Here’s a Sudden Fiction by Srinagar-based Muddasir. He weaves the complexities of love between two people. We are introducing a regular column, Sudden Fiction*, exclusively in Different Truths.
1
They took wing as if they had been in a cage when they first met in the Valley of Death. Excited, the crazy tides of love overfed them. Sharing the romances of the different seasons, their days continued to pass in celebrating the unseen, like the lurking desires of teens.
Until one day, at the time when the sun turned languid and the wind blew cold, he told her he was tired of sharing connexions with her unskilled words of love and he didn’t see their future together. The pleasure of their love disappeared; they pretend to appear wise beyond their ages.
Nothing comes out of the blue when there’s love, every angry reaction has a complete history behind it. Love holds angry reactions back. But once love evaporates anything unexpected can happen. Everything finished.
However, once someone drinks from the river of love, the river imprisons the person, and there is no freedom for the prisoner of love.
2
While they matured with the situations of their homeland, they couldn’t hold back their displeasure when they happened to meet once again. But soon the same things reappeared.
Finally, she left, leaving him alone in the restaurant, like a new-born abandoned by his parents. Biryani barely eaten, and her water bottle waiting to be touched.
Lost in yearning and bewilderment, he asked himself: should I be happy that she set me free or would I grieve for the loss of a good friend? Mehfil mein teri ham na rahe jo gham tou nahi hai …, the song being played in the background, strangely made him feel better.
He avoided this temporary happiness and left the place. The things in the market couldn’t attract him and he boarded a minicab, where the songs of Jim Morrison kept him immersed, while he returned to his home.
When he didn’t answer her messages, the next day she, probably desperate to hear his voice despite knowing what she did, called him but he didn’t respond. He found it a good reason to bid her farewell.
Love is a myth, the sooner you realise it, the better!
*It’s a longish Flash Fiction (less than 1000 words) ~ Editor’s Note
Muddasir Ramzan regularly writes blogs for the Muslim Institute, London. He studied English Literature at the Central University of Kashmir. His writings have appeared in different national and international journals in India, Pakistan, and the UK. He lives and writes in Kashmir, India.
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