Selected Story - November, 2023
Against All Odds by Sameen Junaid - Pakistan
Twinkling stars of heart-beating desires in her tiny glaring eyes with the dream to fly unyieldingly mesmerizes her while lying in the baramda of a small house in a distant village nestled with hills. How about such a dark silent night when people are snoring after performing hectic duties in the fields, she is restless watching the stars glimmering and considers herself to be the queen of all these stars to sparkle with her light.
Gulnaz, being a girl always faces her father's scorn, and her calm smile on such bitter treatment by Zaman Khan makes him more contemptuous towards her. Her mother Zarmina acts as butter on a crunchy and burnt loaf of her life. In such bittersweet melancholic life, where on one hand, her mother is a source of spring, a garden with bunches of fragrant flowers, cool breeze, green leaves, colorful birds, and a serene atmosphere, and on the other hand, it's her dreams that don't allow her to be down casted, a window of emancipation through which she can take a lively breath free from contamination of contempt and disdainful eyes. She is as fragile as a spider's web and sometimes as strong as a rock, irresistible and enduring.
Why is a girl's birth always considered to be the symbol of a family's downfall and bad luck that ferments patriarchy's fierceness and how such innocence of these delicate children can bring burning flames to their eyes? Why does her mother always listen to her father's baseless and ridiculous interrogation with bowing head and why does not she rebel that her birth is not in her control? Her inquisitive mind always triggers her to ask such unquestionable questions from her mother but only the lurking silence is her answer in these caged four walls...
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