Short story: She wore Scarlet

Originally written in Balochi by: Andalib Gichki Baloch

  Translated in English by: Uzair Mehr

 “Do you know why I told you to wear a scarlet colored dress?” The man asked his lover.

 “Because on the seashore when the fiery color of the twilight suffuses into your disheveled black hair, so it commences drizzling with wind on your white face. At the very moment, I will be snuggled by a distinct feeling of seeing you wear the scarlet colored dress.”

 This emotive and affectionate utterance by Baharh, was making Sadganj somewhat uneasy. Sadganj’s eyes were staring out at the sea. She was contemplating the eight years of their love, and her disclosed eyes were telling another story and seeing a different panorama.

 She always came to the seashore with Baharh, twice a week, and they cogitated with each other about their impending life. Baharh was not a stranger, but Sadganj’s mother and relatives had never consented to her. Baharh and Sadganj pledged each other, to live life together and also vowed never to seclude from each other.

 Sadganj’s mother everywhere said, “Baharh is my son-in-law.” Baharh, too, left his house and lived at Sadganj’s home day and night. When someone said something about their arrangements, Sadganj’s mother uttered, “This is the time of youths, they can’t do like us”.

 Sadganj consummated the entire works of her marriage, herself. Sadganj’s family told Baharh, “Tell your mother to make you espouse; it is enough to await now.” Time was passing by, and Baharh began to change. He got mad at every trifling matter and left the house.

One day, Sadganj’s mother said, “I don’t like Baharh’s attitude.” She was right. Baharh feigned every day and appeared a poseur. One day, he huffed and went away as an untamed turtle dove. Everyone asked him, “Why did you leave Sadganj?” So he bowed his head down, and his eyes were filled with tears.

As an accustomed mouth always yearns for food, likewise a lover can’t exist without love. Eventually, Sadganj got married. Many relatives and people decried Sadganj and her mother because they made him wait for eight years and then wed her to another man. The scoff and biting words from people of the town, still lingered into its place that in the third year of Sadganj’s marriage, Baharh got engaged.

 The people of town had said that it was not possible for Baharh to fall in love again. Today, it was the second day of Baharh’s engagement. Sadganj was brought to the seashore by the uncharted reminiscence.

 “The scarlet colored clothes staggeringly beautify and suit you well”. Sadganj felt as if Bahar was whispering to her. With this thought, she turned her face aside. A short span far away, she saw that Baharh’s fiancée was clad in the scarlet colored dress and as they both faced and sat next to each other.