All you guys. I'm really excited to bring to you my new baby, that is my new FF based on Akdha. You all have supported and liked my previous story so much. It had brought me a wish to keep writing and sharing stories. Here I am with my new story. You're all amazing readers. Keep reading, keep enjoying and share the Akdha love 😉.
Chapter 1: The Triggering Accident
“Where are you, tiny tots… Come on, Come on. Not the time to place hide and seek.” The chilling voice said. I felt a shiver up my spine. My little sister clutched my arm. She was close to crying.
“Sam,please don’t cry. You’ll get us caught. Trust me. I will not let any harm come to you. Don’t cry. Here, hold you Pooh Bear.” I gave her soft toy to her. My own heart was beating like crazy. I felt the fear freeze. A house so large yet it seemed so small when we were surrounded.
“Bhai, I want mamma.” She said.
“We will go to her, Sam. Please don’t cry.” I tried to tell her. She clutched the sleeve of my shirt.
“Jalal…Where are you? Come out, pretty boy.” The voice said as if playing with me. I wouldn’t let them hurt Sam. I signaled Sam to go towards the butler’s door.
“I don’t want to go alone. I am scared.” She said in a voice slowly cracking.
“Sam, you have to go. Someone has to have their eyes out for them. We only have the nanny's exit.” I tried to explain. “Please go. You have to run. I will come behind you.”
She started moving towards the pantry. I went towards the wine cellar. I was scared. My heart was screaming in fear. I wanted to go to ammi. Why weren’t they coming?Ammi said she’ll be back soon. I saw Sam reach for the cordless phone in the pantry.She dialled some number.
“Hello…”She said. It was loud. Enough to catch the attention of the men.
“I can hear you.” The chilling voice said.
“Sam, run.”I shouted at her. Sam turned back and saw that the men had showed up. She started running ahead. The phone in one hand and Pooh Bear in another. She hid the phone behind her.
“Bhai….”She shouted.
I was quickly caught by the men. I kicked them here and there, as far as I could reach. I caught a wine glass and smashed it on the head of one of the men. “Go,Sam, go.” I shouted at her. She broke into tears.
“Bhai….”She wailed loudly.
“Sam, do not get caught.” I shouted at her. I started running in the opposite direction,away from Sam.
“Bhai…Please don’t hurt him.” She cried as she reached the door.
“Kill the boy.” The man with that chilling voice ordered. The gun was clicked and it started firing.
“Jalal…” I heard Sam shout.
“Jalal…” It was a loud scream. A voice. A woman's.
The loud noise of cannons breaking through the wall was almost deafening the woman’s scream.
I desperately tried to free myself from the chains. That intense fear of see cannons being fired and me being chained to a wall. I desperately pulled on the chain hoping to get it free. I could feel my own heart beating as loud as the cannons.
“Ammi…”I shouted.
“The next Sultan, aren’t you? Humayun’s beloved boy that he is talking about.” The man in front of me claimed. He laughed as he ordered to have the cannons fired continuously. “What are you doing, you fool? Can’t you even aim at a boy correctly?” The cannon handler was scolded.
“Ammi…”I screamed. There were no tears, only fear. The intense fear of death.
“Stop.He is just a child. What are you doing?” The woman shouted. "Have you no humanity in you heart? He is just a boy. What threat is he to you, Sultan Askari?"
“I will kill him, you maid woman. How dare you ask me anything? This boy is the reason why he even is up in arms. Once he is dead, I will become the Emperor and my family will thrive.” The man claimed laughing.
A man suddenly got up the wall and broke the chain. The cannon ball went right aboveus. The soldiers scattered away. Fight broke out. Another man who seemed to bethe woman’s husband was fighting the soldiers who came to attack me.
Shams-ud-din Khan baba. He was right before keeping me safe. Badi Ammi was the woman. I was in fear. I turned around and Badi Ammi’s husband was in the fight with the soldiers.
“I’ll hold them. Take the boy and go.” He insisted while keeping away all the soldiers. I was being taken away by Shams-ud-din Khan baba and Badi Ammi. I stopped to look back at the man. He looked at me while holding back the soldiers. He was stabbed several times. A smile came to his face. He fell to his knees and did a salaam like it was greatest honor for him to die like a martyr.
“Shehenshah-e-hind ko humara aakhri salaam.” He shouted with the greatest smile on his face. I tried to run back at him but was pulledaway. He had always been that way. Highly loyal to me. Ever since I knew, hewould keep saying that I was his King.
“Baba….”I shouted for him.
“Nahi, Shehzaade. We cannot go back. We have to run.” Shams-ud-din Khan baba tried to tell me. Badi Ammi didn’t stop herself and picked me up when was I resisting the drag. She picked me up and started running.
“Nadim Baba….”I shouted for him. My eyes still at him.
"May the sun and moon shine on you gloriously and time make you an immortal name on the pages of history." He said.
“Ammi…” I shouted. A woman instantly came ahead and hugged me. Her warmth was so familiar but she was not my mother.
“Please… I want my ammi.” I cried.
“Jalal,mere bacche, what are you saying? I am your ammi.” She tried to explain. Her lovely face marred with worry.
“Bhai… do you not remember us?” A girl asked.
“My sister.” I said recognizing her.
“Yes, bhai, I'm your sister. She is our ammi why are you saying someone else is our ammi?” She asked me confused. I was myself confused.
