The Road to Destiny...

Continued....

How would you answer to Shazia’s questions?

I often wonder could our conversation have ended in any other way.... with at least a few words, a sympathetic look or maybe a compassionate touch??

You see that’s how it is, we play with words, thoughts and moments in our little minds in a certain way in and from our own perspectives but we fail to assess how it would really go in that certain moment, an instant ....a split second that may change everything in you and around you. Isn’t it?

The weekend ended and I got back to being busy in my own routine and work... but Shazia..... It seemed she started living within that very moment. A conversation of a few minutes that created a gap which had us completely tongue- tied for days, or maybe it was an opening of a distinctive bond of understanding her silence. Maybe.... maybe not!

Well the silence was there but not entirely, she did greet me in the mornings, tried to do small talk when I was home and started replying to my random work related questions too. But she remained quiet as we never furthered our conversation and started pretending that it never happened.

It’s funny how sometimes people can contain words and pretend to be silent over certain things even when they are not completely unvoiced.

“For she had sealed her heart along with her expressions that could help me get through the shield she had confined herself in.”

Unlike Shazia, I couldn’t help but think about her words and especially her expressions. They were stuck in my mind like a nightmare, annoying me to the point that I got frustrated and questioned Nyla about Shazia’s past, knowing well that I might just get a totally different picture but it was worth a try.

Nyla at first seemed to be annoyed from my questions but she did answer them all and that too without hesitation.

“It is true that Shazia lost her mother when she was a few weeks old but her grandmother has raised her well. She has never faced any struggles or hardships of living and earning in the city. Besides she is always upset with everything and everyone just because she doesn’t have a mother.... I mean she completely ignores how lucky she is to have all that I or my family never had.”

Nyla’s words hit me like lightning and forced me to think how and why do human beings judge others. Each and every person only cares and thinks that his/her story, journey and troubles are worth crying for... just like these fourteen year old girls who have lived a thousand lives in their little ages but haven’t learned to be compassionate, respectful, understanding and loving towards others.

It is definitely something to ponder over.... I have come to believe that humans are like survivors on a boat, who are surrounded by a vast sea that is ever ready to devour them, yet their first and only concern is the human next to them.

So I understood why Nyla said such things about Shazia... she couldn’t help herself from competing in this race.... chasing pity, sympathy and compassion of the employers so that she remains a miserable victim in their eyes that needs support and help. I mean it is common knowledge we all have about the ways of the world, societies with class differences and the manipulations of the domestic workers to secure their jobs. It surely is an unfortunate and ugly truth of our society that strikes as a realization to one only after being manipulated by such illiterate and inhumane helpers.

I am one such person who is often fooled by the words and actions of these very domestic workers. Not because I can’t understand them but because my heart and mind are always clouded with the determined thought and motivation of changing their nature. I know this might sound silly to you all but it is what it is.

Anyway coming back to Shazia.... I ignored every one of Nyla’s words and I started to interact with both of them... teaching them little things about being human, because communication is the key to reach out to closed doors and troubled souls.

As time passed by, I could see sound and positive changes within these two girls who I took as my students and treated as my younger sisters. It felt good to be the reason of their smiles, being someone they adored... were fond of and looked up to. According to them, I was their fairy godmother in their very own Cinderella story.

It was one of these happy days when Shazia came up to me and asked.... “Can I stay with you? My father is going to some other village for work and I thought that maybe if you allow, I can stay at your place to learn cooking, house chores or the little daily routine works that my mother would’ve taught me” she added.

I didn’t even have to think about it as for me it was more like a dream come true. Since our last awkward conversation, all I had thought was how to change her life and all my questions eventually had the same answer... if she started living with me. Isn’t it funny how girls no matter of what age or class think alike... she thought the same when she decided to leave her village and I too thought the same because for us home is all we have... it is everything we’ll ever have.

That evening her father came to talk with me (certain that I will not refuse him) and left Shazia as my responsibility.... he said it in simple yet deep meaningful words that I still remember. “She is a girl without a mother, if you take her in and open your arms to her (like you already have) as her mentor, I will forever be indebted to you... for she is now yours.”

His words moved me, leaving me no time to actually think it through so I just nodded as Shazia hugged her father goodbye and promised to be a good girl until he returns.

