I recently had to write a story in 200 words and I wrote this.. granted, in a hurry but later on, I kind of liked what I wrote.
Once upon a time, at this place where I stand right now, solid ground, I would row my boat down the Arabian Sea, humming the song of *‘Inqilab’ under my breath- my voice blissfully blending with the thrashing water underneath and almost hesitantly, with the lull of the air, whooshing past me. I looked around and saw what others could not see. What the villagers saw as water and but, water all around, I saw as road to a completely different world; beyond.
They saw boats as boats, I saw adventure. They saw fish as fish, I saw trade. They saw you as you and I as I but for me, a different story was strewn across the sky. People would call out my name: “Mai Kolachi, Mai Kolachi, come back, it is getting dark”, they would call, but I would row, row and row. Like a woman on a mission, I would row.
Could they still not see what I saw? I wanted to tell them to stop for a second. I wanted to tell them to put down their hooks and tools, to put down their shoals, their leathers, to come row with me, row along and imagine how it would be, if we pushed, pushed back this part of the sea… imagine how it would be, to build here a big, big city…
That was once upon a time ago, at this place where I stand right now, solid ground.
*Inqilab is an urdu word for Change.
According to an old legend, Mai- Kolachi was the first of the inhabitants of Karachi who started the first fishing community by the sea
