Cover

Brand Page

ROHZIN

RAHMAN ABBAS

ROHZIN

Translated from the Urdu by Sabika Abbas Naqvi

To my daughter, Mahira, and my son, Rumi Abbas

And to my beloved city, Mumbai

‘He was still too young to know that the heart’s memory eliminates the bad and magnifies the good, and that thanks to this artifice we manage to endure the burden of the past.’

—Gabriel García Márquez,

Love in the Time of Cholera

‘It may have happened, it may not have happened: but it could have happened.’

—Mark Twain,

The Prince and the Pauper

1

Let Me Acquaint Myself with My Being’s Poison

(Jo Zeher Hai Mere Andar Wo Dekhna Chahun)

It was the last day in the lives of Asrar and Hina.

The sea that had its arms around Mumbai was ferocious. It desired to finally win the centuries-old battle, gulp the island and be victorious. Tall waves rose and fell, rose again and dashed against the shore. It had been raining for the past three days, so much that now the dark alleys, narrow lanes, the wide roads and the crumbling streets of the city were all submerged in knee-deep water. Black clouds veiled the sky. The city no longer remembered how the rays of the sun felt and looked. The sky was leaking through huge holes in its being, as if it had transformed into a never-ending waterfall. The waters of the sea had found a comfortable entry into the underground drains. The drains were a battleground for the unstoppable rainwater and the roaring sea, in a continuous struggle to make space for themselves.

This war had caused great damage to the embankments or the concrete sides of the newly constructed drains. The streams of water merged and made their way into the deepest layers of the soil. The residential areas around the inundated drains were submerging. The Mithi River was overflooded and the land around it lay submerged in deep waters. There were power cuts in most places. The condition of low-lying areas of the city reflected the wrath of rain and the destruction it had caused. All linkages between the city administration, government and the public had been snapped.