Time had turned and fate seemed to be on her side now..... She was a happy soul, a girl who knew nothing once was now all about learning and overcoming the obstacles in her life. She seemed to be free from any burden or misery of her past... a free spirit that had attained freedom at last.

You know what was the best part? She wasn’t just unaware of the worldly affairs but of the religion too, a Muslim girl who didn’t know how to perform ablution, offer prayers or the very basic foundations of Islam. So I taught her that too.... How fortunate for her to have found a place or someone where and with whom she gained education and knowledge of not only the world and religion but life too.

For her, it was like taking small steps that led to a huge staircase of prosperity, peace and contentment. "You might think how I know all this??"

Well it was evident from her appearance; she was gaining weight becoming healthier day by day, was no longer lean like before, she was always tidy, clean and neat but most important of all she had a smile on her face all the time.

We played, worked, studied, prayed and watched TV together, and it was in these moments that I could see and cherish her small gestures of affection towards me. It seemed she had forgotten her past and had settled her little world around me, a bubble that was too perfect to last and ready to burst.

I had time and again assessed all the possibilities, obstacles and scenarios in between taking Shazia in and before proceeding with the responsibility of transforming her life... all except Nyla.

Nyla, seeing Shazia’s life turn upside down started envying her. She became estranged to her cousin she once dearly loved. Nyla would often criticize and belittle Shazia, trying to prove how she was better than her in everything. Things changed quickly between them as they became competitors who wanted the same prize (me).

However, I could have never envisaged that this will turn into a family issue. Nyla, (being the clever one) started poisoning Shazia’s mind with greed, doubt and the value of being blood relatives. But it wasn’t just Shazia that she poisoned... she did the same with her mother and uncle.

I thought things would settle down between them but they never did, they just escalated. I was totally unaware of the politics and games in between them and by the time I came to realize how things were turning, Nyla played her last move... she got stubborn over the fact that Shazia could stay at our place when she couldn’t. So she started annoying her mother, who also only observed how Shazia’s life was getting better and better at a home away from home.

As per principle if a person wants something, he/ she works hard to gain the desired goal... but our society works in a weird way... we don’t work our way up ... we gain our goals not by getting them but by depriving the other of that which he/she has achieved or had been blessed with. Nyla and her mother did the same... they took away the one thing Shazia had gained rather achieved in her miserable life.... Me, her new beginning, her happiness.... the road to destiny!

Shazia was foolish enough to fall for their tricks and made the mistake of starting to question my kindness and my compassion towards a motherless child. She was blinded by her thoughts and greed to the point that she could only understand that she wasn’t being paid enough for her services.

It saddens me to think that she failed to see everything I had done for her, see I would never boast about it or swank it to her face but in my heart it did tear me to pieces that she compared my gestures of kindness, love and care and that too against a monetary gain. How unfortunate that for her the monetary amount weighed more than everything I did or could give.

Nyla and Shazia started skipping work once Shazia started living at her aunt’s place again and finally one day they said it out loud that I was manipulating them, talking advantage of their adolescence and turning them against their families. It was a burden too much to take.... so I bid them farewell and let them be wherever and whoever they wished to be.

So finally Nyla, her mother and Shazia’s father won... their greed for more and more monetary gains triumphed over a child’s contentment and hope.

I failed.....but Shazia.... she lost!

Shazia.... a girl who lost everything she gained, a fool unaware of what she had thrown away... for what and at what cost. She was but an unfortunate girl who once paid the price of her father’s love and now she’ll pay the price of her father’s greed. The only difference is that before it was until the day she decided to leave her life behind but now..... it is for an eternity, for she has chosen to relive a life full of hate, despair, insult, abuse and desolation.

Destiny is nothing but a journey that has already been planned, a path that is to be crossed. But it is one’s own will that helps him/her choose their own course to reach the road they were destined to be on.... our deeds, decisions and choices are what determine how we start and end that journey.

Shazia..... she was destined to end up where she started.... in an endless void... a pitiful emptiness.

I changed her.... her life but I couldn’t change her fate... so destiny... a word with only seven letters is life, a journey that will come to end just the way it is planned, written or designed.