"Aladdin ne apne jadui chirag ko phir se ghisa aur ye bahar aaya jinn. 'Kehne laga, Kya hukum hain mere aaka?'"
"Aur Aladdin ne kya manga?" The child giggled seeing his nurse-maid mimicking a Jeannie.
"Rehne ke liye ghar." Sensible this boy Aladdin was, the child thought.
"Aur phir jinn ne palak jhapakate hi, ye bada ghar banaya." The nurse-maid raised her arms to show how big it was. "Ghar kya mehal banaya. Sultan ke mehal se bhi bada."
"Kitna bada? Theek se batao." The child was demanding.
"Batati hoon, huzur. The nurse-maid passed a loving hand on the child's head. "Suraj ki roshni main lipta hua, baadlo se baatein karta hua, maan lo, jameen per nahi aasmano main bana hua."
"Ye sab jinn ne kiya?"
"To kya? Jinn ke jaadu ne ye sab kiya."
"Main koi chirag dhudhu?"
"Tauba, huzur. Aap ko kis cheez ki kami hain ki ek jinn chahiye."
"Jinn kachhe amrud ko paka sakta hain?" It was the nurse-maid's turn to giggle now. "Mehal nahi per amrud chahiye?"
The child obediently nodded, a lock of hair falling on his forehead. The nurse-maid lovingly moved the lock in its place, backing the child's head on his pillow and tucking him in his covers. "Huzur, jinn achha bhi hota hain aur bura bhi. Agar chirag main se bura jinn nikal aaya to? Tauba...huzur aisa kuchh nahi karenge aur ab so jayenge."
"Bura jinn kya karega?"
"Woh apne saath dur jinnat ke mulk main de jaayega." She made up the tale. "Ab so jaao." The child registered the fact in a corner of his mind to be examined later as his eyelids drooped carrying him to land of dreams of jinn and white castles wrapped in light.
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Asad half-opened his eyes and groggily looked around the while castle wrapped in light. He looked around and found himself surrounded by strange things. There was a dull ache in his head; his hand reached for the source of pain and touched the cotton gauze covering the bump on his forehead where the ambulance door had struck. On trying to get up, he realised that he was chained in a strange way; a sharp needle was inserted in his body. What sorcery it was! With his body, voice of reason was also waking up. It was time to get out of land of dreams and jinn and magic lamps. It was the English who were behind all this! Yes, weren't they always coming up with some or other strange contraptions? Didn't they get iron monsters crisscrossing the land? Didn't someone in mehafil mentioned about something called tram in Kalkatta? Mehafil? Yes, he was in the mehafil and then the strange man the spy. This was surely the doing of the English. Fury swept through his body and he sat up in the hospital bed and yanked out the syringe inserted in his left-hand drawing blood from his vein and a curse from his mouth.
"Aren't we here at the right time? It seems that the patient is conscious." An ebullient voice was heard. "Whoa...what are you doing? Nurse, he is bleeding. Hold it...hold it. You cannot not get up." Strong arms pushed Asad back on the bed and the nurse took hold of his bleeding hand. But, the poor doctor and nurse had just few moments of advantage of the surprise. Asad was up again and the doctor was flung to other side of the room.
"Wardboy...wardboy...in here. Room 5." More help rushed in.
"Sabke sab angrezo ke saath mile hue ho. Bik gaye ho. Mujhe jaane do."
"Doctor...sedative?" The nurse asked.
"No...", the doctor was curiously eyeing his patient. His concussion was mild, his CT scan normal, whole night had been uneventful and he had slept peacefully. Then, why was he behaving like this?
"Hey, calm down. Calm down. It's cool." Asad didn't listen to him and kept struggling and then he paused. Among while-coated hospital staff members, a riot of color had walked in. A rainbow splattered on her blouse and a red silk clothe wrapped around her neck, contrasting with silky black hair that framed a delicate face and doe eyes. Was she the princess Badroubadour? Someone had called Zoya as soon as they realised that Asad was awake and non-cooperative.
