Minhaj's Diary
It has been almost a week since those terrible things happened. The leaflet of Marudur-First changed everything in my life upside down. My dreams shattered in front of my own eyes before they blossom.
Mohideen Hajiyar was the only person in my life who came forward to help me. He wanted to take me to Saudi Arabia with him. He had planned to involve me in his business activities. Those things now forever seem to be impossible. He is broken-hearted as I am. He is likely to move to Colombo with his family, leaving this village.
I did not, in fact, find any sort of such mistakes.
I still could not comprehend what was going on here. Everything sounds like a dream.
I wish everything to be a dream and wake up in the morning peacefully as if nothing happened.
Everything that happened looked too dramatic to be real.
My life has dramatically changed since the Marudur-First pamphlet was issued. Ironically, many people, especially the youngsters, seem to believe it.
I am unable to face this novel reality. I must run away somewhere, from everyone. I just want to live a simple life of my own by fishing near a river stream or on a summit of a green hill.
I was well respected in the village as a son of a generous man.
My father’s good deeds used to help me even after he died. Now everything has disappeared.
How could they simply vanish? They could not.
The virtues of my father were real. May God forgive him and show mercy upon him.
My father was a really virtuous man. There was not any tiniest doubt about it. I can still remember how a help-minded person he was.
The truth was my father was the one who was cheated.
The ones who cheated him are still alive, leading fabulously wealthy lives when my family suffered from poverty.
Everyone knew that my father was not the culprit. The only mistake of my father was that he was not so educated. He left all his paper works for his business partners, especially for Dr Zaidh’s father.
My father had a blind trust in his business partners. When my father was busy with his community work, his partners were busy swallowing the whole wealth into their pockets.
When my father realized something was wrong, it was too late. He could hardly do anything to rectify the situation. He could not bear the reality and digest what had happened. He suddenly died out of a heart attack and was buried in the Akbar mosque graveyard years ago.
Everyone knew what happened to my father and how he was cheated.
There are living eyewitnesses.
But, those cheaters were not satisfied. They wanted to rewrite this bitter history in their favour.
I terribly needed the help of my friends at this turbulent turn of my life. I met everyone in person.
It did not take long for me to realize I cannot expect any support from them.
Most of them found my destiny as something that they enjoy as if they were expecting this to happen for a long time.
It is Thursday evening. Nearly one week after the pamphlet was issued.
I am walking to meet my school friend Rashad. He was one of my batch-mates. He is an electrical engineer. He is the last of my friends I am going to meet.
This is going to be the final meeting. I will not meet anyone else after meeting Rashad.
Rashad was born into a poor family. He was ambitious and self-disciplined. He wanted to succeed in life since he was a child. At the same time, he was not an empathetic person. He was materialistic and somewhat selfish. He never telephone-calls anyone or pays a visit unless he has some needs. He is a young man with a strong ethical foundation, though.
He came last to my mind when I thought about my friends who could help me out of the situation.
I thought of meeting him in person without any phone calls.
The hope was not high. But I thought I might be able to convince him.
Rashad's house was situated within the densely populated neighbourhood of our village. The area was called ‘Slum’. Now it is popularly known as ‘Firdaws Garden’ with my father’s name.
There was no calling bell in his house.
"Rashad".
"Come in".
"How are you, Machang?" I asked.
"Ah, here comes our Firdaus Hajiyar's son. I was expecting you..!!".
"Expecting me?"
"Yeah, you visited all our batch-mates, didn't you?"
"Yeah".
"So, finally you came here. Why are you standing, man? Take a seat".
Rashad's house was as tiny as a pigeon cage.
"So…"
Rashad pretended to be friendly. But, his tone and mischievous smile on his face did not encourage me to talk.
"So… go on," Rashad told me again.
"Yeah," I hesitated and started with a customary conversation, "your studies completed, right?".
"Yeah, looking for a job. No one is giving me a job, man. Everyone is looking for someone who speaks English. I mean speaking like a native. We are poor. How can we speak like that? They want someone good looking. Leave it, machang. It's my problem".
"You are an Engineer. What is the point of whichever language you speak?"
"You understand, machang, and I understand. But, people in interview boards don't understand. They think they are hiring people for a fashion show”.
“For a marketing position, what they are looking for makes sense. But, for an engineer...”.
“Whatever it is… Leave it. Tell me, man..! What are you upto?”
“.....,” I kept silent.
I did not feel the confidence to utter anything. Rashad’s body language was making me uncomfortable.
“I know everything that happened,” Rashad said, “but, you must forgive me. I am not in a position to help you. I have my own worries. I am just trying to get out of my troubles after years of hard work. I can’t afford any more problems”.
“You know everything in that leaflet was a lie?”.
“Everyone has become self-wish these days, man. Who cares which is true and which is false? If you are powerful, whatever you say is the truth. If you are weak, whatever you say is baseless. Time has changed, man. We are living with monsters,” Rashad told me into my eyes.
I started losing hope.
I just wanted to pose one final question in an attempt to convince him. “What would you do, if you were in my shoes, machang?”.
Rashad was thinking for a moment.
“What would I do? I would simply leave this village. But, we are not in the same shoes, man, are we? You have a good family history. You have contact with important people in the village. Many big-shots in the village have known you since the time you were a kid. They have a good opinion about you. I am not like you. No one knows me. Just now I peep out into the world. Don’t spoil my future, man. If you excuse me, please get out of my house… as soon as possible”.
“What?” I asked Rashad unbelievably.
He literally said to get out of his house. I did not expect him to behave so rudely in an incredible manner.
“I mean it, man. Please, try to understand. People are so nosy in this neighbourhood. I don’t want my neighbours to know that you paid me a visit. You would have done the same thing, if you were in my shoes”.
I felt overwhelmed with my tears. But, I can’t cry in front of this selfish creature. If I were in his shoes, I would never have done it to anyone.
I would have played a much more meaningful role to help them out of their problems. But, It is obvious that no one was prepared to play such a meaningful role for me. Definitely, I will have to walk alone on a lonely path.
I stepped out of Rashad’s house.
Rashad came with me outside and told me in a lower voice.
“I am your batch-mate. I must tell you something. You are over talented, machang. You have tons of potential. That’s why everyone is envious of you. Be careful, you have powerful enemies around you. Your every step counts, understood?”, Rashad said like a soothsayer, “I don’t know how to come out of the situation that you are in right now. I am in a helpless situation, machang”.
Rashad went inside his cottage-like house.
I started walking home alone. The rest of my life seems to be a solo journey.
((To be Continued...))
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Next chapter: chapter 22 (2) - lion not a lamb
Previous chapter : chapter 21 - the darkness of guilt
* Characters, events and the places in this story are fictional and a mere product of the author's imagination. Any resemblance to real-world events or characters is merely coincidental.
** Vijayapura and Marudur are fictional places.
Riza Jaufer
Akurana -Kandy,
Sri Lanka
