Don't Remind Me

Chapter 25: The Red Note

"Anyone notice that printers are like little hell minions, sent from perdition to screw up our deadlines? If printers were humans, they'd look like pissed off Stallones (Or regular Stallones. Same thing. Eh?) It's like they can sense eleventh hours and weaknesses:

'Hey! whaddup? So you're in a hurry to print out an assignment with a deadline? and it counts for 10% of your grade? Hmm...this is super dooper important? Oh. Okay. I can definitely do that because we're pals, and this is basically my jo--. Oh snap. I'm suddenly starving for those papers you fed into me. Chomp. Chomp. Chomp. Whoops! sorry about that! Now I'll just print that docu--Beeeeeep Beeeeeep. I swear, this doesn't happen everyday...but I'm experiencing a paper jam in my butt. Darn those new Kodak refills...' "--Nitty Gritty (Issue No: 980, May 2015)

"Maria wants to know when we need the dresses for our photo-shoot." I informed Faris after a particularly grueling rehearsal. He was busy scrolling through his phone. He spared me a brief grunt and eye-twitch before returning to his phone.

I frown, puzzled. I guess he'll just inform me of his plans, whenever...

Faris hasn't spoken one unnecessary word to me, ever since the bake-sale. He ignores me like he ignores most of the other co-actors, outside of the rehearsal rooms. I thought we had actually made some social progress, what with both of us sharing this huge secret from the rest of our friends....I guess not.

It seems incredible that someone as expressionless, and taciturn as Faris can embrace the vibrant role of Ameer Khusro so well. He swishes about with fake swords strapped to his waist, bellowing out crazy orders to even crazier magicians. Then we see his sensitive, hopeless romantic side, when he laments about the true love he witnesses in the forest, finally reversing the spell on the star-crossed lovers.

The climax of the play, the epilogue of sorts, is one of my favorite parts. In the most poetic turn of events, Khusro's character decides to dedicate his life to the One Divine Love. Ishq-e-Haqiqi. The love of God. He forsakes his worldly goods for the eternal love of Allah, and disappears into the same forest, as a Sufi mystic. A dervish.

His spiritual transformation at the end was part of a live Sufi Qawwali (musical verse) that Faris had chosen. It was awe-inspiring to see Faris rehearse the Qawwali with a group of Sufi-music enthusiasts he had recruited. According to him, this was his tribute to mysticism.

"The Qawwali I chose, is by another Amir Khusro, a Sufi poet. He lived a century after Nizami, and in a different part of the world. However, the funny bit is, that this Sufi verse/Qawwali was penned by Amir Khusro, to honor his mystic teacher, Nizamuddin Auliya. Which kind of makes resembles Nizami's name..." He informed all of us, excitedly.

"So there are like, two Khusros and two Nizamis in real life?" I asked.

"Essentially yes. There's Shirin's Khusro/Khosrow, the last powerful Persian, Sasanian King to rule before the Muslim conquests. He ruled in 500 something AD. Nizami, the great Azerbaijani poet, penned down Khusro's epic historical romance with Princess Shirin as a poem in the eleventh century. These two are not to be confused by Amir Khusro and Nizamuddin Auliya who lived almost a century after Nizami's age, in the Indian Subcontinent." Faris was focused on his script as he answered me. "The Qawwali that I chose, Aaj Rung Hai, is one of Amir Khusro's beloved poems. Penned in the twelfth century AD. It is addressed to his own mother. And in the poem, Khusro talks about the greatness of his spiritual teacher, the revered Sufi Saint, Nizamuddin Auliya. I'm just glad that our Qawwal group already knows all the instruments. The full impact of a live climactic verse will be incredible..."