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Ode to my Love in 2005: A TALE OF TWO HEARTS
PART I
This story goes a long way surpassing the time and distance imposed by this material world that is meant to discount the eternal longing of two wandering souls for a rather desperate reunion. It starts from a point where division of land mass is more important than the scars on hearts and where religion is masterminding relationships at all costs.
The character of the Indian pilot Veer pratap singh is grappled with his wanderlust that finds him in all unimaginable situations for the cause of humanity, while Zara hayat khan resides comfortably in her dream world with very little inkling of the impending turns waiting for her just on the next corner. Suddenly on one fine day, she decides to cross the forbidden line for the sake of her commitment to someone very close to her heart and sets off her journey to the land of her future. That transition brings her to India from Pakistan. On her way she meets an “accident” only to be saved by Veer which seems just like another routine operation to him until he sees his eyes in the eyes of Zara. The life-long tale of a cataclysmic change unfolds itself at that very moment with the cataleptic flutter of their eyes. At that very juncture, Veer finds his destiny locked with her curls hanging all over her face without even knowing her destination. That puts a hex on the predictability of his life as certainly Veer’s pursuit of happiness just gets a downright new definition.
On their way to accomplish Zara’s quest to deliver her promise Veer comes to know who she actually is and why is where she is generally not supposed to be. To Zara’s that was just a trip to the land of her forefathers and she is happily looking forward to going back to her home and family but suddenly Veer asks her something unexpected that gives her tacit admiration a voice. Veer takes her to his village along with the curves of rural India where real India live. Zara in the mean time draws parallels on what she had had in her mind before coming to India and what she is witnessing actually. In the lurk, she discovers a strong feeling of attraction oozing out of her heart and cries for that face which is not so uncommon and definitely not forgettable anymore. In the village she meets his lovely parents. After initial apprehensions they grant their consent but insist on getting the approval from Zara’s family as well. As a result veer takes Zara to Pakistan but another rather displeasing truth was waiting for them just across the border and he happens to be Zara’s fiancé. Veer bears the brunt of that moment and finds himself speechless. Time goes by and Veer comes back to his village and leaves the army for good only to confine himself in the spines and curves of wondering alleys of the place he belongs to since he could remember. His family hold themselves responsible for Veer’s predicament and his father himself sends him to Pakistan to get her back in the name of true love. On the other end things are not quite as straight forward but that is not far from anticipation either. Zara belongs to an orthodox and "Posh" Muslim family and there is too much at the stake to make her will materialised. She is already besotted to the rich and influential businessman named Shirazi and Zara herself knows that any resistance on her part will only add to her agony by causing pain and humiliation to her family and she doesn’t want to let her new found life destroy all that she has been counting on for her whole life and getting everything one could long for from a family.
Finally the day arrives with the knell of a future that foresees Zara’s embarking on an endless voyage to find her happiness out of the ruins. The celebrations are rewarding the hearts with joy and drive them to the venue which is nothing less than ironic to Zara. It is the Shrine of a Sufi saint, to whom Zara has been turning to for the remedy of every speck of pain that has ever made her heart suffer, since her childhood. She is sinking in the biggest depression of her life in front of the Saint and her tears are hopelessly falling and leaving her too. She is loneliest in the face of this planet and her biggest strength is witnessing her fall seemingly unruffled.
Suddenly she feels the whiff of the scent that she has left somewhere with her heart and she turns around to the delight of herself in the first sight. Veer is there standing the middle of rain while personifying the Sufi’s flame of burning heart trying to reach the heaven of almighty at the very doorstep of the Shrine. She sees Veer and Veer sees his love Zara, but there are also thousands of eyes seeing them from an entirely different slant. Surmounting all that is in between two of them they try to disappear themselves in each other’s arms as if nothing never existed to separate them and their tears are pulling up a fight against the rain God. That is the moment when their entire lives get fused and crossed over for the rest of their life. But the next moment brings realization, attention, awareness, assessment, duty and at last separation to them with all persistence. Mother of Zara comes to Veer and asks if he could be living happily with Zara at the expense of the prestige and lives of her family. She says that it is the least one can expect from a son of India. Veer yields to the ultimate question and grants his life to a mother of Pakistan. Before going back he asks for permission to see Zara once and Zara comes to meet her dreams for the last time to bid a farewell with no hope of reunion.
