The Lock

With the finishing stroke of blue, he had in his eyes the endless ocean with the rising sun, which couldn’t
be distinguished from the dusky paleness, and an Eagle hovering above, looking for its prey. He sat down
in the chair, leaning back with closed eyes, as if trying to absorb the ocean he just created. He thought to
himself,

“Why couldn’t you paint it red instead of blue?”

The shutters opened and a blank stare at the ceiling returned, “Because Art is imitation”.

A rare smile conquered his ever thwarting lips, “Imitation or creation?”

Aadam has always been inquisitive about whatever he would come across, be it a little flash of thought
in his mind. He could not sup the flowing meanings of things around him. His brush has been eager to
bestow the flashing flames with the freezing quiver of Atlantic. He would turn the poles and transport
Equator to the chilling nights of Arctic. The merciless teeth of African Lions would be in the mouths of
galloping deer. The tallest mounts won’t be more than a heap of dust for him. For him, his canvass was
the whole world and he was its demigod.

Just as his heart was inclining towards “creation”, the phone rang. A feminine voice paved its way
through the streaming blood and rested in his heart. This voice has been the only sound his ears would
let in and his nerves would safely escort it to his heart.

“It cannot be”, said the murmuring voice

“Why?”

“For undefined reasons. This is not your canvass, you are not its creator, nor do you hold the strings.”

“I ain’t born with strings”

“But I am”

“I will set you free”, he said with a decisive tone as the phone hung.

“Are these the adamantine chains?” His logic once again questioned the unprovoked authority.

His Heer, Huma lived in a world where there wasn’t any “Ode to a nightingale” and her “Desert Places”
were too horrifying to haunt her. Her heart would quake with the cracking leaves and a deep silence
would have enough to deafen her of the serenity around her. Wars and famines would make her eyes
wet and she found nothing glorious and poetic about death. For her, a cricket was made to chirp and
tigers to howl. Her life was too brief to encompass the journey from caves to computers.

Hanging up without bidding Adieu was an old trait of hers. Rather, Aadam’s ears were not prone to
listening much from her. It was her senses that always led Aadam into her accommodating brain. She
met him on an art exhibition where she found Aadam to be a silent observer. It was only the portrait of
a locked house that brought their silent whispers to each other.

“What is your opinion about the picture?”

Aadam came back and could manage only with, “hmm?” It looked as if his eyes were more eager than
his ears.

“I said what is your opinion”?

“I think lock can be broken”

“To come out”?

“No, to go in”

“What a fool I am! You need to go in first to come out”

“Once you go in, you don’t need to come out”

“Hmm! How can it be broken?”

“A strong blow in the head”

“You think people are in there?”

“Yes”

“Why don’t they come out?”

“They don’t need to”

That was the day Aadam decided to go in with Huma. Huma on return from the Exhibition heard her
father, Nizam saying to her mother, Mehrunnisa,

“She is my daughter. I can decide better for her life.”

“But still life is hers”, said the pleading mother

“I gave her Life”

“Just ask her once”

“I decided it long ago and being a daughter, it’s her duty to obey me”

Life seemed to her as a pendulum oscillating between obedience and duty. She later came to know from
her mother that she had been engaged with a distant cousin of hers, Akram, living in their village,
Peeran Wala.
“But why he wants me to marry someone who is no match for me?”

“Better if you put this question to him”, said the helpless mother.

Her mother always served as a phone line between her father and her. Upon hearing the response of his
obedient daughter, Nizam, being furious as an arrogant child, whose sand-house is ruined by someone,
said,

“It is my decision and I do not need her permission for my decisions.”

“Don’t you think you should talk to her once at least”, Mehrunnisa

“You have told her. That’s enough! I can’t let the whole Braadri spit on my face”

With this conclusive note, he turned the lights off. For Huma, it seemed to be a night of malicious
serenity. Tonight, the crickets didn’t even chirp.

“Am I for braadri of my father or for him?”

This question took her to the deep valleys of sleep, where all the questions fade; answered and
unanswered both. As she was marching down in the valley, she met Aadam sitting silent. His long curly
hair were blowing with the wind, hers were quite quiet. He looked deep in her eyes, the questioning
eyes.

“You are for yourself”, his eyes approached hers with the wordless speech. She wanted to turn her blank
stare into meaningful speech, when the sun peeped in through her window. Her fair skin glowed,
complaining about the uninvited guest. Her ears conveyed to her eyes the phone ring. She opened her
eyes with Aadam.

“Have I bothered you?” said Aadam.

“When did he leave the valley?”

She was surrounded with inner and outer enquiries. But she lent herself to outers

“Not really. But you woke me up before my time”

“Have I?”

“Yea but I am still sleepy”

She never knew that Aadam would make her rise. It was only their second meeting, when she blasted
out to Aadam.

“He is no Match for me. I can’t imagine my life with him”

“Oh My Life with him”, Aadam said

“Yes”

“So you are told that it is Your Life”

“I think so”

“Keep on thinking and tell me when you are sure”

“I think I am sure”

“All right! You think a lot?”

She could only answer back with a smile. Aadam continued,

“So, what will you do?”

“I have decided that…”

Aadam snatched her words, “So You have Decided”

“Yes that I shall sacrifice for my father”

“You have any other option?”