"That's better. Shant...shant." The doctor was talking again. Asad looked back at him.
"Apna naam bataiye." The doctor started with the standard questions for a patient with concussion.
"Asad Ahmed Khan." He again took a quick look at the storybook princess before answering. Was she staring at him?
"Very good."
"How old are you?"
"Kaun si jabaan bol rahe ho? Un angrezo ki?" Asad was again getting worked up.
What? He had some language-fanatic at his hands? The doctor shook his head.
"Aap ki umar kya hain?"
"Untees."
"Huh?"
"Twenty nine." The nurse translated.
"Very well. Aapko pata hain aap kahan hain?"
"Bhopal main. Aur kahan?" Asad looked around again and asked, "Kya main ab bhi Bhopal main
hoon?"
"Jee bilkul."
"Prime minister...errm...Pradhan mantri ka naam bataiye?"
Asad gave a blank stare. "Okay, let's try something easy. Ye kaunsa saal hain?"
"1876. Asad answered and then turned towards Zoya and asked, "Aap kaun hain? Aur, aise kya behaya hoke ghoor rahi hain?" Then he immediately looked away and closed his eyes cursing himself. What was wrong with him? He did not talk with a woman like this. Where were his manners even if the woman before him didn't keep decorum?
Everyone was stunned for few moments and then the doctor spoke up, "Oh...boy, he has time-travelled."
"Nurse, inhe MRI ke liye le jaao. And, get me his report as soon as it is ready."
"Mujhe kahan le jaa rahe hain?" Asad again started struggling. "Doctor, sedative?
"Yes." Two ward-boys held him and the nurse gave him injection and he was limp again.
"You are the patient's relative." The doctor was next to Zoya now. "No...I mean yes...no...I mean he is related to my neighbour...I think...my neighbour...Rashid uncle is in ICU." Zoya had been staring at Asad trying to find likeness with Rashid when he had ended up shouting at her. By then, she had reluctantly agreed to the inspector of last night, the man if not son but sure was a relative unless it was some freak coincidence of nature. Rashid uncle can have a nephew, right? But, boy, was he rude!
The doctor ignored her incoherent speech and came to the point. "His behaviour is very strange. His reports are normal. He had shown no signs last night and now...", he looked back at sleeping Asad with puzzled eyes. "I need to see results of MRI before I can say more. We can't discharge him now. Let's wait for few more hours." Zoya just nodded.
"What to do? What to do? To hell with this mystery man. Let me go back to uncle." She left without a backward glance and got a pleasant surprise seeing Rashid also conscious. She crushed her tongue which was about to utter, 'Like father like son!'
"Nurse...doctor...", Zoya called for attention.
"Zoya...No", Rashid's hand touched hers and the coldness made her shiver with unknown fear. She looked back at the frail man in hospital bed.
"Asad..." She bent her head to listen. "Asad".
"Dost, let doctor take a look at you first, then we will talk about Asad, okay?" She said gently squeezing his hand and again turned her head towards door.
"Zoya...Asad...listen to me, please."
Zoya reluctantly bent again. "He is not from here." Rashid said with an effort.
"He has come from some other city? Okay, that is fine."
Rashid slowly nodded his head to say no. "From another time."
"Okay. Wherever he has come from, we will discuss him later, okay? He is quite well. I just saw him." Well, maybe not so well. She thought but did not tell Rashid.
"Zoya...", Rashid's voice was pleading now and made Zoya really pause. His face had an urgency written over it. "Asad...you were saying something". She gently placed a hand on her head. "Take care of him, Zoya." Zoya felt a dread what was he saying, why was he saying? "Uncle, nothing is going to happen to you." "Promise me, you will take care of him". Urgency was mixed with guilt now. "Okay...okay...I will...I promise". She was now buying the inspector's theory of Asad being his illegitimate son. Was Rashid uncle feeling guilty and wanted someone to take care of his son even when he was gone? But, why would a grown man need to be taken care of? Zoya had a smart brain capable of running multiple threads even under crisis.
