SHORT STORY

Grandmother’s Death in London Due toCoronavirus

A mother is a mother and a child are unable to describe his or her very feeling about his or her mother by the end of the day. But I am a proud person as I can add that my paternal grandmother was the lady, I loved the most after my own biological mother.

The things are quite an indescribable and cannot be communicated fully as these are the emotions, the pure emotions of a grandson. The famous English saying is “heard melodies are sweet but those sweeter remain unheard”. I can simply add to my story that my association to my grandmother lies unheard in so many manners. But this is the sweetest part of a relationship. The pure relations do not need to be described once they are pure in its all the type. My and my grandmother’s relationship is just like that. People say that man is mortal. I disagree with this point of view as I am of the view man is immortal in letter and spirit. The persons or the individuals who give us so much love and affection in their lives, their love can never be disconnected from us for the rest of our lives. The materialistic life is just a temporary life but the cordial and spiritual relations have no ending at some point of time.

The things are not so simple and easy the way we think. the world is not what we physically observe normally. The things are not the way they look. there are so many deeper insights of a same thing. We must have that cordial or spiritual eye to look towards the things in the best kind of manner. I can simply say that the relationship of my grandmother with me is the same that can be called as extra materialistic kind of relationship. I think I have started talking about the metaphysical significance of the relations of ours. The things are quite different in all the manners. The things can be explored in so many manners by our sides. We must try to explore this very world from a new kind of dimension towards it. The dimensions always do matter by all the time. My grandmother was a Kabul based afghani by her origin and nationality. She was a Persian speaking afghani actually.

Her husband our paternal grandfather was a carpenter of a middle-class background who could make out with his day to day livelihood in Kabul, Afghanistan.

What was their paradise on earth was their children and their home? He had ca good ancestral home of him in the very beginning. On the death of the father of my grandfather, he had got his own separate home in legacy. My grandmother started decorating that home by the end of the day. They had a small orchard there in their home. They had got some livestock in their home. In Afghanistan, there is a custom to breed some goats and at least a cow in your home for the family level milk requirement of your own home. This is really a lovely kind of tradition which should be praised and applauded by all the means and manners.

My father got shifted to London back in the year 1986. he was just 24 years old at that time. My grandmother and her three sons were there in Afghanistan. My father used to have a telephonic talks and conversation with the grandmother by all the time. He was quite an aware with the circumstances of his mother and brothers back at home.

He wanted to invite his brothers to London in order to make them better in their economics.Actually, my father himself was not so educated person. He had to do some ordinary jobs in order to get his own livelihood in London. The things were quite a different in all the means and manner. He had got married to my mother here in London as my mother’s family was again an afghani Kabuli and Persian background. The Persian speaking background of my mother attracted my father to marry her.

He proposedto my mother first and then he formally requested my maternal grandmother to let him get married to her daughter. My mother’s family accepted my father wholeheartedly because of the Persian speaking background.

Both my mother and my father were of Kabuli background. It really suited the whole the scenario in their married life. My father was always worried about my grandmother and his brothers. I mean the sons of my grandmother, the brothers of my father. They were earning their livelihood mostly by small jobs. Most of my uncles were barber. They were associated with the hair-cutting profession in Kabul. The Pashtun speaking tribal guys were against their settlement in Kabul. They threatened my uncles so many times that they will have to leave their home here in Kabul and can seek their refuge in any other country.

Because of their Persian speaking background, they were quite alien in their own country. The terrorist groups who were ethnically and linguistically Pashtun by origin were not in their support. They had no choice to move 5to the countries like Pakistan or Iran even. In Pakistan, IT WAS QUITE A DIFFERENT FOR A PERSIAN SPEAKING TO GET SOME JOB EASILY BECAUSE OF THE LANGUAGE BARRIER. In Iran again it was a great difficulty to move towards as the things were quite a hard there in Iran as well. Iranians could not even accept them because of their afghani nationality. They do have a prejudice with afghanis as they are some other race. They take themselves as Arians or the pure Arians. On the other hand, they were not in a position to accept the afghanis of a Persian speaking background even. These were the biggest problems related to my paternal family. My grandmother was really a brave lady, she had never compelled her sons to do some other kind of work for their survival. She believed in one thing that Kabul was their own land and they should live in it and die in it till their last breath. She was of the view that this is the birthplace of our forefathers. We belong to this very land and it would be a source of great pride for us as we get buried in to our own land by the end of the day. In short, she was a patriotic lady by all the manners. She was the one who had her own concepts. She was a very traditional and conventional lady. She was a lady of valor by all the ways. She believed in defending her stance and could give her life to defend her point of view. She was against the militant Afghanistan. She believed that the land of Afghanistan used to be the land of learning and culture. These are different ignorant tribes who believe in bloodshed. These were the soft and look forwarding kind of views of her in all the ways.

