Every foot step they took left an apparent mark on the white tiles he had been brushing for an hour now. Off he would scrape one, and other may appear. Each flock of visitors brought in a new muddy pattern as it had been raining whole day, still was. Akka had been appointed as a cleaner by Farash Sahab who paid him Rs. 250 a week for cleaning one diminutive lobby and two itsy-bitsy rooms of his bantam hotel/restaurant. The blue plank with the writing ’Farash Hotal- Rooms and Wazwan available’ in red, that stood at the top of single storied building was the only immense thing and the second most attractive thing in the hotel- first most attractive thing being the tiled lobby which was fairer since the day Akka joined.
As he scrubbed off the marks one by one, his heart cried inside. He only wished if he could ever undo the things he had done in his life- things he regretted- like he cleaned mud off the tiles. While some old break up song played in his ear, he rubbed even harder and sang along until one of the seven customers staying in one room fussed about it.
Akka- seemingly in his early 40’s- was a tall, partly bald and sported a not-so-handsome goatee. He had eluded from his house about a year ago. “Village life does not suit me.'”, he would tell his people. But the actual reason, he knew in his heart, was that no woman in the village wanted to marry him. Akka unlike many men of his age was a single swinger. Even in the city he made advances, all went astray. His first spot was landlord’s daughter Samina. He had to lose his second home because of this deed and then he kept changing abode every weekend.
“That is enough for today. Go ring your vocal bells elsewhere. You will scare away my customers.”, Farash Sahab handed over Rs. 250 to Akka and showed him the door. Akka was not as coquettish now as he was back then. Something had changed him. He made no kittenish remarks, passed no playful comments.
Akka’s current dwelling was just fifteen minutes walk away from his workplace. Unusually, he had been staying at this one for more than a month. He had dinner at Farash sahab’s daily. He prepared his bed, peeped out of his window to find the window of the house across closed. He sighed and lied down on the bed.
When Akka first came to live there, he was a cruiser. He made many flirtatious advances on the girl next door- Aasifa. In the beginning, it bothered Aasifa a lot but soon she started responding positively. This change in Aasifa’s behavior changed Akka’s ways. He turned into a much decent guy. He finally started to believe that he had found his last love. He channeled all his efforts to further impress his beloved.
Akka cursed the time when he unintentionally broke his sweetheart’s heart. He couldn’t sleep. He had not slept properly for last 7 nights.
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Aasifa, on the other hand, was despairing and furious. She only looked at the window of her room and wept like a baby. She knew that on the other side were two eyes looking at her window wanting to catch a sight of her beauty, deep down she knew it.
It was not easy for her too. After having hated Akka for his playful nature, she had started to like him. The thought of forgiving Akka came to her mind many times but she could not do it.
Next morning when Aasifa left her house she found an envelope with nothing written on it at her front door. She put it in her purse as she was already late for school. However dedicated to her job, she couldn’t keep her mind off the envelope. She knew what was in it and who kept it at her door.
As soon as she reached home, she locked herself in her room and started reading the letter. As she thought, the letter was from Akka. It said:
“Dear Aasifa,
How are you? I want you to know that I couldn’t sleep last night. I hardly sleep now. I only wish that you could give me a chance to explain my situation and apologize for my misbehavior.
I still remember when I first came to this place, you were the only serenity in the wildness. And how can I forget the good soul that used to wake me up every morning. I loved that voice so much that I could just sleep all day and let it try to wake me up.
But Aasifa, you got to understand that since I joined Farash sahab’s I worked late. And I could not tolerate that sound waking me up at such an early hour anymore.
Had I known that the rooster was so dear to you, I would never have committed the crime of grilling it in the Drum Tandoor and serving it to my thankless friends. But my love, let me swear on your life that I did not have a piece bigger than a ‘Kulfi’.
My darling, let us be together again. Forgive and forget.
Yours and only yours,
Akku.”
Aasifa folded the letter, opened the window, threw the letter out and closed the window to never open again.
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