Page 146 of The Circle of Exile
“I am not wise. I was just lucky to learn from my worst days.”
“That’s not luck, Iram, that’s spirit. Some of us can’t hold on long enough to keep it alive.”
Iram gaped at her, trying to find the source of that confession.
“Water, Ammi!” Maha called out.
“Here, here,” Sarah walked on. “Iram, glasses?”
She followed Sarah and began to pass the glasses around when Atharva’s phone rang. It always rang, was always buzzing. But this time, Altaf was striding towards him as well.
“Hello?” Atharva picked it up, pushing his chair back and nodding at them all to walk away. Iram saw him meet Altaf halfway. Something was wrong. She saw Adil, Samar and Qureshi’s eyes pick it up. Amaal was clued in as well, her phone open in front of her as she typed vigorously.
She saw something, read, then passed her bowl of ice cream to Maha and pushed out from her chair. Iram noted her walk towards Atharva, join them just as he ended his call. They talked. Hush-hush. And then they were striding back, all three of them.
“I am sorry, we will have to take a round of the Secretariat. You guys carry on, we’ll be back,” Atharva tapped Adil’s shoulder. None of his partners asked him why he was going.
“But why?!” Maha whined. “You stay, Amaal Aapa.”
“We’ll be back in half an hour,” Atharva smiled down at her, patting the top of her head. “Don’t eat all the ice cream.”
Iram caught Atharva’s eyes as Altaf ran ahead to signal for his convoy. It was not good, whatever it was.
“What happened?” She asked as Atharva passed her.
“A Pakistani memo has been leaked.”
“So?”
“It mentions inviting me to Nagar Jami Masjid.”
27. Silence before the storm felt peaceful, until it was not…
Silence before the storm felt peaceful, until it was not. He had known this, in theory as well as in practice. Foot on mine, releasing, pressing back, recalculating the window of escape, checking for casualties, taking god’s name, seeing the world for one last time just in case, and taking your foot off with a dive back up and away at a 45° angle, arms around the head, body clenched, hoping the detonation had a lag of a few more milliseconds. That silence and storm? Peace and war? The window between those two was never more than a millisecond. Sometimes even narrower than that.
In real-time, the window of lag between Momina Aslam’s first threat and this open firing had been months — three to be precise. But as Atharva saw the report play out on live television now, he felt those three months shorter than that millisecond.
“…and it looks like CM Atharva Singh Kaul may have been on site when the blast of Jami Masjid shook Nagar on 27th October last year. An internal memo from the government of the Chief Minister of Gilgit-Baltistan has been leaked. It reads — ‘Inclusion of spiritual diplomacy: A brief, symbolic stop at Nagar Jami Masjid has been extended to the Honourable CM of Jammu and India-occupied Kashmir. Time window proposed: 12:30–13:00. This gesture, if accepted, will be seen as a mark of goodwill across regional communities.’ This means, that the Pakistani government had extended an invitation to our CM… I am cutting you right here as we have some Breaking News coming in…”
“Momina Aslam is sitting for a press conference,” Amaal burst through his office door, Zorji and Fahad already there. Atharva stood quiet, eyes on the screen.
“She is going to present our leaked memo,” Amaal added before Momina Aslam’s face filled the screen. She pulled her flimsy duppatta over her head and leaned into the mics lined on the table.
“Leak her Amol Developers records!” Fahad shot out.
“Shhh,” Amaal cut him off. “It doesn’t work like that. Not immediately, at least.”
“Dear members of the Press, thank you for gathering here tonight,” Momina Aslam addressed, prim, proper, articulate. “I have come here to present some facts and findings to our state through you. Our fight against the dictatorial regime of the KDP government under Atharva Singh Kaul has been tireless and unwavering. CM Kaul has many sins to his name, anti-nationalism isn’t one of them. Or so I thought, until I stumbled upon these.”
She held up a paper — “A copy will be circulated among you all. This is an internal memo from the CMO, detailing the CM’s itinerary on the day he landed in Gilgit in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir. It reads — Touchdown at 7:09 hours, Arriving at the Silk Route Hotels & Hospitality at 8:24 hours. There is a detailed breakdown of the CM’s meeting with the CM of Gilgit-Baltistan, breakfast, and then a blank. A three-hour blank from 11:40 hours to 14:45 hours when a call with the Additional Principal Secretary in India is slotted. This gap is very conveniently titled ‘Sightseeing.' Ironically, the PoK government has today admitted a leak of their memo, a similar note made on the occasion of the Indian CM’s arrival in Nagar. The memo reads — ‘A brief, symbolic stop at Nagar Jami Masjid has been extended to the Honourable CM of Jammu and India-occupied Kashmir. Time window proposed: 12:30–13:00. This gesture, if accepted, will be seen as a mark of goodwill across regional communities.’”
Momina Aslam set the memos down and reached for another piece of paper under her table. A photograph.
“This is the place our CM was invited to and this is what happened at that place at that exact time. So my question is — did the CM go? If not, then why wasn’t it mentioned in his memo? If he went,” Momina Aslam leaned into the mic. “And I have a hunch he did — who is he protecting, and why? Allegedly, an attempt was made on a sitting Indian Chief Minister’s life in a foreign country. My question to our Prime Minister is — why don’t you know it and will India avenge it? And lastly — will India and Jammu-Kashmir hold CM Kaul accountable for these answers?”
“She was not coming for Iram,” Amaal murmured. Atharva felt her gaze on the side of his face. “She was coming for you.”
“What does our new memo say?” Fahad asked.