He relaxed a little. "He is from past. Zoya sighed." Was she going to learn story of Rashid's life? "1876". Zoya's eyes narrowed. Isn't it the same year that Asad had said? "He time travelled with me."
She let go of her hand from Rashid's head and exclaimed, "Really?" Asad being Rashid's long-lost son sounded way more very believable now.
Again, that look of urgency was back on Rashid's face. "He time travelled. Check third drawer in my desk. Paani..."
Zoya immediately got him a glass of water and made him drink. "Zoya, no one should know. Secret. Zoya, promise...secret." His words were coming strained now just like his breath. Even this short conversation had tired him. And, Zoya decided that his brain was befuddled and he was talking no sense. Whoever this man Asad was it will have to wait for later. Before she could call doctor again, a nurse walked in.
"Patient ko hosh aa gaya. Main abhi doctor ko bulati hoon." Nurse left as soon as she entered.
"Dost, sab theek ho jaayega."
But Rashid had a look of panic on his face and all the machines started beeping. Zoya got up feeling alarmed. Doctor rushed in.
"Promise, Zoya...promise." Rashid said his last words before a doctor took over and a nurse sent her outside.
Zoya paced outside ICU and berated herself for not calling doctor immediately. What if...what if, something happened to uncle due to her stupidity? She has completely brushed aside the conversation that she had with Rashid. She again tried to call his relative and he was still not reachable. She was very tempted to call Ayaan, a fellow developer from office, but immediately thought against it. "Wasn't Ayaan behaving strange lately? Better not to encourage him."
The doctor came out in 10 minutes. He reassured her that Rashid was showing positive signs but stress had caused the alarm few minutes back. He gave the usual chant of not stressing out the patient given his age, recovering body, severity of asthma attack last night, etc. When Zoya walked back in ICU, Rashid was asleep under the effect of sedatives.
"Oh...uncle, please stop worrying." Zoya whispered looking at Rashid's face which still had worry lines itched on it.
His eyes had dark circles, his chin was covered in fuzzy whites, his skin looked blotchy. In one year, she had known him, she had never known the man to be so sick. He had caught cold last winter and frequently complained about headaches but otherwise he was quite healthy for man his age. Despite him forgetting his meals, when he was busy pouring over some science journal. Rashid was a scientist. He was a professor of physics in a school in US but returned to his hometown few years back. He had a wife once and he had loved her but she had passed away long time back leaving him with his books and experiments and they were his life till Zoya came along. Zoya had moved in her apartment just a week back, when she had heard a loud noise in the apartment upstairs. The apartment complex resembled a New York apartment complete with red brick facade, wrought iron balconies, and fire escape staircase and was a rage among young and upcoming of Bhopal. Zoya had loved the apartment at first glance and his reluctant father had bought it for her. She had come to Bhopal defying her parents who wanted her to pursue business degree and join her father's business. She could have marched to Silicon Valley and joined a cool startup but she decided to strike on her own in a new country very far from her domineering father and mother Gafoor and Razia. Why did she allow her father to pay for the apartment then? Well, she and her sister were rightful heir to their wealth and there was a trust fund set in their name when they were children. So, in a way, it can be considered her own money.
So, the noise upstairs combined with her irrepressible curiosity had lead Zoya to Rashid's apartment via the way of fire escape staircase. She had peered inside the messy but cosy apartment, when a man looked around for his glasses, mumbling all the time. Zoya soon found the source of the loud noise, a fallen chair. The absent-minded professor well, it was pretty much written on his head - where his glasses were resting - searched for whatever he was searching for.
"Glasses kahan gaye?" He had raised his voice in frustration while he opened one more drawer. The apartment seemed to be filled with chest of drawers and every inch was covered with papers. Zoya had silently laughed and tapped on glass door. The man had looked at her while scrunching his eyes.
