The Wheel

Note from the Author

As an aspiring writer, the first thing that is needed to master is to discipline the thoughts. Life has been great, but conflicts always made me challenge my own conscious at times in the most unexpected manner, and that is why I wanted to introduce Galib. A character, who wanted to live a carefree life but failed to do so. Relationships of our parents shape us and break us. Living with happy parents where respect is mutual and reciprocated helps in the positive upbringing of children. Simultaneously, another grave issue, which also happens to be one of the most sensitive issues of all times is adultery and it necessarily does not have to be men being primarily involved in it. Women are equally responsible. To preach equality among all genders and race, this should also mean taking the responsibility of everything equally. Even though the whole story is written in a third person narration, I wanted to tell Galib’s story through his lenses. I wanted the readers to be surprised just when Galib was. I wanted Galib to grow up in Dhaka because I wasn’t. Maybe I wanted to treat my fictional character as my fictional child who grew up in a metropolis all his life and have something constant in his life, whereas I had to travel and be thrown into a different set of cultures multiple times. I wanted to pour my desire into a character and experience the thrill of it.

Lastly, I wanted to create a quite simple conflict using the character’s name because that is how we get apart. The Abraham of a Christian belief is the same Ibrahim the Muslims put their faith into. Just because a man has two different names, does not make him a different person. But something as simple as a name can shake or shape one’s whole belief system in numerous ways. Nature has its own way of giving things back. Marx knew better when he said history moves in a cyclical direction, always looking to go round and round to repeat the things in the perceived manner. Good comes back to be good in some other form, neither bad nor better.

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25th December 2019 was an ordinary day for Gilbert or so he thought. The sun was just there as it always did, beaming brightly and constantly. He had nothing personal against the sun, but he hated it. Over a bright sunny day, he would rather choose the gloomy sun during winter or just a cloudy sky would do work. He pretended to be a philosophical man who urged that the sky he saw was a separate one from the one everyone else saw. He didn’t know he was a loner. He thought it was by choice, but in reality it wasn’t. Let us call him Galib, the name his father gave him. He was a rather chatty guy and his peers thought he was exaggerating things all the time, which was half true. He often complained to his parents, why he had no siblings, but he stopped asking or requesting for another sibling by the time he was only around twelve years old.

Last week he along with his parents had to visit his grandma’s house because she wasn’t keeping well for a long time. But he didn’t enjoy his visits despite being the apple of everyone’s eyes. Growing up he always saw a conflict of interest between his grandma and mother. Whenever they visited his grandma’s house, the same conversations would take place every single time.

“What will you eat Galib darling?” would ask grandma. “She doesn’t cook well, that’s the reason you are getting thinner and thinner”.

“No nanu! She cooks well, and you know it” Galib would try.

“Not like me, of course!” grandma would exclaim.

“Gilbert, it is GILBERT! Why is your son so slim then doctor…….?” His mother would keep muttering to herself in some corner.

Galib to this day wondered why her mother never confronted her grandma, instead of faking the forms of respect she showed to the old lady. He never wanted to understand the dynamics each religion brought in one’s life. He always found excuses to compare the two religions and loved both as he deemed convenient. Galib’s parents dated each other for almost five years before they agreed to tie the knot. The families were not exactly happy with this relationship, to be honest both families secretly prayed for a split. The only reason for this uncensored bitterness was due to their faith in different religions.

He grew up in Dhaka all his life and turned 25 just last month. Although, he tried to portray himself as a romantic loner, he was far from that. He was the life of every party, and if you are thinking it was because of his social skills, no you are wrong. The open-secret was- he always carried his father’s credit cards with him. Some would render him as a spoiled brat, but unlike most other rich kids in Dhaka, Galib was sensitive towards living things (human, animals and plants). He believed soul was the only thing that mattered. Pure souls deserve respect and the wicked ones need to have a taste of their own medicine in one way or the other. He was empathetic, compassionate and an avid lover of nature.

He was not a mama’s boy, but rather was a papa’s boy. His mother was a gossip queen and he hated that about her. If his mother spotted him sitting idly anywhere in the house, she would try to strike up a conversation of who did what, and why that girl was dressed the way she wasn’t supposed and on and on she would go until Galib excused himself. Unfortunately, his girlfriend turned out to be a lot chatty, which he realized after five months of dating, but she wasn’t always spilling out her friends or family’s secret like he assumed his mother did.

He had been dating Sarika for more than two years now, a timid girl always carrying a pile of books with her, looking for a silent corner to read them. He still couldn’t tell her that he was both a believer and non-believer of his parents’ religions. Maybe he was waiting for her to fall in love with him enough to ensure Sarika won’t leave him for that when he would confess, if he ever did. She was an extremely devoted Muslim, and despised any challenges that could contradict her religious spirit in any way. Well, that was something only time could reveal.

Galib was a very easy going, stout guy with whom one would not easily fall in love with. He was not the type of man girls instantly feel attracted to. He was a simple guy with butt load of his father’s money. He stopped asking for a sibling because when he was older, he was thankful to his parents for not bombarding him with other siblings, making him the sole recipient of his father and mother’s inheritance. He did a couple of internships, and was looking for a job, but wasn’t patient enough to stick to one. Just the other day his faculty asked him why he was studying Biotechnology.

“I find it interesting, sir”.

“You do? Is this your first semester in the MSc program?” asked his professor.

“Yes sir. This is my first semester of MSc in Biotechnology and Genetic Engineering, sir”.