“No”

“Don’t call it a sacrifice. It’s a compromise to the wretched thing, people call fate”

“What else can I do?”

“Break the lock”

“I can’t”

“You can”

“How?”

“Just give a strong blow on the Head”

Aadam managed to sneak into her heart and conquered the fort of her logic too. He was irresistible. His
paintings and sketches fertilized the apparently barren soil. On the other hand, Huma didn’t know that
she had already set the sail. Strong winds of Aadam were blowing her near to him. They both didn’t
know when these winds turned into soft breeze of love.

Just as the clock made the Earth go round the Sun, so did it make Aadam to be Huma’s centre. The
moon with her soft riddles started to shine in Huma’s valley. The chirping of cricket turned into sweet
melodies and her heart started to beat in rhythm. Her Heart was more than a pump now. Her blood
fostered into her veins in addition to its biological constituents.
With the gained rigor, she could now lift the hammer but was still uncertain whether the head would be
blown or not unless she once heard Aadam saying it casually,

“Water would run down your cheeks. Making it your sweat is worth more than making it your tears”

Her father on the other hand had made the commitment. For him, her eyes were still those dull, frozen
and numb which she has worn right from her birth. He was blind to the glitter and was deaf to the words
spoken by them silently.

Mehrunnisa could sense the trust Huma now had in her steps.

“Huma you know your father’s decision”

“Yes His decision”, Huma said in a sarcastic tone

“Look Ammi! I have decided that I will break the lock”

“what?”

“I can’t see tears in his eyes for rest of his life?”

“what do you mean?”

“Will he be happy to see me unhappy?”

“Of course not”

“And I won’t be happy with Akram. How can he be happy when I have tears in my eyes?”

“Don’t worry about my happiness. I know what I am doing. I don’t need your opinions to design my
decisions.” His father said just as he entered the room.

“But Abbu! I don’t want it”

“It’s not always what you want and what you don’t”

“Abbu I can’t waste my life like that”

“Listen, I have made a commitment and I can’t let you make people laugh at me”

“You want them to laugh at me?”

“No, that’s why I am doing it”

“Abbu please don’t do it to me”

“I know what I am doing. Mehrunnisa, tell her, I am her father not her enemy”

“But Abbu…”
“I don’t want any further arguments”

Nizam left the room with all his wrath and anger. Mehrunnisa could only manage to put her hand on
Huma’s head, as if telling her

“This is all I have”

Aadam yet again concluded disagreed with the meanings of Adamantine.

“There is no such thing called Adamantine”

He picked the phone and rang Huma,

“I only want to know, you want the chains broken or not?”

“It’s not always what we want”

“It is”

“Not for me at least”

“Answer my question, you want them broken or not?”

“How?”

“You want or not?”

“Yes I want”

“let’s break them together”

“But how?”

“Let’s go to court”

“Are you joking?”

“Does it sound funny”

“Seemingly, it does”

“Think about it”

Her thoughts scattered before they started with the thundering voice of Nizam.

“Yes Abbu you called me”

“Yes, just wanted to inform you that Akram’s Parents are coming tomorrow”

“But Abbu..”
“We have had enough of it. No more discussions. You got the information. You may leave now”. Nizam
deciding for her yet again, without caring what follows “but”.

Huma’s restless bed seemed to argue with her, “You think I will ever provide you with rest. You might
sleep but a stranger would be your companion. He would peep in whenever he wants and you won’t be
more than a heap of flesh and bone.”

Night seemed to be too long and the nights ahead seemed even longer. Darkness seemed to prevail her
days too and the Sun seemed to be blotted. Soft riddles of moonlight seemed to be turning into
ferocious, unanswered and heart breaching mysteries. Little joys would turn into tiring labor.

She again had the vision of Aadam in the Valley. It was even darker and the wind was even more
enraged. Her soft hairs were blowing and her hand was on Aadam’s shoulder. He was leading him. She
couldn’t see where their journey would end. Aadam’s company was enough for her and she didn’t really
care about the destination.

Sun didn’t get in through window that morning. It had hid itself under the thick fold of dark clouds. The
wind looked more like a storm, a hurricane. The ring of phone woke her,

“so what have you thought?”

“about what?”

“Can we move along?”

“What?” She couldn’t understand Aadam as thunder strangled Aadam’s words.

“I said you want to go to court?”

A long silence made her say, “Yes”

She made the decision for Her life for the first time. She saw Nizam in her eyes and said “Forgive me”

They reached the court when Akram’s parents reached at Nizam’s. Huma and Aadam sold themselves to
each other for a few worthless pennies of joy. Whereas Nizam made Akram’s parents to give her 4
Murabbas of land as Haq Mehr, to which they promptly agreed.

Aadam and Huma returned with dreams of future in their eyes. They could forget Nizam for a minute.
Huma had in her heart the sense of achievement. Aadam was proud of breaking the lock.

In his pride, Aadam didn’t see a truck coming straight to them. Huma could only sense herself
afterwards on Hospital Bed. She had a heavy head but her eyes didn’t make any images in her brain. She
lost her eyes. She heard the Doctor saying “He had a strong blow in his head. He is dead” Water went
down the cheek when but this time it was not sweat.