Monsoon rains – July, 2008.
It was a Rainy evening in the city of Mumbai. The rain was pouring down all day like a woman full of sorrow, like tears dropping down from the eyes. The sky was crying down rain. The streets were covered with water everywhere and there was no clue to people on roads, to find out if they were actually walking on land or in water. Every pothole and open drainage looked the same as the level land everywhere. Mumbai experiences these floods every year after year, cleansing itself in the process.
Late in the night, in a small street, hardly wide enough for a truck to pass through. The only light on the street came from a small house; awake in the house waiting for her husband to return from work was Bushra Ahmed. Her husband nehal salim Ahmed worked as a cab driver for a famous cab rental service. He earned sufficient enough for living a happy life in the small house he bought a year ago, with all his savings. Bushra and nehal are married for three years now; she was his childhood love, whom he married after a long fight with both sides of the family for approval of their love. They are still waiting for Allah to bless them with a child.
It was getting very late, Bushra had finished cooking a long time ago and was waiting for nehal to come home, so both would have dinner together . She was hungry, but still waited anxiously. At about 11 pm night, nehal came home from work. He entered home, removed his shoes and went to the bathroom. He then came out and drank a cup of water. Then saw Bushra sitting in a corner, she said to him ‘ what took you so long; I was waiting for you since 8 pm. Come, have dinner’. Nehal replied ‘sorry dear; I finished dinner with a friend at work, since it was getting late. You have your dinner now. Am very sorry for making you wait so long, anticipating my arrival’. Bushra on hearing this became a little sad and upset, but hunger made it seem nothing. So she sat down and started having dinner. Nehal sat next to her, and was serving food to her in spite of her pleading not to do so.
Nehal seemed very happy today, she had noticed it. She asked him. ‘You seem so happy, anything special’; something happened at work? ‘. Nehal‘s face changed from happy to a hesitant expression. He said ‘nothing, I’ve got a good offer to take some foreigners around all around Mumbai, only to a certain areas and they’ve paid me a fairly high amount as advance’. ‘It’s pretty high than the usual amount given to me by regular customers’. Bushra exclaimed ‘but don’t they need to pay the company. So why did they approach you directly’. Nehal had an immediate answer ‘well, this customer is through Rajesh, you know right, he’s been forcing me to work independently for a long time. He wants me to take customers in my car like this, and earn extra money. He understands our conditions really well’
Bushra still wasn’t satisfied, she still questioned him ‘so if why do these people want to pay you extra, and go only to some specific places. It sounds weird’. Nehal had a convincing answer too. he said to her ‘ see Rajesh is clever, since they are foreigners, he’s made a god deal with extra profit, also for them it’s a very low amount of money in their currency’. Nehal was very excited about this profitable money making trip and he thought to himself, who would want to back off. So he convinced Bushra about the deal and both went to sleep after sometime of conversation.
Next day, nehal woke up early and started to clean his car which was parked in the corner of the street. He was fresh and excited about this day. He thought of it as a new start to his driving job. He started planning about leaving the cab company and becoming a free lance driver, if he could get customers like this. Nehal was working very hard to improve his status of life. So this money meant a step up in the ladder.
Bushra although on the other hand, was not feeling right about this offer. She was still skeptical and her instincts said something was going to be wrong. But also, she was happy to see the enthusiastic nehal cleaning his car and forgot her suspicions for her husband’s happiness. She made him a good breakfast and also packed his lunch for him. Nehal wore his best clothes and a big smile on his face. Bushra gave him a kiss to make the day even better. Nehal prayed to god before leaving, and thought “let my life be bright, Insha Allah”
FIVE MONTHS LATER… Month of December, 2008
Nehal soon quit the cab company and started driving independently. He had earned much more money than before; he also bought another car through finance. It was exciting times for them, since Bushra was 3 months pregnant and was showing initial symptoms like vomiting and nausea. Nehal was in cloud 9 with the current status of his life. His wish had come true. He still remembered fresh, his first free lance trip that gave way for all this growth.
One fine morning, the Police knocked on nehal’s house. As, Bushra opened the door, they barged in, saw nehal, then arrested him roughly. Both Bushra and nehal didn’t know what was happening, it was a nightmare in reality. The police dragged away nehal in the police jeep, as nehal was yelling and crying out for reason and answer from the police, who acted deaf to his cries. Bushra stood aside, watching this shocking incident and crying out loud trying to plead to the police. The police jeep then, vanished out of sight in sometime.
Bushra’s father took Bushra and nehal’s brother to the police station to enquire about why his son in law was arrested and treated so mercilessly. The answer was that ‘nehal was arrested under Anti-Terrorism act for aiding terrorist group involved in the 26/11 attacks in Mumbai’.
Nehal’s first trip as an independent driver, the group of so called foreigners was actually terrorists, planning their attack. Poor nehal didn’t know fate would overturn on him in such a way. He was shell shocked knowing about the group, he was now named a part of the group and their aide. And in the end, Tagged as a TERRORIST.
