The Art Of Perfection

"what's your name?" Fannah asked after gathering his courage, but he got no answer rather the person looked up at him, meeting his eyes for a millisecond and then looked down again, ignoring the man's existence altogether.

"Hey, I." Fannah wanted to continue but at this time Raid came with a tray in his hands and set in front of the boy and nudged Fannah.

"Make space for me", he urged and sat between the two, blocking Fannah's view of Sufiyan.

The boy looked at the tray and picked up the Bakirkhani and took a bite before taking a sip of his tea.

"Who is he?" Fannah asked looking at Raid who was gently Patting the boy's head.

"You know Fatimah aunty right?, he is her son" he answered looking back at Fannah letting the boy have his tea in peace.

"But she has a daughter, right, Faiza if I am not wrong".

"Yes but, she has also has an older son, his name is Sufiyan".

' A pretty name just like his face'. Fannah thought and continued

"But I have never seen him before".

"He is usually at home and does not like to go out".Raid replied and at this time,Fannah looked at Sufiyan who had finished drinking the tea and was now carefully picking the crumbs of Bakirkhani that had fallen down.

"And what do you do?" Fannah asked but the response was still the same as before and that was silence.

"Stop bothering him, let's go dance", Salim Said and dragged the two boys from their place.

"No, No, I don't know how to?" 

"Sorry but I already saw your reels on Instagram, you are all over my feed and I know you are good at it" Salim replied and finally dragged Fannah to dance with the rest of the gang. The boys were having a blast going crazy while the traditional songs on the loudspeaker seemed to cut them off from the rest of the world.

In between the heavy beats of the music Fannah's eyes seemed to have caught a glimpse of the beautiful boy sitting silently in the corner of the room while looking at the group of boys with widened eyes, his eyebrows furrowed tightly as if confused, like asking 'what are you all going crazy for'.

So Fannah stopped his movements and walked out of the crowded centre of the hall and walked towards the boy.

"Sufi, Why are you sitting here alone,let's go dance".he said and stretched his hand out for sufiyan to hold, but nothing happened, the hand that was hanging in air had not been held, he looked at Sufiyan with a confused look as the boy looked at him with wide eyes and a bit of horror in his eyes.

"Fannah, why are you disturbing him, go dance". Raid's voice came from behind as he put his hand on his shoulder, making him stagger back a bit.

"But"

"I said go".Raid repeated in a strained voice and sat on his knees in front of Sufiyan and started talking to him about something in a low voice, Fannah ignored the cousin duo and joined the boys back for the dance.

After dancing and almost collapsing on the floor, the guys decided to take a breather and then Salim pulled out his Rabab from somewhere, everyone sat back in their respective and the mood was set, and the boys started a play of singing and poetry.

The room remained closed for the whole day, never letting anyone in until the late evening when a knock broke the boys out of their fantasy world of heartbreaking poetry, first to notice, Ilham got up and opened the door to see who was on the door but after opening it, called Raid immediately.

"Aunty, Sufi is okay". Raid said as soon as he saw Fatimah on the door.

"I know but it's already 7 p.m, I need to take him home to take his medicine". Fatimah explained with a smile on his face, to which Raid checked his watch and quickly apologised.

"Ah, It's already time, I will get him", he said respectfully and walked towards Sufiyan and led him out of the room, holding his hand.

"Thank you Son, I will take him home now", she answered and held her son's hand delicately, leading him down the stairs while asking how he felt or did he have fun but Sufiyan remained silent, only nodding or shaking his head occassionally.

The henna night after that only got more and more lively and vibrant, with all the guests arriving one after another, it was also time for the girls from Sumaira's in laws home to come with Henna and other presentes, forcing the boys out of their little room and helping with preparations and serving the guests.

After all was done, the real fun started, the musicians had arrived and around 11:00p.m the music started marking the start of the night.

In between the heavy music, the Star of the show, Sumaira came in the tent with all her friends behind her and sat in the center sofa for the cake cutting ceremony, and took blessings from everyone who congratulated her on the big day and the night of fun laughter and music continued till dawn, when it was time for fajr, everyone started leaving to offer their prayers, hence making the night come to a slow end.

....

