The Price of Friendship

Chapter II

Chapter II

Mufazzal Latifi looked in on Munira before he went in to sleep. Generally, he never drank alcohol, and rarely smoked a cigarette. Today, he felt an urge to smoke, so he retrieved the cigarette packet from inside the cupboard. He lighted a stick and moved out on to the balcony. As he exhaled smoke, his mind began to think of his family.

He loved his daughter Munira as much - if not more than - he loved his son Zaheer.

Mufazzal believed in equal treatment to both his children. His attitude was met with quiet derision and scorn wherever he went, but he took it with maturity and stoicism tempered with an unfulfilled desire to awaken in a Utopia where sexual discrimination did not occur.

Such discriminatory behaviour had unbelievable social sanction. Legally, of course, female feticide and infanticide were punishable by fine, imprisonment, or both, but in reality, most individuals turned a Nelson's eye to such incidents occurring in their neighborhood.

Within such a milieu, Mufazzal had brought up Munira and Zaheer. The fourth and the most vital person in that family - the mother - had already passed away a couple of years ago from a debilitating consumption (tuberculosis) - still a scourge in small urban communities all over the country. It was a testament to Mufazzal's perspicacity as well as to his doggedness that he had refused to tie the knot again, as many of his elders had suggested to him; his own father had said so to him on the third day after Sajda's untimely death, and it had taken all of Mufazzal's will-power to stay calm.

He was a trader in finished leather goods; in traditional heirarchy, he was above the level of a street-side vendor but much below a manufacturer. He bought finished goods from big leather houses, and supplied these to the small businessmen nearby. During the course of his business, he had some good days and some bad, as most small-time businesses will; in either case, however, his profit margins were miniscule, as buyers knew the price of his merchandise almost to the T, and heckled with him about this all the time. He suffered the indignity of bargaining for just a little more on many occasions. Such bargaining was, at times, nothing short of grovelling for a few more rupees.

Little by little, however, Mufazzal had managed to save a small kitty, but a large part of it had got used up during Sajda's illness, and at the present time, his resources were limited, and the cash flow, unpredictable.

On top of all this were Zaheer's tuition fees, which amounted to nearly 15000 rupees a year, and the repayment on a housing loan he had taken some years ago, which was a little over 4000 rupees a month. Thus, Mufazzal was stretched to the limit of his finances, and only his glib tongue and his savvy marketing allowed him to stay above the poverty line.


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Mufazzal was ever concerned about the Hindu-Muslim relations in Independent India, especially since the riots of 1993, when Afzalpur burnt for nearly ten days and nights. A few of his acquaintances had even died in the riots. All India burned, to be sure, and thousands of Muslims perished, In Afzalpur, only a handful of his co-religionists had died, while many more had been rendered shopless, homeless or bankrupt.

Zaheer had remained in his hostel at Panchgani, and Sajda was away with her mother on a pilgrimage to Ajmer (a town in North India, known for the grave of a saint, Khwaja Gharib Nawaz); he had stayed home with Munira, locking and shuttering the one door and all the windows. For about three of those ten days, they had remained indoors, but after that, as the tensions in his locality eased, he had cautiously ventured out to buy vegetables, beef and bread/rice for the next few days.

Then, another conflagration in his street had occurred on the seventh night without warning, and a fresh police curfew had been ordered for the next 3 days, resulting in Mufazzal being confined to his home with Munira.

The memory of those three days was indelible, horrific and frightening! What had kept his spirits up in those days had been his telephone calls to Panchgani and Ajmer. His wife had been very afraid for him and for Munira, but he had reassured her that they were well. Zaheer had been a bit casual about the whole thing, but then, that was understandable in a thirteen year-old!

Sajda had remained in Ajmer till the riots abated and had joined him later.

These were the worst days for Muslims in Independent India, and Mufazzal spoke about them to his son and daughter at times, so as to make them aware of the the plight of being a member of a minority religion in India.

Once, while he was recounting those days to his children, Munira had asked, rather timidly, if her Hindu friends would kill her if riots occurred again. The question had jolted Mufazzal like no other question of hers had. He had pacified her, and explained that the things he was speaking of had occurred in the terrible past, and that there was no reason for such events to occur again in the present.

However, Mufazzal had slept restlessly, and visions of Munira being assaulted and worse, raped, had filled his nightmarish dreams that night as well as many more nights to come.


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Mufazzal finally went to sleep at around 11.45 p.m.

The next day was a special day for the Muslims, as it was the commemoration day of Imam Abraham's offer of the sacrifice of his son to Allah, the Eid-ul-Adha . Fatmabee cooked shirkhurma, a sweet milk drink with chopped dry-fruits added to it, and also made mutton-biryani. She asked for, and got, a crisp 100/- rupee note as a "gift" for Eid.

Mufazzal went for the special Eid prayers to the Mosque, and upon his return from there, Munira wished him Happy Eid, and they sat to read the Qur^an.They then sat down to eat the shirkhurma. Afterwards, as it was a work holiday, Munira and he spent the whole day together, playing chammak, a local variant of checkers, and told stories to each other. Munira told him about the upcoming birthday of her friend Laila; Mufazzal described his experiences as a teenager in Afzalpur's one college.

Both of them had lunch by 1.00 p.m., and retired to their rooms to sleep off the heavy biryani for the next three hours!

(End of Chapter II)