SaudaKare - AsYa OS.

'Allah Miyan, what's wrong with me?' She chided herself and stopped her pacing for a while to look in the mirror and was stunned at what she saw. Stress lines made themselves evident on her forehead, her cheeks were flushed and her nails had been chewed right down to the bud due to frustration; and therefore, it finally dawned on her that she was going bonkers.

'Enough is enough. Why should I let Mr. Six-Packs ruin my life? Hello, I don't even like him that much. So what if it physically hurts me to look at that Ms.Look-at-me-I'm-so-full-of-Tehzeeb-that-I-agree-with-everything-Jammy-says? So what if Jahapanah has been making 'googly-full-of-adoration' eyes at her? SO WHAT? I'm Zoya Farooqi dammit! I came here on a mission. And that was to find my Abbu. Who gives two hoots about that gorgeous man with six packs who gives such intense looks that one melts into a puddle of goo? Nuh-uh, not me. That's right.'

Her mind was reeling with all the possibilities and contradictions and questions and whatnot. Therefore, she decided to watch a Shah Rukh Khan movie. Because, really, let's face it. Who doesn't watch an SRK movie when they have relationship woes? Not that she had any; relationship woes, that is. So, it was decided. An SRK movie it was!

Zoya gently tip-toed down the stairs into the living room, clutching a packet of pop-corn and a diet coke. She turned on the TV at the lowest volume and flicked through the channels. At least one of them had to be playing a cheesy, romantic SRK flick!

'Come on, come on, Shah Rukh jee, where are you!!?' She muttered as the channels whizzed past her eyes. She almost did a victory dance right then and there on the sofa as she saw SRK dancing to 'Aankhein khuli'. She munched on her pop-corn as she soon lost herself in the movie. She'd probably seen it a million times, but one more time couldn't hurt! It used to be her favourite movie when it had first come out and it'd held a special place in her heart since then.

'Koi pyaar kare, toh tumse kare. Tum jaise ho, us se kare. Agar koi tumhein badal ke pyaar kare, toh woh pyaar nahin, sauda kare. Aur sahiba, pyaar mein sauda nahin hota'.

As soon as Jugal Hansraj's voice, saying these lines floated to her ears, she stopped her munching midway to clutch the remote and rewind the movie, only to listen to the dialogue repeatedly till it started to make sense.

'YES!' She squealed jumping on the sofa, not realising that it was the middle of the night and not everyone would want to watch an SRK movie along with her. She stepped down from the futon and did a victory dance which soon turned into a ballroom dance as the music played along in the background.

****

A light flicked on in the Khan residence and Asad Ahmed Khan swore. 'What is that noise?'. Quite obviously, he couldn't leave it alone. Trust him to become James Bond at 2AM in the night!

He marched down the stairs and the sight that met his eyes wasn't surprising in the least! Zoya Farooqi was dancing away in front of the TV without a care in the world. A small smile crept up on his face as he stood leaning on the railing of the stairs, watching his Ms. New York. As soon as that thought registered in his head, the smile vanished faster than one could say 'Asad'!

He shook his head at the inappropriate thoughts and walked right up to where Miss. Farooqi was now twirling, her arms out, as if dancing with an invisible form, her eyes shut. Asad was walking with such force that he hadn't seen the mess on the floor and ended up crunching bits of popcorn on the floor, effectively making Miss. Farooqi's eyes fly open, arms still in the air, twirl stopped midway.

Zoya dropped her arms faster than the blink of an eyelid and set her jaw, her grin vanishing at the sight of her Akdu Ahmed Khan. And so, it began.

'Miss Farooqi, have you seen what time it is?'

'Why, Mr. Khan? Has the clock in your room broken? It's 2AM' Zoya offered brightly, her grin now making its way to her face again.

'I know the time perfectly well, Ms. Farooqi. What I wanted to know..was?' Not letting Asad complete, Zoya butted in adding her two cents.

'You wanted to know why I was acting so foolishly, dancing in the middle of the night in front of the TV?'

Asad was left flabbergasted and managed a nod, to which she replied, 'Main sauda nahin karne waali Mr. Khan. Main sauda nahin karoongi. And now that it's clear, I'm off to bed. Good night!'

Zoya picked up her bag of popcorn and the can of coke, cleaning up after her, stunning Asad once more and made her way up the stairs, shutting the door to her room, leaving Asad gaping after her retreating form.

He stood there in the dimly lit room, unsure of what had just transpired between them. He looked at the TV and was about to switch it off when the minutes at the top of the screen confused him. What was it in this movie worth rewinding? He pressed the button and saw the movie flash past his eyes. The recording stopped from where it had started and he pressed 'play'. Not having seen the movie before, he wasn't sure what was going on, and yet, he looked on, trying to make sense of something..anything. Sure enough, the words wafted to his hears, and Asad almost in a daze, looked on.

'Koi pyaar kare, toh tumse kare. Tum jaise ho, us se kare. Agar koi tumhein badal ke pyaar kare, toh woh pyaar nahin, sauda kare. Aur sahiba, pyaar mein sauda nahin hota'.

His mind went back to a few minutes ago when Miss Faroo..Zoya, had said the very same words. 'Main sauda nahin karne waali, Mr. Khan'. And just like a jigsaw puzzle, everything began to fall into place. Her exaggerated coughs, her wearing a traditional outfit that had left him stumped, her declaration of being a 'neat-freak', everything. A smile slowly crept up on his face as the events of the past few days zoomed past in his mind. The both of them going through things together, her crying, hugging him, him caring for her, the blurry events of the night of the 'pakoras', Tanveer's entry, and how she'd acted unlike herself.

Asad's intense gaze softened as realization hit him. 'She was feeling like an outsider. I haven't even looked at her since Tanveer came back. So what if she was trying to stop me from going to the hearing? Ammi would have done the same, although, not so elaborately. Would I have yelled at her too? Why does she make me feel this way?

'Hum sabse zyaada dard unhi ko dete hain, jinse hum pyaar karte hain'. A movie dialogue from a long time ago came and hit the point home. He rubbed his hands on his face and sighed.

'Allah Miyan, Asad, what's wrong with you!?

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Yeah, I know.I'm not very happy with it either. Anyhoo, let me know what you guys think. Suggestions and criticisms are welcome! 😳 Also, I haven't proofread, so all the errors are mine and I apologise for them! 😕 Reviews are like cookies! I love them! 😆 Hit the like button or comment, or BOTH! 😆

-Raina