“She feels familiar but I can’t recognize her.” I explained. “Please… I want to be with ammi. What is this place? Where am I?”
Panic was building up. There was a room with such unusual equipment and such unfamiliar surroundings. I was attached to some unusual looking pipes. They were like the most transparent and thinnest hookah pipes. It was attached to some liquid held in a pouch hanging on a stand.
“Nasir, I am really scared. Why doesn’t he recognize us?” The woman asked a man. Nasir. Nasir ud din Muhammad Humayun. My father's name but who was this man?
“Where is abbu?” I asked. “I want to go back home to Kabul. Please let me go. I am not going to hurt anyone.” I cried.
“Jalal, what Kabul? This is India. Kabul is in Afghanistan. Your home is here with us in Mumbai.” The woman explained. India? What place was that? Afghanistan? Why are Afghans controlling our territory?
“It is scary. Please. I want to go home. I don’t recognize any of the places you say except Kabul. My home is in Kabul. My father had me stay there till he came back from war.” I tried to explain.
“Bhai, you recognize me but not ammi and abbu?” She said.
“You’re my twin sister. I know. Did they chain you too? Are you hurt? Did Askari chachajaan hurt you too?" I asked her.
“Who Askari, bhai? There was no Kamran Chachajaan. Abbu only has a sister, Mehtab bua. No brothers.” She explained. She broke into tears. “This is all scary. Why don’t you remember ammi and abbu?”
“Sam, get down for a while. Shazia, you and Sam get him something to eat. I’ll be here.” The man told them both.
“Jalal,what is last thing you remember?” He asked me.
“Mirza Askari had chained us to the wall. There were cannons being blown trying to kill me. Badi Ammi and Khan baba saved me.” I explained. “He attacked Kabul and took me to Qandhar.”
“Jalal, where is your father?” He asked.
“He’s is coming for me from Dilli.” I answered.
“What do you remember about your sister?”
“Samaira? She is my twin sister. My younger sister Bakshi is with her ammi. My elder sisters Sakina aapi and Bakt un nissa aapi are with their mother.” I answered. The man sighed.
“My son,you are mistaken. I am your father. That woman is your mother. Samaira is the only sister you have.” He tried to explain softly.
“No. What are you saying? I don’t know who you are. I want to go to ammi. Where is Badi ammi? Khan baba?” I questioned. The panic broke. I tried to take out the weird looking hookah pipe out of my arm and started running. Suddenly, I felt so weak and fell down. Intense pain emerged from my back shoulder.
Everything blacked out after that.
When I woke up, I saw ammi, abbu and Sam with another woman.
“Ammi…” I called out her. She came to me.
“Jaan, I am here.” She said crying.
“Ammi, it pains.” I complained. She kissed my forehead.
“My sweet son, it will be alright.” She said.
“Bhai, you recognize her?” Sam asked me.
“Why are you being stupid? Why wouldn’t I recognize my own mother?” I commented.
“See, Ira.This is confusing. An hour ago, he was so frantic that we aren’t familiar tohim. He was only recognizing Sam.” Abbu told the woman.
“No. I recognize you all. What are you saying?” I asked.
“I don’t care for all this, Nasir. If he says he remembers us then it is good. It must be a short slip or something. I just want my baby with me. I don’t care of the rest.” Ammi said holding me.
“Shazia, if this is an issue, we have to look out for it.” Ira aunty tried to explain.
“What do you remember last?” Abbu asked me. I closed my eyes and tried to think.
“Kabul. You came with people to save me in Kabul.” I answered from what I remembered.
“Ammi, why is bhai so confused?” Sam asked.
Everything was so overwhelming. Everyone saying that I didn’t have proper memories was scaring. Was I mad? Like that crazy uncle in our neighborhood? I felt like everything was mess. Though, ammi and abbu took me back home with them. I felt like everything was going wrong. Ammi and Abbu had taken us to our farmhouse rather than our home. I didn’t question it. It was exhausting.
When I woke up after sleeping, the surroundings were so unfamiliar. I had never seen such objects. There were books in my room. Sam was sitting on her holding her Pooh Bear. Then I saw a thinnest book ever set on the table next to me. I opened it but everything was written in a weird language. It wasn’t Arabic script.
“What language is it written in?” I asked Sam.
“English.”She answered.
“What language is that?”
“The language that came from British.”
“British?”
“You learnt the alphabets in the school. That language.”
“Al-what? Isn’t the official written language Arabic? Though I cannot read. I do recognize the script of Arabic. This is not Arabic. Why are we using this language in Kabul?”
“Ammi!!!” Sam shouted. Quickly ammi and abbu ran in.
“What happened? Are you two alright?” Ammi asked almost panicking.
“Bhai is confused again. He’s saying he can’t read English.” She explained.
“Jalal,what else is confusing to you?” Abbu asked.
“This place. These weird looking things and even the walls. Kabul has such printed walls? The entire place. These toys they are not bullock carts or chariots.” I explained.
I felt like things were so confusing. I started throwing things around.
“I want to go home, abbu. Please take me home. This place is so confusing. Everything is so confusing.” I cried. Abbu just wrapped his arms around me.
“It is alright, my son. Everything will be fine. Your Ammi, Sam and I are here. We’ll make everything alright.” He assured.
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