She had transferred her blondeness and valor in her own sons. Our paternal grandfather died when my father was just 10 years of age. My father was the eldest of all. He actually always wanted to move from Afghanistan. He did not like the environment of confrontation in his own environment around him. This thing made him believe to move to London in his youthful days even. He was telephonically connected to his mother by the end of the day.

But then there came quite a dreadful day in the life of my grandmother. Her son, Najibullah, my uncle had a shop named khushbakht hairdressers there in the middle of Kabul city. He was receiving threats from the Pashtun tribes that either he moves to some northern part of Afghanistan or leave the country. Otherwise he would be kidnapped and shot dead.

This was the kind of threat he was facing in his land and city. He was not believing this very statement. He came back to home and told his mother, my grandmother the whole the story. My grandmother advised him not to worry at all. As he has not done anything bad in his life. She advised him that he needs not to worry as this was his land.

On the other hand, the militant group was making so many plans of its own type. The militant leader, Hizballah sent Najiba letter that you may leave the city within48 hours or stay ready to face the consequences. Actually, they were in a mood to threaten the uncle of mine. My uncle decided to move to another city. he wanted to hide himself for few months. My grandmother was reluctant in this regard. She said that she will not move to anywhere. He may leave if he likes. he asked his mother that he will have to move to the city of Ghazni for few months as he is getting threats by the militants.

He was forced and compelled to do so. He had to feed his family members as well by all the time. As he had two sons and a wife with him. That is why, he had to borrow a lot of money to run his day to day affairs. This was a very difficult time of six months. He told his friend that he has got a house in Kabul,so his friend needs not to worry at all as his house in itself is a guarantee that he would return him his money as he gets settled down in his own life.

This was saddening in all the means and manner.  The economy was getting worsen day by day in ghazna. He was not getting any room to get out of the situation. Tired of the financial circumstances, he decided to return to Kabul by the end of the day. As he came back home, he again got severe threats from the militant group. And one morning, he was shot dead in the very front of his own home.

My grandmother got senseless for few days because of the shock she got from the killing of his beloved son. She wanted to serve the family of her son. But the children of my uncle got shifted to harass, Afghanistan with their mother. My grandmother was compelled to live at home mostly alone as the other two sons of her got shifted toPakistan. this was a very miserable situation as she used to pass her time by the only dependence of her on the livestock.

The livestock was once the traditional occupation of our forefathers. The history repeated itself through the very conduct of my grandmother. She was a iron lady in all the means and manner. She knew how to lead her life with the best kind of manner by the end of the day. She never wanted to leave her land. Burt the loans of my killed uncle was the biggest economic crises of him and his mother again. The loan givers started following my grandmother. They started demanding the amount back to them. Finally, my grandmother got forced to lease her home to [pay back the very debt of his beloved son. She did not actually want that her killed son can be called badly by the loan givers. She wanted to stay as the proud mother of a proud son. This was quite a tragic kind of situation she had to go through. The things were different and tragic in all the means and manner. She wanted to get back the very honor and respect of her family back in her own life. She wanted to get the house of her own. When she informed this very situation to my father, he advised her to rush to London. She got her visa from on turkey as Afghanistan was going through a state of anarchy in those days.

She came to us just few years ago that also on the very request of her son, our father. My father was quite a worried about her. he wanted to serve her at the best of his possibility. She had not seen us since our birth in London city far way from Afghanistan. We knew one thing that both my father and mother were of afghani background but they had got some cultural habits of a British environment in them. On contrary to my parents, my grandmother was a different and conventional kind of lady.

She made us feel that we are ourselves afghani by all the means. We can never become the British model by any means. We have got our roots in our blood. We are different from the other people of the society. She told us and advised us that we have got our own value system which differentiates us from the other people of our society. The things are quite a different when they are on ground level.

