LILY

The world values external beauty immensely, till the world doesn’t figure out what are you on the inside. Lily says he is very well recognized in the streets, at shops and in the 2nd class compartments of trains. People are mesmerized by his presence. Today, Lily has come to our place after a really long time. He tells me that he lives in an entirely different world than mine; the people in my world have no place for people like him. He said he is thankful that people have not out cast him yet, as they still place some value on his beauty. Norms of the society don’t offer him any space. The people in power don’t have anything for him, he tried a lot to find some work but was rejected everywhere. People take him for a joke; they insult him whenever he steps out of his house. The world he resides in is no different from ours he says, if our society accepts him, it won’t be much different. But it would never happen!

Sameer is my childhood friend; we were together since the age of four. We used to play together, study together, go to school together and eat together. We used to play stage games, we had another friend with us, and her name was Iqra. With her, we used to play with dolls; we would put on lipsticks and would wear stoles and put on make-up. When Sameer was seven years’ old, he told us that he heard the name Lily and liked it very much and that from then on, he would like us to call him by that name only. We told him that it was a girl’s name, but he wouldn’t listen and so from then onwards we started calling him Lily. As we were growing older, Lily started to change. He would sit by his window for long hours staring outside. He used to live with his mother and would copy her in every way. He also started getting closer to Iqra. His parents started worrying about his behavior and took him to various religious places to get him treated. He would keep on repeating there is nothing wrong with

me, but they wouldn’t listen. Finally, my and Iqra’s parents convinced them to take him to a doctor. We were twelve by now. We never saw Sameer after his parents took him to the doctor. We went to his house to meet him many times, but his parents didn’t let us. They told us that he had gone to his grandparent’s place. Our parents also didn’t want us to go there, so gradually we gave up and got busy with our own lives.

Today I am twenty-eight years old and my daughter has just been born. There is an atmosphere of celebration at my home. All of my kin and kin are here. Eunuchs have come to dance and bless my daughter. After the dancing was over I was called to give them money. Somebody called me by my name and said I never hoped you would forget our friendship so soon. I looked and suddenly the name Sameer came out, he immediately replied, I like the name Lily, call me Lily. I was stunned and shocked and just kept looking.

Firoz Alam