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THE PRICE OF FRIENDSHIP
2nd Installment
Chapter Two
By Dr. Taher Kagalwala
Revised 5/25/03
Copyright 2003 Dr. Taher Kagalwala -
A story of two teenage girls growing up in a small town in India
This novella explores the relationship between two teenaged girls, Munira and Laila, against the backdrop of a small town in Central India; the time is the present, and the environment is the vitiated atmosphere between the Majority Hindus and the Minority Muslims...Chapter II
Mufazzal Latifi loved his daughter Munira as much, if not more than, he loved his son, Zaheer.
Mufazzal believed in equal treatment to both his children. His attitude was met with derision and scorn wherever he went, but he took it with maturity and stoicism, tempered with an unfulfilled desire to awaken in a utopian India where such crude practices were no more.
Such discriminatory behaviour had unbelievable social sanction. Legally, of course, female feticide and infanticide were punishable by fine, or imprisonment, or both, but in reality, most individuals turned a Nelson's eye to such incidents occurring in their neighborhood.
Within such a milieu, Mufazzal had brought up his daughter Munira and his son Zaheer. The fourth and the most vital person in that family - the mother - had already passed away a couple of years ago from a debilitating consumption, (tuberculosis), still a scourge in small urban communities all over the country. It was a testament to Mufazzal's perspicacity as well as to his doggedness that he had refused to tie the knot again, as many of his elders had suggested to him; his own father had said the same on the third day after Sajda's untimely death, and it had taken all of Mufazzal's will power to stay calm before his own father.
Mufazzal was a trader in finished leather goods; in traditional hierarchy, he was above the level of a street-side vendor, and much below a manufacturer. He bought finished goods from big leather houses, and supplied these to the small businessmen nearby. During the course of his business, he had some good days, and some bad, as most small-time businesses will; in either case, however, his profit margins were miniscule, as buyers knew the price of his merchandise almost to the T, and heckled with him about the price all the time. He suffered the indignity of bargaining for just a little more, and it was apparent to all who cared to cue in, that such bargaining was, at times, nothing short of grovelling for a few more rupees.
Little by little, however, Mufazzal had managed to save a small kitty, but a large part of it got used up during Sajda's illness, and at the present time, his resources were limited, and the cash flow, unpredictable.
On top of all this were Zaheer's tuition fees, which amounted to a neat packet of nearly 25000 rupees a year, and the repayments on a housing loan he had taken some years ago, which amounted to a little over 6000 rupees a month. It would thus be unnecessary to say that Mufazzal was stretched to the limit of his finances, and only his glib tongue and his savvy marketing allowed him to stay above the poverty line.
****
Mufazzal was ever concerned about the Hindu-Muslim relations in Independent India, especially since the riots of 199-, when Afzalpur burnt for nearly ten days and ten nights. A few of his acquaintances actually died in the riots, all because of the radical-minded Hindus inflaming the people by destroying the Babri Masjid nearly 500 kilometres away. All India burned, to be sure, and thousands of Muslims perished, but nevertheless, in Afzalpur, only a handful of his co-religionists had died, while many more had been rendered shopless, homeless or moneyless.
Zaheer had remained in his hostel at Panchgani, and Sajda was away with her mother on a pilgrimage to Ajmer (a town in North India, known for the grave of a saint, Khwaja Gharib Nawaz); he had stayed home with Munira, locking and shuttering the one door and the windows. For about three of those ten days, they had remained indoors, but after that, as the tensions in his locality eased, he had cautiously ventured out to buy vegetables, beef and bread/rice for the next week or so. Another conflagration in his street had occurred the same night without warning, and a fresh police curfew had been ordered for the next four days, resulting in Mufazzal being confined to his home with Munira for another four days.
The memory of those four days was indelible, horrific and frightening!
Sajda had remained in Ajmer till the riots abated and had joined him later.
These were the worst days for Muslims in Independent India, and Mufazzal spoke about them to his son and daughter at times, so as to make them aware of the ills of being a minority religion in India.
Once, while he was recounting those days to his children, Munira had asked, rather timidly, if her Hindu friends would kill her if riots occurred again. The question had jolted Mufazzal like no other question of Munira in her entire life-time. He had pacified her, and explained that the things he was speaking of had occurred in the terrible past, and that there was no reason for such events to occur again in the present.
However, that night, Mufazzal had slept restlessly, and visions of Munira being assaulted and worse, raped, filled his nightmarish dreams that night, as well as many more nights.****
Afzalpur had nearly 50,000 Muslims, and most of them followed the Sunni system, although there were other sects too, like Khojas, Bohras and Shias. Mufazzal was a Sunni Muslim, that is, he followed the life-style and teachings of Prophet Muhammad (PBUH)... the so-called Sunnat. Like the nearly ten million Sunni Muslims of India, he prayed the namaaz daily, read the Qur^an daily, gave away 2.5% of his net yearly income in Zakat(charity in Allah's name), and aspired to visit Mecca, or perform Hajj, as it was called.