We are the very sons of an eastern region;we must keep our own identity. She made us feel the real meaning of love and bonding. It happened to me as an 18 years old teenager even. She started pampering me the way she is the real mother of mine. She started treating me like a child. Shealways had a lot of time for all of us. We are 5 sisters and brothers. We are 3 brothers and two sisters. I was the one who is the eldest son of my father, very closed to my grandmother. She started calling me shawmer, the chief one. My real name is Ali but she started calling me the chief. When I asked her for the reason behind all this? She told me that we are the ones who were born and brought up here in the western world. We have a great chance to get older with the sense of a stranger in the society.

The British society would never make us feel proud of our roots. They would make you feel like you people afghanis are the poor ones or the backward ones. They will make you feel that the best civilization and the manner is the one that belong to the Britishers only. We are the ones who have ruled over the world. The afghanis are the ones who have always guns and powder in their culture.

The reality is thoroughly different. Grandma was of the view. Grandma told me that the insurgency and the terrorism wave in her country is just a matter of a few decades in her country. It was a real source of learning and culture there in Afghanistan.

My forefathers were the ones who were poets’ side by side their farming in their lands. They were the wisemen of their own time. People used to contact them whenever they wanted to seek some kind of guidance by all the time.

I really started getting impressed of her talks. Her talks were the most magnetic and attractive for me. My father was the one who had never elaborated the things in this very way the way my grandma was portraying the things for me.

She was a true believer of orientalism in her type. She believed that learning and wisdom is the real essence of all of us. The Englishmen have progressed in the modern era just because of their thirst for knowledge and research. The nations or the communities who start getting segregated and separated in the name of religion and sects, those are the ones that go in astray by the end of the day. We need not get astray by the end of the day. We need not lose our identity. We need to get firm in our own beliefs and identity. The very belief in our land and literature would be the spirit that would enforce us to do something for our people,

Our people are going through an era of transitional darkness. Then she started crying for her land. She was crying like a child far from his or her own mother. She knew that she cannot factually return to her home back in Afghanistan in an easy manner. She said that she has passed her youth and aging they’re in that very land. Her body and soul both belong to the very land of Afghanistan. She cannot be separated from the aroma of her land. She started describing about her home back in Afghanistan. She told me that my father was born there in that very house. The house was like a dreamland to her. That was the home where my grandfather used to celebrate the birth of his lovely children. That was the place where he used to observe his fasts. He used to celebrate the holy month of Ramadan with great kind of felicity and prayers beforeAllah almighty.

These were the sentimental kind of talks of my grandma. My grandma was a sentimental and loving lady. I have never seen a lady with such love and affection in my life. I have seen so many mothers here in the western world. I have seen a mother of my own. But the essence of motherhood of my grandma is thoroughly different from the mothers of this machinery era. She is the one who should be paid a full kind of tribute by all the means and manner. She could make things done in a matter of few moments even as she was a very energetic lady in her 80s even. She made me a different kind of Ali.

She invoked a different kind of energy in me by saying and calling me that I am the chief one. I am the sultan of my own life. I was born and brought up here in London. But I should be knowing this very point very clearly that I am a different kind of man by all the ways. The things are quite different in all the manners.

I have to feel that I am an afghani by origin. I have got my roots and history. My history is glamorous in all ways. My uncle is the one who was killed by the militants. I should not react to this killing in a normal way as those were the hostile and negative forces of my land.

This is the fact that at this very moment, my land has been hijacked by the negative forces, but this should not be the reason that I start hating my own land. I have to start feeling that I would be the one who would have to act wisely in this regard. I am the one who can be the ideological soldier of the ideological borders of my own Afghanistan.

The borders are not always the geographical borders by all the time. There are so many ideological and intellectual borders that have to be guarded or safeguarded by the end of the day. She invoked a new kind of energy in me through her talks. She told me that I can become the one who can invoke this very energy in others even. This should be a source of transferring in all ways. We are supposed to transfer the very knowledge of ourselves to others. Knowledge is an asset that needs to be transferred by all the time. It needs to be shared with others by all the time.

I witnessed another very sensitive element in the very personality of my grandma, she was the real patriotic woman of her kind. She was a strong believer of her own culture and land by all the ways. Things were quite different when I used to talk to her. She was the real source of energy for me all the time.