In the morning, at around 09:00 a.m, the house that was buzzing throughout the night had fallen silent, with the nearby neighbours leaving one by one and relatives filling out the whole house once again, the boys who were laughing and chatting the whole night were all sitting in the small lobby space, holding their heads because of nausea and headache, almost resembling fresh corpses.

"What are you all doing here, looking dead, why don't you sleep", Fatimah asked as she came in through the door and saw the boys.

"Where will we go aunty, there are women and girls in every room, no place for us little beggars", Salim Said with a pout on his face.

"You can go to our place and sleep, there is no one and you can sleep peacefully". she offered politely.

"Really aunty,thank you so much". The boys said in unison, dragging their bodies to get up and leave.

"Hmm, but Raid".

"I know aunty, don't worry, I will take care of everything". He reassured her and followed the boys.

....

Fannah opened his eyes in a daze, his heart was beating abnormally fast and his face was flushed, as soon as he opened his eyes he saw an unfamiliar ceiling above his head, he immediately got up and ran out of the room.

"Where is the bathroom?" Fannah cursed under his breath as he made his way out of the room.

"It's busy right now, we are all waiting", someone answered but Fannah could not make out who and ran upstairs to find a bathroom to relieve himself.

After 10 minutes or so, Fannah came out of the bathroom,his hair were wet and there were a few water droplets on his face, which he wiped with the back of his head as he looked around the place, it was not much different from ordinary kashmiri houses, only the furniture around the house looked like it was imported from some foreign country, but as Fannah was about to make his way to the first floor, he saw the door of a room ajar, a voice was silently whispering something.

He slowly made his way to door and peeped inside to see what was happening, but as he peeked inside the room, his eyes widened, it was an ordinary room with a couch and a table in the middle of room but what was extraordinary, was the amount of books that lay on the shelves which covered the whole space, there was so many books that the room that should have been able to accommodate atleast thirty people barely had space for two people to move, on the table four books lay open neatly in front of the chairs but there was no one in there.

But Fannah could still hear the whispers.

"What does that have to do with me?", the voice whispered as if afraid that someone will hear.

"I don't remember, I don't care", the voice seemed to be confused but since Fannah could not see anyone through the small gap, he opened the door a bit wider and there, someone behind the book shelves was talking but the pesons had their back towards Fannah so he could not clearly see who it was.

"I don't remember his name".

"Okay his name is Fannah, so what".

"You are talking about me?" Fannah asked as he heard his name, making the person who was looking at the wall turn back so fast that he knocked the book shelf down,making the books fall and hit chairs and scatter over the floor like broken petals of a flower

"Who?" Sufiyan asked, as his face turned pale like all the blood had been drained out of him, but Fannah, he who was ready with a hindered thousand questions did not react at all, his eyes glued to the face he had tried so hard to see last night but could not because the owner of the face never looked up to meet his eyes,but now when they did how could he ask anything.

when the most beautiful person on earth was standing in front of him, his green almond eyes were soft yet sharp, the tear mole just below his lower eyelid a sharp contrast against his snow white skin, his aquiline nose had an old scar resting elegantly on it, showing it's impact on the charming person once in time, his full bow shaped rosy lips like they were kissed by the light of the breaking dawn were slightly apart at this time making his white teeth look like rare pearls of heavens ocean.

"What are you doing here?"sufiyan asked, breaking Fannah out of his deep reverie, his eyes darting from one place to another as though trying to make sense of something, for a moment it seemed like he was not in this world, what had happened, Fannah thought but could not make anything out of it.

"I..I was in the bathroom and heard some noises,you were talking about me, who were you talking to?"

"Nothing, I was not talking about you".

"Really?, but I just heard something like, his name is Fannah,who was it, if not you, the ghost?"Fannah asked playfully but sufiyan flinched visibly at the remark but still maintained his expressions.

"Fannah, get out" Sufiyan said in a high pitched voice

"Your voice is very sweet", Fannah remarked with a smile on his face.

"What?"

"Mehtaab buth chon, garith zan sang-e-mar mar

Pari che ashiq, ye kamzarf bande heth"

"Your face is like moon, carved from the stones of white marble

Fairies love you, just like this worthless man".