Page 254 of The Circle of Exile
“I’ll go and grab those papers that I was going to courier to you,” Atharva announced, needing to exit their private family space.
“You don’t have to go, Atharva. My son will not speak, irrespective of your presence.”
He stilled. Daniyal did not move.
“Let’s sit,” Atharva offered.
“Yes,” Sarah agreed. “Let’s sit…”
“You leave your messages at Seen now?” Qureshi asked his son.
Daniyal finally glanced at him. They were now the same height, stood eye to eye.
“I did not teach you to be rude.”
“No,” Daniyal agreed. “You did not teach me to be rude. But that’s because you did not teach me anything.”
“Dani!”
“One sec, Ammi.Youtaught me to keep quiet if I had nothing good to say. Here, in Shimla, in Nani’s house. Where was he? LeavingyourWhatsapps on Seen…”
“That’s enough,” Sarah warned.
“Sorry, but I was keeping quiet because what I had to say was not good.”
Atharva gazed at Qureshi. Stoic as ever.
“I think you three should talk in Daniyal’s room,” he tried again.
“No. That room is mine and for my people. He is here to celebrate me finishing my final exams and see if I can come back and campaign for him. To see if I can help him retain the chair that he snatched from you by fraud…”
“How dare you,” Qureshi’s menacing words cut his son’s rant short.
“Truth hurts?”
“Dani, now you are crossing every boundary,” Sarah turned on him. “And that is not how I raised you. After dinner, you are coming with us. We have inconvenienced Atharva Bhai and Iram Bhabhi for three years. You were meant to come with them for a week’s vacation. Now… this cannot be longterm. Come home, we will talk and sort everything out there.”
“That’s crazy, because I was planning to join Atharva Bhai.”
“In what?”
“In his work to create a better party withtrustworthypeople in the north. If he is inconvenienced by me in their house, I will move out and rent an apartment in town…”
“You completely brainwashed him finally,” Qureshi turned to him. Atharva stared.
“Meer, please…” Sarah pleaded.
“Didn’t I tell you he is doing this for a reason? Keeping my son in his house to avenge his exit from Kashmir?”
Like you let him stay here to earn brownie points in the valley?Atharva wanted to argue.
He glanced at Daniyal and realised there was enough distance already between father and son. And… Daniyal did not deserve more humiliation.
“If this is your way to make me pay then don’t think I will take it lying down,” Qureshi rattled coldly. “I offered you an olive branch, asked you to work for KDP remotely and make us win again. I would be in a better position to negotiate with Janta Party for you then.”
Atharva kept quiet. Qureshi had never been an earnest man, but his lies were desperately screaming now.
“You think we cannot win this without you? See how I win and make sure you remain out of Kashmir for not three but the next thirty years.”