The conversation between them is the foundation of a life-long commitment that is about to take shape. It underlies the invisible proximity, understated determination, unparalleled love and supreme selflessness, as they will continue building that everlasting bond between two hearts with every passing moment.
Veer says to Zara that few flashes of their lives have been exchanged between them and they will have to live for those moments no matter where life takes them to. Veer imagines Zara coming to visit him after years with her kids and he promises to take her for a ride on his bicycle. Zara replies that by that time she will too fat to ride on a bicycle and Veers comes up with the idea of using a trolley instead. This may well sound very superficial but is enough to take anyone through the pain of separation and a hopeless assent to the destiny for a very long time stretching from a tiny moment to the end of imagination. And along with the inevitability they turn their backs to the love where they had sown the seeds of their unbounded dreams in the skies of love, happiness and devotion.
Veer is on the India-bound bus, but suddenly breaks are jammed to halt it on the orders of the security forces. They storm the bus only to capture hapless Veer. When bewildered Veer asks about the whole shebang he is told that he is carrying a fake passport and is involved in activities to destabilise the country. Next moment Veer pratap singh gets a new identity of an Indian spy imposed on him and the price that is being set out to speak out against it is too high for Veer to pay. The person who masterminds the whole sinister plot turns out to be the fiancé of Zara, who couldn’t bed in the insult of having seen his would-be wife in the arms of her love and he is being afflicted immensely by the mere thought of uniting with someone for life who loves someone else in the first place. He proposes two exits for Veer, first one to accept that he has come to Pakistan to meet his love and the second one is to accept that he is an Indian spy and sign on the papers to testify it. Veers chooses the second option and saves the honour of Zara and her family and disappears in the dust of that caravan of happenstances with his identity, his countless dreams with Zara, his responsibilities towards his elderly parents and his surroundings.
PART II
22 years later, suddenly there comes a visitor to a jail located in the remote frontier area of Pakistan to seek a meeting with prisoner number 786. The visitor is a young lawyer named Samiya Khan. She gets the permission only after stating that she is officially representing the case of prisoner number 786 towards his release. Behind the bars there is a silhouetted figure with his eyes petrified enough to respond to any external stimuli and tongue twisted so much in the efforts of muffle expressions of grief and bereavement that it barely allows him to sigh. That person is Veer pratap singh and has been in the prison for 22 years without saying a word and getting everything that he has never deserved.