The things had to get managed at any cost. I was supposed to follow her footprints as she was an intellectual legacy for all of us as the grandsons of her. She showed us all her love and passion for us. She told us that we should feel pride and honor in our own land by all the time. If we are the ones who have been born and brought up in the western society, it does not mean that we can forget our past and roots by the end of the day.

We are the ones who have to allure the whole situation once again with the positive kind of energy of us by the end of the day. We are the ones who can bring change in our own lives and the lives of others even.

I remember the way she used to cry for her home by all the time. Her home back in Afghanistan was the dream home for her by all means and manner. She used to think about it by all the time. She used

To think and aspire that how could she bring in a change in her home back in Afghanistan by the way she has got the ideas from the house structure here in London. She used to say that she will show the Kabuli people how beautifully she has designed her home back in Afghanistan. This was the very wish of her. She believed in her very land by all the time.

She never knew that she will have to face death in such a manner. I do not think that she is anymore. She is along with us even by now. Death could not separate her from us all. I will have to pay tribute to her in all the means and manner. The patriotism and the home love there in her eyes make me emotional and sentimental in all ways. She was a kind of soldier of her own life. She was an inspiring lady altogether.

How do I make her believe that I love her so much? The biggest tragedy in our lives is that we stay mum to the ones we love the most by most of the time. A grandma and her grandson’s love are undoubted quite amazing and different by all the means and manners. This is quite an indescribable in this very way that the things of beauty do not last forever maybe. A true love ends up with a tragedy. It is really sad. It is indescribable. We never knew that the global level outbreak of the pandemic would take us all with it. The loved ones of the millions of people have departed of this world, It is really saddening in all the means. People in all across the world have lost their dear ones. We did not know that the dawn of the new year of 2020 would be such a horrible beginning of the world. The events related to the pandemic were dreadful in all ways. The things are really indescribable for me in such a different manner that I cannot express them fully in my own words. Words can normally do explain the material kind of things. But the supernatural kind of experiences or the metaphysical kind of eventsdo get imprinted in our own minds. The same is the case with grandma's demise.

On 4^th April evening, grandma was talking to us all at our dinner table regarding her childhood days there in Kabul,Afghanistan. She looked to be quite an ok and cheerful in all the means and manner. After completing her meal, she showed some symptoms of cough and influenza. The symptoms were very severe as it was still very cold in London. She had not gone for some outing or shopping along with papa even.

We all got panic with the very position of grandma. As world level media was all the time discussing the global level causalities due to coronavirus. Coronavirus by itself has turned into a great threat to human lives there in London. We did not lose any single moment and contacted our doctor that we are going to bring our grandma along with us. As she had got the symptoms of coronavirus in her. We reached the doctor who was our family doctor, he checked grandma and asked us to wait for the test samplereports.the samples from her blood were already taken at the clinical side. The doctor told us that they should surely test their whole family to ensure the safety of them as they may be having caught the coronavirus.

When the reports came in, papa and grandma both were tested positive.papa had mild symptoms in him. But grandma’s situation was getting worsen within a few hours. Things were quite different and crucial for our family by now. The doctor advised us that our papa can get himself

quarantined inside his home. But the grandma would be admitted to the clinic immediately. This made us all shocked especially I was shocked to its full.  I knew what the doctor meant by that very words.

I came back to grandma and told her not to worry at all. But I saw her as if she was quite normal in her mood. She was ready to fight with the situation. She believed that nothing could harm her at all. It was me who was taking care of her by all the time. Papa told me to stay with grandma by all the time as a take careof her. I also could not leave her at all. I saw her helplessness that how she was fighting against the situation at age 81. She was trembling with fever but was unable to tell us that she needs a quilt. I was the one who can myself understand the situation by myside. This was the very bonding between me and her. Here started a new kind of the story of love and understanding. I think love has got its kind of language by all the means and manner. Love does not need or require the physical tongue to express its very feeling by the end of the day.

I noticed one thing in those tragic days that she was a thorough tough lady of her type. Her body was getting weak day by day but she looked to be normal in all the means and manner. The only thing which I saw in her that she had a great kind of love feeling for all of us. She was the one who could change the whole world with the power of her love. She was a kind of energizer for me and my whole family.

