The Pain Of Satisfaction - Part 2

Part 2

Days passed and talent's day was about to come, everyone in her class were to participate and in schools of Taliban, it was either an essay you could present, a speech or a poem in the name of president, anything else was not allowed, but farhana intended to change all that, she dint tell anyone what her act was to be, even though she was a little scared, reason being her grandfather had come to Pakistan during the independence period from India. And in Pakistan, Muslims who came from India are treated as outsiders and the army always kept a tab on their doing, that was the reason why she was doing this, she wanted to bridge that gap, she thought ”after my performance I will talk about it”.

She had made ankita to send her another courier containing a banaras Saree some days earlier, she got ready for the act, when her name was called out she came and from the laptop she played the music and started her performance, some people started to protest but looking her dance everyone was mesmerized, no one present in the hall spoke, it was like they had gone to a place of pure bliss.

she was in the middle of her dance when some army personnel who had come to watch the program stopped her on stage and said” what the hell is all this??” ,“It’s Bharatanatyam” said farhana, there was moment of shock for everyone present, in outrage the head officer standing there slapped her, farhana got angry, and in return, slapped the officer, and said “you have no right to slap or even touch me, I have a right to do as I want” and turned around to walk out of there, the officer held her hand and said “don’t you dare, you bitch” and started removing her Saree, to this many people stood up in the means of protest, the startled officer let her go, the situation was getting tense, couple of youngsters came onto stage and started hitting the officers, farhana moved away and when she looked down, she knew there was going to be trouble, everyone was coming towards the stage, a riot broke out, some army stationed near the school heard the news and came in, it was getting out of hand, some of the people were seriously hurt, the officer who had hit farhana was being brutally assaulted, he turned and saw towards farhana, and when she saw his face, he had such anger in his eyes, that farhana started shivering, she couldn’t stay anymore, quickly changing her dress, she went home.

She reached home, her mom opened the door, she smiled and let farhana in, thankfully no one in her home had heard about the riot, retiring to her room, she thought about what happened today, it gave her a headache, she took a aspirin and initially slipped into sleep, she got up in the morning and quickly hurried towards the hall to find the newspaper, and when she saw the headline, she thought she would faint, it was like she was momentarily paralyzed, the head line read – GIRL STARTS RIOT: 4 PERSONS KILLED, 50 INJURED,

There were beads of perspiration on her forehead, she quickly hid the newspaper, her brain seemed like it had stopped, she sat back on the sofa took a deep breath and told to herself “farhana don’t panic, everybody in the house will know, breathe just breathe, think of something else”, thoughts of her visiting to Singapore during last year’s education program came to her mind, her head ache calmed down to a little extent.

There was sound of bell at the front door, she was startled but went towards it, she opened to find the milkman, she collected the milk and went to the kitchen, kept the milk in the fridge and ran to her room, she quickly dressed up and grabbing her handbag, she thought of going to the old castle, it was the only place where no one would be and where she could find some peace of mind and today she needed it the most, she left a note beside her parents bed table, saying she would return soon, she was about to go through the front door but thought the better of it and silently opening the back door, she stepped out and was just 10 steps away, when she heard the most disturbing sound of her life, she was thrown away towards a certain distance, she turned around to see, and when she saw her house she fainted.

to be continued.........................