Samiya wants to handle his case and wants him to be released and sent back to India, but very little does she expect that this case is destined to open up into several other unimaginable dimensions. At last Veer gets himself convinced by Samiya and tells the whole story to her. Now Samiya has a dilemma to deal with. She can switch to another prisoner to set him free or she takes it on her chin and move in with story of Veer-Zara. She goes for the latter and Veer also agrees to let her, provided his secrets will always be remained unearthed deep in his heart for the sake of the dignity of his love. The destiny again drags Veer to a rather less surprising place and that is the court room where he stands helplessly watching a bunch of unknown identities questioning his own identity. All the evidences and witnesses turn their back to Veer and he is unable to swear by his love to let others hear his heart crying for the name of Zara with every single beat. At last court decides to give Zara one last chance in terms of seven days to prove her point. Veer is unfazed by all these activities around him as to him life doesn’t exist beyond his dreams where he lives happily with Zara irrespective of countless sufferings being afflicted on his body and soul. He acts in a mechanical way as any hope to see anyone dear to him has been vanished into the dust of time spanning 22 years of his solitude. Samiya on the other hand is trying for a miracle to happen as with every passing moment she is immersing deeper and deeper into the world of Veer and Zara. As her last attempt she resorts to the place where Veer originally came from to her area of land. She sets her sails to India. On arriving in Veer’s village she finds out that Veer’s parents have passed away several years ago and Veer is remained confined in the hearts of proud villagers as their brave son. Full of hopelessness and despair, she turns around to go back as there is no one waiting for Veer. But, the most unexpected quirk of fate compels her to change her mind and takes her towards the house of Veer. At the doorstep she notices that the house has been turned into a girl’s primary school and suddenly she hears something which shockingly defies her senses and logics. She sees a middle aged women emerging from the house with a stick and chalk in her hands. That is Zara. Seeing a visitors like Samiya sounds very uncommon to her and she stops by her. Dumbfounded Samiya can’t believe her eyes until she sees Zara’s best friend storming out of the kitchen after sensing a sudden silence. Zara is mentally unable to converse with Samiya as she looks still very much in the state of shock but her friend talks to Samiya. Samiya begins by introducing herself and tells the reason why she is there, but she still doesn’t understand why Zara is there. In the duration of 22 years Zara has been waiting tirelessly everyday for Veer. Her friend tells that soon after the marriage, Zara’s husband left her and Pakistan both and very quickly Zara lost her parents too. Knowing the Veer had been killed in that unfortunate bus accident, she moved to India to live with and take care of his old parents. But Veer’s parents too were heart broken and couldn’t sustain life with their only child and his widowed love for long and they passed away soon in quick successions. Zara opened a school for girls and since than there has been none who cares to pay a visit to this living shrine of love, devotion and divine purity.
Still in a state of disbelief, Samiya goes to Zara and gives her the protective charms from the Sufi shrine, which Zara’s mother had given to Veer while he was leaving for India. Veer gave the charm to Samiya for her protection through her journey. By looking at the charm Zara starts to feel the heart searing sensation of Veer’s presence filling all the horizons in real terms after 22 long years of void, trepidation and ordeal. Samiya has just got her hands on the most potent evidence to prove Veer’s real identity. She brings Zara back to Pakistan.
On the seventh day, the whole court room is awaiting anxiously for Samiya to open her Pandora box and show them the last trick she has up her sleeve. To disappoint all possible expectations Samiya enters with her evidence walking beside her. After a monumental and hopeless separation Veer and Zara are under the same roof and the judge has been rendered humble by the poetic justice bestowed by the almighty. He readily reads his verdict that sets Veer free with his true identity and dignity. The judge also apologies on behalf of Pakistan for keeping Veer away from his motherland, his family and above all his life for 22 years. Veer on the other hand is not listening to anything. Today his life has turned around and his dreams have bounced back with all their colours and hopes in the form of Zara. This moment has outweighed all the agony and pain of 22 years. Veer is complete now with Zara. They are looking into each others through the eyes of mind and soul and are trying to see how they actually are looking like in each other’s eyes. All distances have melted down and all conceivable boundaries of time, religion and space have been blown into smithereens by the inexorable deluge of the reunion of the lost souls.
With all the respect, Veer and Zara leave Pakistan only to look back to catch a glance of the angel who risked everything to make it all happen for real. Samiya is on the other side with departing tears for people who don’t relate to her directly and don’t belong to the place where she is from, but she seems very satisfied with her job and for the rest of her life she will always be able to see stars of Veer and Zara sparkling very brightly in her part of sky.
The border leads the way to the same tortuous and spindled alleys of their village but this time they are walking hands-in-hands not to be separated ever again. Veer takes Zara on his bicycle for a ride that both of them want to last ever after. They know that by ravishing their hearts in the eternal flame they have found the ultimate prize and at this moment there is nothing which can buy their happiness. To each other, they are closer to their hearts and dearer than their eyes. Test of time and destiny managed to separate them for a period of time but it couldn’t tear them apart.
Shito with all his heart and soul