“Feuds, Tears, and Unexpected Smiles”

It was not a day that the neighbors could remember when Raja Sahib and Khwaja Sahib's wives had not argued. The day that argument was delayed, the superstitious would repeatedly look up at the sky in fear that it might fall. An argument not happening between the two wives was like the morning arriving and the sun not rising. Raja Sahib and Khwaja Sahib's houses were adjacent. If a nail was driven into one wall, the plaster of the other wall would peel off. This was why one day they argued again. The usual argument had already happened at noon, but then a mild earthquake occurred in the evening, and Begum Raja thought that Begum Khwaja had dragged a bed in the adjoining room. She dashed to the window and made Begum Khwaja listen to such insults that the poor woman forgot about the earthquake.

Then, when the husbands told their respective wives to recite the Ayat al-Kursi, an earthquake is coming, that is when Begum Raja understood the whole story. She sat down with a thud right there because she had heard that if someone stumbles and falls during an earthquake, they get epilepsy. At that moment, Begum Khwaja looked at the frightened and scared Begum Raja with such hatred as if she wanted to spit on her but was helpless because her mouth was dry up to her throat. Neither Begum Khwaja observed purda from Raja Sahib nor Begum Raja from Khwaja Sahib. It happened many times that Raja Sahib sat down to shave, got up after finding the blade finished, went to the window and called out, "Khwaja Sahib! Please favor me with a blade." And Begum Khwaja delivered this blade to Raja Sahib.

Similarly, many times Khwaja Sahib needed boot polish or a hot water bottle and he called out to Raja Sahib, then Begum Raja The required item was handed over to Khawaja Sahib. Despite this, even inside their own homes in the presence of their husbands, the wives would argue with such a fierce intensity that the conversation would reach "I will see you widowed with these very eyes." But then after some time, Raja Sahib would go to the window and call out: "Khawaja Sahib! Shall we go for a walk?" and Khawaja Sahib would reply from another room "Certainly, I am coming." And then the neighbors, who had just heard the fight between Begum Raja and Begum Khawaja, would see Raja Sahib and Khawaja Sahib walking hand in hand, laughing about something. It seemed as if the wives' fighting had become routine for Raja Sahib and Khawaja Sahib, and just as they had no right to tell the chaff and grain buyer not to shout like that, they considered interfering in the wives' arguments useless. Once an elder of the neighborhood stopped them and said, "You are good people, stop your wives from fighting, the whole neighborhood is getting a bad name.

" To this, Raja Sahib very politely said, "This is a matter for women. If we men interfere in their affairs, it won't look good. If you can send your wife to them and make them understand, then wonderful, otherwise it's no big deal. Two pots kept together also knock and make noise, and these two are, by the grace of God, living, breathing women," and Khawaja Sahib immediately added, "Living, breathing, and talking women." At this, both of them laughed and the neighborhood elder, unable to suppress his smile, turned back shyly like a child. When the two wives argued, there was very little blame-game and a lot of cursing in their words. Perhaps this was why the neighbors didn't get much "fun" from the argument. The men had completely lost interest.

The women, however, would rush to the rooftops or lean halfway out of the windows at the first sound from Begum Raja or Begum Khawaja, but when the argument ended, they would return with sad faces as if they had dug a mountain in search of gold and come back empty-handed. They would feel very sad thinking this Neither Begum Raja has identified any acquaintance of Begum Khawaja, nor has Begum Khawaja given any moral taunt to Begum Raja. Understand that the women of the neighborhood had to listen to this quarrel out of necessity, just as a patient is forced to eat food without salt and spice. This quarrel used to start without reason and end without reason. For example, Begum Raja's son's ball bounced through the window and fell into Begum Khawaja's bucket. Now Begum Raja is screaming that Begum Khawaja deliberately soaked the ball so that it would be filled with wet mud, and the child's hands would be filled with mud, and with his hands he would spoil his clothes, and Begum Raja would have to wash the clothes again, and soap would be spent separately, and time would be wasted separately. On the other hand, Begum Khawaja insisted that the ball was not thrown by the child, but by Begum Raja, and it was aimed at the bucket because the tap had been closed and now a water carrier would have to be asked for a water-skin for drinking water, which, by God's wrath, takes a full two annas for one water-skin. The matter would escalate to this extreme: "May your child die." "My child is God's property, but may your child die first so that I can see you tearing out your witch-like hair with my own eyes."