"Who is it?"
"Your glasses." Zoya pointed at her head.
"What do you want?"
"Pakka...absent-minded professor." Zoya had rolled her eyes thinking and made sign of pushing glasses on head. Finally, he caught it and found his glasses. A smile broke on his face as he found his sight back and Zoya loved that smile that opened the glass door and let her in to step in his world. It was Zoya who had arranged for him to take tuition for kids in a nearby school. He had scoffed at the idea first saying that he was an esteemed professor of physics and not a middle-school teacher. Zoya had shut him up by smugly quoting Einstein, "If you can't explain it to a six-year old, you don't understand it yourself." Rashid as usual had mumbled but agreed to her scheme. Zoya wanted him to have more social interaction and what better than these kids who might accept him better than the polished adults. It was an unusual friendship that had become stronger day by day when Zoya found a surrogate father in him and he a daughter he never imagined he needed in his life. Zoya always checked on him after coming from office and on weekends if she was not out with her friends, she spent with him.
Zoya's eyes got moist as past one year sped before her eyes. Just then her stomach rumbled. She had not eaten breakfast today morning. Actually, she had not eaten anything since a slice of pizza last night when she got the call. She needed to eat, she needed shower. She grabbed her things, looked one more time at Rashid and all the machines connected to him and then decided to make a quick visit to home. She informed duty nurse and left for home.
Zoya yawned as people milled in and out of elevator which like a local train was stopping at every floor. When it stopped on 1st floor, she debated whether to visit the mystery man or not and decided at last moment when the doors were closing that yes, she should. There was a rush in MRI centre today morning and nurse was just wheeling the mystery man out to get MRI done. Zoya informed her about her stepping out, took one last look at the strange man and left.
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Zoya chewed on now limp crust of pizza slice while checking battery on her phone connected to a charger, her hair still dripping from the shower and tried to push thoughts of the mystery man from her mind. What was uncle mumbling about time travel? 1876? Man from the past? He really needs a good rest and recovery. What about all the children he taught? She dropped a message on the WhatsApp group of parents about Rashid being unwell and not being able to teach for few days. Her phone instantly started buzzing with replies and she was heartened to see so many people caring for his well-being. Her idea was definitely working. After answering all messages and even few phone calls, she was ready to head back to the hospital and remembered something that Rashid had said. She played with car keys in her hand while chewing her lips for even considering the possibility, but again her curiosity got better of her and she headed towards the apartment upstairs.
"What a mess! Bai aati bhi hain ya nahi." She said looking around papers everywhere and empty take away boxes. She hadn't visited him over last few days due to her busy schedule in office. The apartment resembled a lot of what she had seen the first time. She thought she had got the man back to life and civilisation, but not from the looks of it. Knowing Rashid, it also meant that he deep into work. It was then he started ignoring his surroundings.
"Third drawer of his desk...", Zoya reached the desk as she called maid.
"Haan...chaabi pados main chhod ke jaa rahi hoon. Aap kitne dino se gayab hain? Ghar ki kya halat bani hain."
"Main kai karoon memsahib. Sahib ne hi mana kiya tha. Main unko disturb karti hoon." Zoya rolled her eyes listening to the maid but if she said what she said it meant that Rashid really was into something. Zoya scolded herself for not checking more on him during past weeks.
"Okay...okay...bas jaldi se aa jaao." She said gritting her teeth as she tried to open third drawer of the desk which was stuck.
"Third upar se yaa neeche se? Left side or right side?" The desk surface was filled with papers with long equations written on them. Few pencil stubs rolled around as the desk shook due to the force with which the drawer was opened.
"Ooh...finally..."
