Having nothing much to do and feeling a little tired I had decided to take a nap. My slumber was disrupted by Nana and Papa who were sitting on the terrace under my bedroom window.  Ayesha was in the study next to the terrace catching up on her online class for the day. She was texting me asking me to tell the two oldies to keep it down as she was trying hard to listen to the lecturer, but their laughter was distracting.

I stuck my head out the window and tried to get them to tone it down, but they went on speaking in Gujarati and sharing jokes that evoked belly laughs from them both. I did not speak the language, but I did get the gist of the conversation.

After shouting a few times, they eventually hear me and signal for me to come join them. I quickly change into an abaya and dash downstairs to the terrace. I make myself comfortable between them both, making me think back to when I was a little girl and loved climbing into one of their laps as they sat after prayers.

“So, what are you two gossiping about?”, I asked giving them a knowing look.

“Well, we invited you to join u because we’re talking about that boy that Uncle Essop thinks will be a good match for you. We all want to eat some biryani as soon as the lockdown is over, it’s been too long and the cravings are starting to become serious.”, Papa says as he winks at Nana.

“We have to get you married, behta, so you can go mind Uncle Essops business instead of ours!”, Nan chuckles as he hugs me to him.

I roll my eyes at these two incorrigible men as they laugh and splutter at their own joke at my expense.

“Sofia, behta, we want great-grandchildren you know. And Uncle Essop keeps reminding us that he has six grandchildren, and he we have none.  Sofia, you are our only hope.”, Nana says to me rather earnestly. I smile knowing full well they were teasing me.

But I am also rather curious about this young man who they are always trying to match me up with. I do not tell them off course. Hmm . . .  maybe a samoosa run is on the cards after the lockdown.

We talked and teased each other until the Dhuhr adhaan was called. It stuck how we always laughed when one of our elders used the phrase, “there is khayr in everything”, but I realised that they were so right. We just need to keep an open mind and heart to find the infinite blessings which Allah has given to us in every situation, good or bad.

“How wonderful is the case of a Believer! There is good for him in whatever happens to him -and none, apart from him, enjoys this blessing. If he receives some bounty, he is grateful to Allah and this bounty brings good to him. And if some adversity befalls him, he is patient, and this affliction, too, brings good to him” (Muslim).