hey Bhai, supp?” I say answering the call.
“Umm khushbu where are u?” He asks.
" Jahannum!!” I scoff ” home Bhai ... What do u want??”
" nothing just stay at home and don’t come out and don’t let ammi and abbu out too ” he says in a worried tone.
" Bhai is everything OK???why are you so worried ” I start to hyperventilate.
" JUST DO AS I SAY” he yells and hangs up.
What was that about? A rush of adrenaline has me break out sweat at the commotion coming from down stairs.
I start to get up to open my room door to check what exactly is going downstairs when someone starts banging the door trying to break open it .... Nd now I’m shit scared ... I start to walk backward towards my bed with wide eyes wiping off the sweat with the back of my hand and thats when the door opens revealing a silhouette and something long in his hand......
Ya Allah !!! A gunnn!!!!