"More papers...what I am supposed to be looking for?" Consciously she was denying but subconsciously she was searching for any material related to time travel and then a paper with genealogy tree caught her attention as it had bold red circles drawn on certain branches. First thing she noticed was the leaf ending at Rashid and Dilshaad's name. 'Late' written next to his beloved wife's name. There were no children noted, legal or otherwise. "Haa...", Zoya felt relief and now her eyes wandered towards a big red circle. She took a comfortable seat on his chair and curiously eyed his family tree.
"Wow...", amazement covered her face as she read the names covered in red circle. "Dost belongs to a nawabi family. He never mentioned. Zoya shook her head. That was very much like Rashid who never mentioned about the patents that were in his name either and the fat money that they generated. His flat was in an affluent neighbourhood of the city but inside of it was very different from lavishly decorated flats around him; filled with books and curios from his travels around the world. And, one more reason why Zoya loved her eccentric friend. She fondly smiled and was about to get up folding the paper in her hand to get back to her dear friend who needed her in hospital letting go of the mystery lying in third drawer of his desk, when the name caught her attention.
Asad Ahmed Khan, Nawab of Sahibabad,
1847-1903
Rule: 1875-1885
married to
Tanveer Ahmed Khan (nee Baig),
1853-1918.
Married in 1876.
1876.
Asad Ahmed Khan.
Zoya flopped back on the chair and stared at the paper wide eyed.
She did quick math. The man had said he was 29 which was his age in 1876. What was going on? He would be great-great-grand uncle of Rashid.
"Huh?", Zoya's mouth hung open. "This cannot happen. This is impossible. Time travel? That is fantasy. Science fiction? Belongs to books and movies and video games that Ayaan likes to play." She got up and paced around the room thinking out aloud.
"What about the resemblance, huh? They seem like father and son, but it is the other way around. Great-great-grand nephew and uncle?" Her brain was in overdrive.
"Third drawer of the desk."
What else did it contain?
She started looking at each paper with critical eyes. Now they had a meaning. Maps, old photographs of Bhopal city, equations and calculations, charts, human body diagrams, several books on history of nawabs, a printout of a calendar of month of September only that it was of September in 1876. Zoya's breathing became rapid. One photograph was of the Nawabi haveli near which Rashid and the mystery man were found, but from its glory days which overflowed even from a black and white image. Rashid's notes could be found on almost every document.
Doorbell rang and Zoya dropped papers from her hands. Doorbell rang again. Zoya went to answer the door and sent back the maid who grumbled all the way down to ground floor for her whimsical employers.
When she came back, on top of the pile was a hand-drawn map on top of a present day Google map print out with arrows criss-crossing what looked like a wall. A dark, bold arrow stood out and was marked in Rashid's own hand-writing as 'The Portal'.
Now, it was her phone that startled her. She looked around for her phone in the paper jungle. Careful not to mix other papers with the papers in third drawer, she looked around for her phone.
"Hello...hello...", she was out of breath sitting on a chair.
"Madam. Zoya Farooqui?"
"Speaking."
"Main Nawab Begum hospital ki nurse bol rahi hoon."
"Jee"
"Patient Asad Ahmed Khan ka MRI report aa gaya hain." Yes, the MRI report, but wasn't there another explanation for Asad's behavior?
"Doctor aapse milna chahte hain. Aap hospital vaapis aa gaye?"
"Yes, I mean no. I mean I am on my way. Doctor ko boliye main aa rahi hoon", with that she cut the call and hastily stuffed all the documents back in the drawer and rushed out.
Part of her was still reeling with what she learned and part of her had already accepted and was thinking forward about what to do with this incongruity that was Asad Ahmed Khan? What was Rashid uncle thinking? And, since when had he been working on this? Space-time continuum was his research area it was a known fact but when did he started his research in the direction of time travel? It would had taken months, even years. And, she did not know. The inspector was right. She cannot say that she knew everything about Rashid. What was he thinking?
Or, was it all a really weird dream? Or, some sorcery? Or a trick of a naughty jinn her nanny used to tell stories about?
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Enjoy!
I still don't have a name yet. Need to figure out something soon.
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