PART 1. FIRST CRASH
Aaliya Ghulam Haider was a very happy girl today. And why wouldn't she be? Her cousin was getting married today! Aaliya Ghulam Haider, an 18 year old girl, belonged to Haider family from Bhopal and had come to Mumbai to attend her cousin's wedding. Aaliya adored her Maama Maami, especially her Maami who considered her as her daughter. Aaliya had never come to Mumbai before as only her parents visited Mumbai and sometimes her Maama Maami came over to meet her family. Hence, Aaliya had not met her cousins much and she had no interest in them either. She was here to meet her Maama Maami and have fun with them.
Aaliya smiled as she looked around the marriage hall while carrying a basket full of flowers which she was supposed to hand over to the person who was decorating the stage. Even though she was a guest, she had asked for work and her Maami finally gave her the job of helping the decorator. Dressed in a blue sharara Aaliya bounced around the decorator till the decorator, tired of her chirping, handed the job of providing flowers to all the workers in the hall who were decorating the stage. Hence, Aaliya was happily prancing in the hall going towards the stage where nikaah was supposed to happen with a basket of flowers in her hand.
Aaliya looked at the stage carefully. It was decorated so beautifully! While the sangeet, haldi and mehendi was kept in Barkat Villa, the marriage was arranged in a marriage hall as the guests were supposed to be around thousands. Aaliya was overwhelmed by this information. So many people around and she did not know anybody except her Maama, Maami, the bride groom Fahad and the bride Nafisa. She gulped; what if she got lost here? Then she shook her head. Aaliya! Tum aisa kyun soch rahi ho! Kuch nahi hoga tumhein! She shook her head! She was acting ridiculous. And yet she nervously looked up, "Ya Allah! Mujhe yahaan gum hone nahi dena haan!"
As Aaliya was pleading to her Allah, she did not notice a man coming towards her and they crashed into each other. The basket of flowers went flying all over them as Aaliya fell on the guy and both crashed onto the floor. Aaliya had her eyes tightly closed as the man fell on the floor and she fell right above him. After few seconds, Aaliya opened her right eye and looked around. Noticing the man staring at her, she opened both her eyes wide and looked at him in shock. The man was none other than Zain Usman Abdullah, her Maama's second son. While Aaliya had never met him before as he never came to Bhopal and neither had she come to Mumbai, she had enough knowledge about Zain's pranking habits from Fahad and Nafisa that she was scared of him. Zain intimidated her and she became very nervous whenever she came face to face with him.
Aaliya gulped and she looked at Zain in horror as the flowers from the basket fell all over them. Zain raised an eyebrow at her, "Uthne ke baare mein sochengi aap?" "Huh!", Aaliya looked at him confused. Zain rolled his eyes, "Uthogi ya godh mein uthaaun?" "Nahi!", Aaliya almost screamed as she scrambled off him. As she stood up and adjusted her dupatta, Zain stood up and glared at her. "Dekhke nahi chal sakti? Andhi ho kya?" Zain scolded her.
Aaliya had planned to apologise to Zain and scramble away as she was scared of him but the moment he scolded her, her nervousness gave way to her anger. "Kya kahaa tumne? Main andhi hoon? Aur tum kya ho? Khud dekhke chalte nahi aur mujhpe chillaate ho!" "Kya?", Zain looked at her annoyed, "Tum kya kehna chaahti ho? Ki galti meri hai?" Aaliya placed her hand on her hip and nodded, "Haan!" "KYA?", Zain roared and took a step ahead but Aaliya was not scared. She was angry and she did not care even if the person standing in front of her was scary to her few minutes ago. All she cared was that he was accusing her of wrong thing and she had to fight back, "Dekho Mr. Zain Usman Abdullah! Tum mujhpe galat ilzaam laga rahe ho! Aur Aaliya Ghulam Haider yeh bardaasht nahi karegi!" "Ilzaam? Toh kya tum mujhse takraayi nahi? Haan? Bolo?" Aaliya's jaw dropped open and she looked up, "Ya Allah! Dekho apne bande ko! Takraaye toh yeh bhi the! Toh galti sirf meri kyun?" She looked down to scold Zain more only to see Zain vanish. Ab yeh kahaa gaya? Someone put a hand on Aaliya's shoulder and she turned to see her Maami smile at her. As she started talking with her Maami she forgot the fight with Zain but she did not know that the story had not ended yet; the fight had not ended yet!
Next update on Wednesday!
Thanks for reading and take care,
Kalpana