An Intimate History
Chapter 21 of “Hold On”: Jan’s Deli Peshawar Summer 2015
(N.B. I’m writing a novel, a chapter a week, here on Medium. Find out why I write here, start from Chapter 1 here, and always feel free to give me feedback in the comments. I write here for the community.)
Despite the hot and humid early afternoon, Ahmad asked Hira to sit outside the café. The interior of the café was nice and cold due to the air conditioner. But Ahmad felt that they would not be able to talk comfortably with each other with others sitting nearby inside the café.
Once they sat, the café waiter arrived and asked them what they would like to have. Ahmed looked at Hira, “it’s quite hot. So, let’s have an ice cream shake”. Hira agreed and the waiter left.
Ahmed was wearing a white polo shirt over his blue denim and was looking quite healthy. For a while, Hira stared at his bare arms. And then she turned her gaze away and asked Ahmed how he had been doing. Ahmed started talking about life in New York and his studies. But what Hira really wanted to know was how he has felt while being away from her for the past 3 years. They both had changed physically but their style of conversation was still the same. Hira was quiet and Ahmed was talking a lot.
The waiter arrived with a chilled ice cream shake and left it on the table. Ahmed pulled out his bag and handed over a box to Hira. He said he had got this gift for her. She thanked him and protested that it was not needed.“You have come back, it’s enough for me”. Ahmad smiled and said, “I hope you will like this”. Hira tucked the box away in her bag as if shielding it from prying eyes.
Ahmed had arrived in Peshawar on June 2 and immediately texted Hira. “Hey, I am back in Peshawar, only to meet you. Let’s meet tomorrow. I will come to the gate of the university and we will walk to Jan’s Deli”. He had included a heart eyes emoji in the text.
Hira was happy to receive this message. Her mom had been very angry as usual at all of them while they sat for dinner at the dastarkhaan. But Hira was excited and she didn’t mind her mom’s anger on that evening. She even talked with more affection to her mom. Later, in the bedroom, she thought for half an hour about what she should wear to meet Ahmad tomorrow. Finally, she chose a blue dress with a white dupatta, with minute florals that she had embroidered herself.
After putting the gift in her bag, Hira asked Ahmed, “ What are your plans after graduation?’’ Ahmad said that he was eagerly looking forward to coming back to Peshawar and sending his parents to her home for rishta. A wave of intense emotion ran through her and she smiled. ‘’ Ahmad, I.. I, you know, I am also waiting for that moment. I am graduating in a month and I know my mom will start forcing me for marriage. It will be very difficult for me to withstand her pressure for a year,’’ Ahmad said he would love to ask his father now, but he knew that he would tell him to complete his degree first. Hira said let’s see what Allah has planned for us.
Ahmad asked Hira about the online courses he had advised her to complete. He said that she should immediately start applying for jobs. “If you get a job, it may help in reducing the pressure of marriage by your family”. He said that the online courses she had done especially Python and Machine Learning would help her land a job immediately as there was a huge demand in Pakistani software houses providing services to US-based companies. Hira thanked him for suggesting her to do these online courses. She said., “I did not learn anything useful during my computer science degree in the university and these courses really helped me to learn skills for jobs. Professors taught us abstract concepts and never taught us how to apply them in real life. But my foundation has built by online courses. I started making sense of abstract concepts when I learnt Machine Learning and Data Science through online platforms.”
Ahmad asked Hira if she had developed her resume and if anyone in the university had helped her. The answer was obviously no. Ahmad then asked her to draft a basic CV and then he would edit it for her. He said that she needed to clearly mention her skills and any projects that she had done so far. “You will land a job based on your skillset and Machine learning projects which ”. Hira nodded yes.
Ahmad then looked at Hira and said she looked stunning in the blue dress and white dupatta. “Should we take our first-ever selfie? I have learned the art of selfies recently. They took a selfie. Ahmad then told Hira about the artificial intelligence idea he was working at the university.
Ahmad said that he had learned Natural Language Processing (NLP) and was trying to develop a product to read all the application materials of candidates who apply to universities and then shortlist candidates based on the overall applications. He said that universities generally shortlist based on standardized tests and then review the applications of short-listed candidates. It becomes hard and costs time and money for them to read all the applications. He said that the competition in the university is going to be held in October and if he is selected his startup idea will be incubated in NYU officially. He will get a $30,000 grant for this idea. He asked Hira to pray for him. Hira said sure. “Allah Karam karega inshallah”. Hira could make sense of what Ahmad was talking about due to Ahmad’s continuous nudge that she should not rely on the university education and should read more about the latest developments herself.
Hira wished that this meeting could continue forever and Ahmad keeps talking to her for a very long time, But she looked at her phone and saw that it was 3 pm. They needed to walk back to the university for her brother to pick her on his motorbike to go back to their home in Chamkani.
After going to the university, Hira went to a quiet corner and opened the gift box. She did not want to take the box to her home because her family might see it and it would be a crisis. She opened the box and there was a book ‘The Gene: An Intimate History by Siddartha Mukherjee, a perfume and a half KG grinded coffee. Hira thought for a while that how did Ahmad consider that she drank coffee. She thought Ahmad should have known that we ordinary people don’t drink coffee. But she was happy as Ahmad was sweet for bringing these gifts for her. She threw away the coffee in the dustbin because she won’t have a space to hide it. She thought that she would have to tell her mom about the perfume that Sadia had gifted to her and will ask her permission to apply it. Her mom even never allowed her to apply perfume as she said that good women didn’t wear perfume. She thought that she would keep the book in her bag and would read it during class breaks.
While going back home with her brother, her face was shocked by the hot air of Peshawar, which streamed past, but her heart did not feel the discomfort. Her excitement of meeting Ahmad after so long still coursed through her veins.