People have always listened to the stories of others. People have always talked about the children and their parents. But people have seldom talked about the love of the grandparents and their grandsons. I have a different story for the whole world. I have a different kind of feeling about my grandma. Her eyes used to talk to me. She wanted to rush to Afghanistan in any case. She wanted to see her home back from the clutches of debt and loans. This was the very purpose of her life in all the means and manner. She was a responsible kind o lady in letter and spirit. She told me several times in those days of the fight against coronavirus that she likes to see her home back in Afghanistan. She got carefree in her later days. She said that I bestow myself on the very will of Allah almighty. Allah is the one who can take me back to Him or He who is the one who can save me.

I saw a kind of great belief of her in Allah almighty. This was a tremendous kind of quality of her that her belief system was awesome in all the means and manner. Things were a new kind of learning for me in those days. Then there came the most tragic moment of my life. Doctors called me immediately when I was there in the waiting area. They told me that she is getting critical, you must be there near to her. When I came to her, her last words were my home, my home, my kids,Najibullah,Afghanistan.

It was again the most tragic moment of my whole life. My grandma was departing this very world with all of the wishes taking in her heart. Alas, I lost her, millions of people have suffered due to this coronavirus. All of them must have different stories with them about their l; loved ones. Loved ones and the dear ones are the ones who are the very asset of us by all the means and manner. The things we are unheard and unexplained in so many means. I see that a lot of people could express the cordial and sentimental feelings of them to the rest of the world. This surely would be the greatest asset to the world’s literature. We all have different sorrows and tragedies of ours.

Now the very mission of my life is to fulfill the dream of my grandma. The last words of her are a kind of recommendation for me. She recommended me to work out for the greater cause even. I would like to participate in this sacred mission by myside. Although I am quite young at this very time. I am still a student onthe college side. I have to complete my studies even by now. But I would try to accomplish this very mission.

Please come and join me all. I have launched a Facebook page, YouTube channel, Instagram page in which there are so many afghanis with me. Those afghanis are the ones who are British afghanis.i am trying my best to bring them on one page. The ones who have lost their dear ones in the battle of Afghanistan can join me. We must try hard to bring in peace and harmony in Afghanistan with our soft messages to the general masses by the end of the day. We are the ones who can bring change in the very structure of Afghanistan by raising our voice in social and electronic media. I have nothing to do with the white men in my cause for Afghanistan.

We are a community who was born and brought up here in London. But we must again try to take pride in our roots by the end of theday.our land and soil require us by all the means and manner. This does not even require our physical presence on our soil. It requires our moral and educational support to the ones who are the deprived onesin Afghanistan. Our voice is for the ones who are against the civil war and anarchy in Afghanistan. We must have to make the rest of the world community believe back that Afghanistan is not a country of unrest situation anymore. It is the land of love and literature. It is the land of peace and harmony.

Then, I would like to request you people that I have laid down the very launch of the Khushbakht Foundation. Khushbakht is the name of my late grandma. Grandma’s wish was to get her home back from the lease of the loan givers. Please join me for this noble cause. I have temporarily buried her body in the London graveyard but I have a wish to bury her there in Kabul Afghanistan.

Please support me for this very cause in all the means. I do believe that you people belong to a generous background. For generosity actually,riches are not the only factor in the lives of all of us. You need to be kind-hearted to be a generous man by the end of the day. She was not the grandma of mine. she was the grandma of modern-day Afghanistan. We need to revive her mission in all the means and manner.

This is really amazing to notice that after the write up of such golden words on his social media pages, the things got turned in the very favor of the newly launched foundation. He started getting millions of pounds for the home of her grandma. I see that a lot of people could express the cordial and sentimental feelings of them to the rest of the world. This surely would be the greatest asset to the world’s literature. We all have different sorrows and tragedies of ours.

The proud grandson announced that the house there in Kabul would be announced and declared as a cultural center of the people of Afghanistan. the house would display and manage the manuscripts and the antique material showcasing the very history of Afghanistan. It started getting its space in the modern-day city of Kabul Afghanistan very shortly. This was like a dream that came true just six months after the sad demise of grandma. We must have to make the rest of the world community believe back that Afghanistan is not a country of unrest situation anymore. It is the land of love and literature. It is the land of peace and harmony.