"I will jump through the window someday and put a burning coal on your tongue." "Before that I will break your legs?" "May your legs and the legs of your people be broken." Then both would stare at each other. Then both would cry with anger, and after a while both would get busy with their household chores. The quarrel usually started from Begum Raja's side. Begum Khawaja's only fault was that she was as if waiting for this beginning. She never ignored Begum Raja even once. With a little modification for curricular needs But one day this strange incident happened that Begum Khwaja came to the window with blood in her eyes and said, "Hey Begum Sahiba! Come in front for a moment." Begum Raja stepped into the field, ready to start the usual quarrel, when Begum Khwaja started. She said, "Today your boy has struck my darling's thigh with a pencil. The fine point has gone into his skin, and he is crying his heart out. If in return I stab your boy in the stomach, then?" "Then this, that I will chew your liver raw," replied Begum Raja.

"God forbid!" Begum Khwaja flared up. "I'm saying your boy has injured my darling, and look at the justice, people! She says I will chew your liver!" "Oye! If you stab my son in the stomach, then will I not chew your liver? Will I invite you to a feast?" Begum Raja thundered. "But where is your son? Show him to me. Has he even got a scratch, or are you just babbling to fulfill a habit?" Suddenly Begum Khwaja shrieked and brought her child from the other room and seated him in the window. He had made his eyes red from crying. Then Begum Khwaja removed the pajamas from his thigh and said, "Here, look with your ominous eyes." "Your father and grandfather's eyes would be ominous," said Begum Raja and then came near the window and said, "But let me see." Then she didn't know what happened; she became speechless. She stood still like that for a moment, then touched the spot on the child's thigh with her finger where the pointed pencil had torn the skin. Blood had oozed and clotted, forming a red circle around it. The child shrieked at the touch of her finger, and Begum Raja extended both hands towards Begum Khwaja's. She picked up the child, sat him on her hip, and started crying and getting tired, saying, "May these hands that tore your flower-like body burn. Let Gosha come. I will beat you in front of him, beat you so much that you will be refreshed.

" Then she began wiping the tears of Khwaja's son and kissing him. "May you live long, may you wear a garland. I say may you live to be Khwaja Khizr's age, just God willing, may your mother die." Saying this, she looked towards Begum Khwaja, who was also standing and wiping her tears, and hearing the curse of her own death, she smiled through her tears. Just then, Begum Raja's son came. Seeing him, Begum Raja pounced on him and gave him four or five stinging slaps at once, so that the child's screams echoed throughout the neighborhood. Then she brought a wooden stick from the kitchen and said, "You have given this child one wound, today I will give you a hundred such wounds so that you remember for life that other people's bodies also have life." Begum Raja's son screamed seeing his mother's expression and the stick, and then Begum Khwaja thundered from the window, "Put that stick down, or you will see the worst of me." "Why?" Begum Khwaja's intervention felt very bad. "Who are you to stop me? I will definitely punish him." Then she went near her child and snapped, "Will you hit someone again?" and before hearing an answer, she hit the child's stomach with the stick. Suddenly Begum Khwaja jumped in from the window and stood to one side, holding Begum Raja's wailing son to her chest. "What great calamity has happened? It's just a little pencil mark." "This is a little pencil mark?" Begum Raja said, lifting the pajama from Begum Khwaja's son's thigh. Then seeing the growing redness of the wound, she cried and clung to the child and stood up, holding him to her chest.

The two Begums standing in front of each other suddenly realized that they were crying while embracing each other's children. They discovered this situation at the same time, because both started laughing at the same time. Then Begum Khwaja stopped her laughter and said, "Oh, how silly we are!" "You must be silly," Begum Raja said and burst into a loud laugh. Begum Khwaja joined her laughter. Then both stopped at once because both children started laughing uncontrollably after seeing their mothers laugh.