Tales of the Heart
Writer Akila Raza
Assisted by : Mitul Shah
Critics
Batul Ladak
Zainab Ladak
Samiha Shabbir
Fatema Nathoo
Sukaina Dhanji
Phase 1
Let me dream with my eyes open
Although the door of my heart is locked…..
He who is meant to be shall be
Through the window or the chimney…He will find his way to me.
My Grandma was almost eighty years old but whoever came across her was enchanted …she was such a romantic soul, she had raised me and my twin sister who was special abled since childhood, mom and dad had died in a car crash, grandpa followed after that and it was just me and Mia and grandma, hanging on to eachother like entangled hair on a teenager’s scalp. I had just turned twenty one and my grandma was worried about my future, my twin was more like a cabbage …. paralyzed and just there ….for the sake of it yet we stuck together for the sake of love.
One evening Grandma decided to share her tales of love…
Grandma : Cheribie my baby… I need to tell you something
Me : ummh tell me granny, whatsup , you want to go to Paris ? (I laughed)
Grandma : come sit next to me and I will take you to the world of romance …
Me : Grandma aren’t you Abit too young for that shit ? I mean look at you …you are only eighty….how about we wait for fifty more years then we can go to the world of Romance (I was feeling sarcastic, just the thought of romance gave me goosebumps of hate).
Grandma : Cheribie my dear, it’s time you should learn about love , of you continue behaving like a stone heart…the man trying to win you will commit sucide.
Me : grandma listen …. For one, I am not interested in men okay? I know ur the Queen of romance and grandpa was your knight on a blue horse …….
Grandma : it’s white horse Cheribie
Me : whatever …as for me ..I doubt if there will ever be anyone I will open the doors of my heart for….it’s locked and I have thrown the keys in the sea
Grandma (smiles) the right man will come and he will jump through the windows and the chimneys and steal your heart ….just wait and watch
Me : Dream on granny , such men don’t exist…
I walked away….grandma walked towards my twins bed and sat down next to her ….they smiled at eachother …..
50 kilometers away in a town there was a funeral…..
A man stood at the cremation ground watching his wife melt away into the flames, he didn’t cry , something told him …..she would return and he believed it.
To be continued…..
Unrefined Poetry 