The professor pondered over his response for a while. He actually forgot why he even asked that. Maybe because, he knew Galib hated it. He was studying this because Sarika was a student of this discipline and he wanted to impress her and also keep tabs on her. He always thought Sarika deserved better, and he couldn’t afford losing her. Sarika was thirsty of knowledge, so his father’s money won’t be enough to keep her around.

Lately, he knew something was off about his parents. He thought his internal tug of war between being Gilbert and Galib was becoming more dominant between his parents. He couldn’t pinpoint how, that was the problem. He was scared of any possibility of his parents splitting up. He loved them both and they were great parents, but there was tension for sure. The air became tensed whenever they sat for dinner. His father used to stay out for hours, and Galib was convinced, he was having an extra marital affair. That must be the reason he used to be away for hours after his office. He always gave excuses of late-evening meetings, but Galib was not naïve. His mother showed no concern whatsoever and Galib didn’t ask anyone anything even though he was extremely bothered.

So, on Christmas, Galib decided to send his parents to a nearby park, telling them, he and Sarika had a surprise. As a result, he would need them to step outside for two hours. Both his parents were overjoyed, as Galib asked them to do anything of that sort. Their son promised calling them once he was done. Sarika asked him why he was decorating his house for Christmas, he said “I think my parents are considering divorce, I just want to do something for them so that I can get them to stay home and be together. And Christmas was the nearest occasion I could find”. This was a response which was well rehearsed, because he was expecting that question any way. He and Sarika were halfway done decorating the house when he received a call from a stranger.

“Hello? Who are you?” asked the stranger.

“Well, who are you? And why do you have my father’s phone?” asked Galib.

“I am sorry to inform you that both your parents are dead. I am an inspector, and someone mugged them in the park and slit their throats. I apologize for breaking this news to you this way, but could you please come at the Gulshan thana police office for identification?”

Galib disconnected and stood. He just stood there. Sarika was in his room and he was in the dining area. So he could comfortably stand and rewind the conversation again and again in his head, until his world was more stable.

He managed to tell Sarika and everything was a blur from then on. He vaguely remembered going to the police and clearly remembered standing and looking at his parent’s dead bodies. He vaguely remembered all his relatives paying a visit to him, but clearly remembered his parents’ funeral, because that was when Sarika discovered his parents’ religions. They got married seven months later. Galib knew Sarika married him out of pity, and he wasn’t bothered by this.

Weeks after his parents’ death, a boy of his age, quite handsome and composed, came to Galib, telling him he was the lover of his mother. Galib instantly punched him, even though he wasn’t the macho type, he just couldn’t handle it. He was expecting a woman to come by, not a 25 or 26-year-old guy telling his mother was having an affair with a guy of his own age. But when he cooled down, he heard everything quietly. Aslam was the kind of guy who cannot be ignored or undermined.

Mary, Gilbert’s mother loved his father with all her heart. Her lover, Aslam said she always used to tell him that he reminded her of the young Fardeen (Galib’s father) she fell in love with. Aslam said they had fights but at one point he became used to it, because he loved her too much to care. Galib connected with Aslam at that point. He couldn’t let Sarika go at any cost; maybe that was the case for Aslam too.

“So how long were you two together?” asked Galib.

“For three years. It was nothing physical, I was happy with her loving me from a far distance. I never lost hope. I was ready to wait for her my entire life”.

“And now?” asked Galib.

“Mary never wanted me to be alone. She wanted me to have a family of my own, and I am not ready for that yet. Maybe after five years or ten” Aslam quietly retorted.

“How did you guys meet anyway?”

“We met online. Your mother was lonely. And your father knew about us.”

“No! He did not!”

“Yes, he did Galib. Your mother told him about us four months before her……….demise. After that, he used to spend time in his office reading books, to avoid spending time at home.”

Galib hated the way Aslam took his name. He was ashamed to assume his father was the one having an affair and embarrassed that a strange guy was explaining all these to him. It was also a moment of epiphany because he realized his mom was a loner and he never showed any intention of spending much time with her. Galib never met Aslam again, also because he never wanted to.

It has been seven years since the accident and now he was a father too. They named their daughter Marium (after his mother) and were happy. But as his obsession was wearing away, Galib was no more falling in love with his wife, Sarika as he thought he would back then. He grew quieter and sadder. He didn’t understand if Sarika ever noticed. She was always so busy. Busy with work, their daughter and the house. She was always attending conferences and seminars. Going to parties as well, and no matter how much he despised them, Galib always tagged along.

Marium would turn five in a week. Galib was always trying to be the father he had. Galib read a lot and looked over his father’s business. He was a philanthropist and earned quite an impression in the last couple of months. He started reading books as the bulk of his business included purchasing and selling books. Mr. Fardeen was a book importer and he did that out of passion. In some way, Galib inherited this passion of his father and wished only if his father and mother were alive to see this change. They would have been so proud, and he would have been the perfect son, he knew they wanted.

Sarika, on the other hand, earned five times more, and as Galib’s parents left behind a lot of fortune, they never quarreled about money like most couples. Money was the least of their problems. The couple didn’t talk much either anymore. Unknowingly they are trapped in a rhythm packed with monotony and insecurity, making their lives boring and no surprises for themselves. It is a queer kind of a comfort-breathing and beating.

“How was your day?” Sarika would ask every evening when she got home from work.

“The usual.”

“Ah. Did Marium eta properly? Did she start homework?

“Yes, she just did.”

These four lines were the epitaph of their married life and that was the extent of it. Galib was no longer terrified of his wife’s adultery, because somewhere down the line; he is half-expecting it too. Only time can tell.