by Mehreen Ahmed
Ishtiaque Rahman stepped out of the shower, and placed his wet feet on the floor tiles. He balanced himself between the towel rack and the sliding doors from slipping. He grabbed a towel and began to dry his hair, a slight breeze through the tiny bathroom passed through. He looked at himself in the vanity mirror perched on the wall over the sink.
Smiling, he decided to go out for a little walk through the bazaar. Perhaps make a few new friends too. He came out of the bathroom wrapped in a towel waist down and stood on the balcony gauging the weather. It appeared like a fine and sunny day.
A girl across his balcony was watering her plants. She was young and her flowing dark hair hid much of her face. Ishtiaque was unaware that new neighbours had moved in. Because he hadn’t seen her before. Quite a beauty, he reckoned, slim, tall, long black hair, without looking at her face, he knew she would be a pretty little thing.
Ishtiaque dressed up and went out. He saw a few friends having coffee at the bazaar. They waved at one another. He went closer and sat down with them.
“How’re you all doing?”
“Pretty good, You?” one friend asked.
“Yeah, good. I have been reading lately, Homer, you know how expansive his epic tale is.”
“Oh, yes, well I..”
“Yeh yeah, Shakespeare was the other one, his tragedies could be at par with him,”
“Yes, I suppose King Lear …”
“You know what Egyptian writers, the one who got the Nobel, Naghib Mahmooz, his Children of the Alley is such great depictions of culture and religious fervour.”
“It’s an allegory though, in which he..,”
“Yes, but you what Summerians write great literature, because they have been civilised for such a long time. Their equal could only be found in India.”
“Well, the ancient Indian texts…’
“Yea, you know what I went to this cafe yesterday, I met these historians, and anthropologists, they don’t talk much. They just look at me when I talk. They probably don’t understand me, my learning and knowledge, I am you see, the deep well.”
By now all his other friends were quiet, looking at Ishtiaque contemplatively and trying to gauge his stance. One friend said he had to leave. Others stood up too. Ishtiaque looked at them confused. He returned to his apartment. The girl across his balcony was gone by now. Ishtiaque rummaged through his bookshelf and pulled a book out.
About the Author:
Mehreen Ahmed is an award-winning author, internationally published and critically acclaimed by Midwest Book Review. One of her short stories won The Waterloo Short Story Competition,2020. Her works have been nominated three times for The Best of the Net,2020. Pushcart Prize nomination,2020.Two times for Ditmar Awards in 2016 and 2019, Aurealis Awards nominee,2015 and nomination for Christina Stead Prize,2018. Her book was announced as The Drunken Druid’s Editor’s Choice, June 2018. Three of her books received Author Shout Reader Ready Awards,2019. One Received Silver. The other two Bronze medals.