The Dream Seller: Bakhshinda Roya

By Ahmad Murtaza Ahmadi

This book delves into the life journey of a child, who had an exquisite life with a kind family and in a delightful environment. The child had a house in which different animals lived, different types of fruit trees and vegetable were planted. All the children who used to live by his house have been coming near by the river and have been playing different childish games with each other. They used to touch the beauty of life every day. Life was simple but very lovely and peaceful, but unexpectedly the colorful life and happiness did not stay with him forever; the horrible and dark wave of life turned every beautiful moment into an ugly and cold moment. That was the beginning of the civil war in a country that has been like an innocent deer was hunted by numerous wild wolves in capes of political parties. There was not only the government to rule but several parties have been trying to devastate the country. To this end, the child was forced to refuge and experience much more hardships.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Balboa Press UK
• Release date: Jun 9, 2021
• ISBN: 9781982283667

Book preview

CHAPTER 1

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There were nine members in our family living in our house in eastern Kabul. My grandpa, father, mother, five brothers and an only sister. My grandpa, Mohammad Afzal, was a fisherman, my father, Ghulam Abbas, was a national army officer and my mother, Bilqis, was a midwife. My brothers, from oldest to youngest, are Ahmad Zia, Ahmad Allah, Ahmad Tariq, and Ahmad Reza. I am the youngest son and my only sister, Shabnam, is the youngest child.

Luckily, our house was big, with plenty of room for all of us with one big room that the kids shared. We were surrounded by the walls of our neighbors’ homes, making it so that we only had one door to the outside that opened into a narrow alley. Inside a walled yard, we kept about 100 hens, 25 roosters, 20 ducks and 15 turkeys. We took care of the birds and they in turn took care of us with their eggs and meat.

We also had a well-trained dog and a cat named Baber which means Tiger. The dog was a huge help for ensuring our security, guarding the house from night to morning. Babar had strange eyes and was always on the hunt for rodents that would steal our food. We had different kinds of trees, like apple, peach and plum, and bushes that grew blackberries, and vines with grapes.

Near the trees, onions, mint, fresh peppers, radish, cucumber, tomato and carrots grew that also helped to feed our family.

Our rooms were made of adobe. We had three rooms and a small hall and a bathroom. We had special rooms for the birds and dog, but Baber didn’t need any room because Baber was with us. We had a pool where we swam, and our ducks swam after us. Sometimes we caught fish from the river and left them in the pool for the ducks to hunt.

We lived near a small river, the Kabul River. On either side of the river there was grass and some sandy areas. On the grassy areas young men played a very traditional game called Ghorsai. In this game, each person holds one of their legs with one hand and tries to knock down other players by pushing them by the shoulder. All the players cheered for one another as players were eliminated.

Other kids were very good bee hunters. They hit the bees with pieces of cloth or yarn. After they caught them, they cut off their wings and put them into the hole where the ants lived to see which insect would survive.

Some other boys were good fishermen, catching small fish for the hens and ducks they were keeping.

The weather was fresh and clean here. During the day farmers sometimes brought carrots for washing in the river. Kids ran towards them and asked if they wanted help. Usually, some kids were hired for one or two hours and they were paid with carrots. At night, this river was like a musical chorus, the rushing of the water, the croaking of frogs, the buzzing and chirping of insects. Above, there was moonlight and twinkling stars that made the area romantic and lovely.

CHAPTER 2

Our mornings started in a wonderful way. My brothers were awakened by the kind and lovely voice of our mother. She used to call each of my brothers with sweet words and told them to wake up her lovely kids, it is getting late, and school will be starting. The only child who did not have anywhere to be was me.

Sometimes I woke up early to the cock-a-doodle-doo of roosters and sometimes to the cluck, cluck of chickens or quacks of ducks. I would be in the yard scratching my head and having a long, deep yawn and when the sound of Morning Flute signaled school was beginning it was barely audible to my ears. As my brothers moved off to school and the second Morning Flute sounded for the government employees, I was going inside to have my breakfast.

After breakfast, I would go back to the yard with my only friend left at home, my little sister, Shabnam, who was very kind and very wise. She was always playing with me and other friends of both of us. We played with the animals. A special one was our dog. We named him Wolf. He was trained by the military and my father who served in the National Border Army brought him home for safety.

But Wolf was not only for the safety of our house; he played with us too. We used to throw the ball for him, and he tossed it back to us. Sometimes when we took our ducks to the river for feeding, Wolf helped us by herding them back home. One thing which was very surprising, none of the families in our village had clocks, therefore, the government had an ordnance at the top of Shir Darwaza mountain and at lunchtime they fired one shot which signaled that employees and workers could go for lunch and prayers and the students in schools and universities were free to go home.

One day when my brothers came from school around six in the evening, we all played on the seesaw. My mother called to us suddenly, with a very worried voice and we all ran toward home. In the house my mother looked shocked as she watched TV. When we asked what was wrong our mother shushed us and told us to watch. On the TV a man was saying that if kids see a doll or any other kind of toy, do not touch it because the Mujahideen were throwing toys on the river which had bombs inside them, and they would explode and kill the kids. The Mujahideen were also throwing acid on the faces of women and girls who were not wearing a veil or Hijab. It was the first time we felt fear.

The second day, we heard that the Mujahideen had blocked some roads into the city through which basic foodstuffs like flour and oil were imported to Kabul. They burned some trucks which were importing food to Kabul as well. The bakeries did not have enough flour to cook bread for the people and Kabul residents were suffering from the high cost of food. The life which was had been so beautiful and lovely changed into darkness and even the kids felt the danger and saw the ugly face of famine and hunger.

After that, my friends did not come out of their houses as often as they used to. When we saw a toy in the river we ran away, shouting at each other that a bomb was coming.

I witnessed families escaping from Kabul and, of course, some of my friends immigrated to different countries. One day, when my father returned home and my mother told him we must leave the country, but my father refused and said we had a strong government, and everything would be alright.

A week later my father was at home, watering the small garden in our yard when there was a knock on the door of our yard. My father went to see who was there and after a minute walked quickly back inside and whispered something to my mother. She started to say something, but my father told her to hide herself in a room. My mother took her scarf and went away, mumbling curses as she walked. I was standing in the yard and my father called me and said I should take Wolf inside. I called to our dog and we both went to the backyard of our house instead. I could clearly see the door from there and wanted to see what was going on and who had come calling on my father.

My father entered the yard with five men who wore nice suits and two of them had on eyeglasses. Three of them accompanied my father inside while two stayed outside like guards. I was worried because the Mujahideen had attacked and killed an Afghan army officer recently. One of the men with eyeglasses was near the door and the other one was in the yard. He called Wolf and seemed to have surprising skill with dogs. Wolf started playing with him right away and came when called. The man saw me and winked and said, Nice style. I had a dusty face, very dirty clothing and torn shoes. I looked down and rubbed my hands together, embarrassed.

I waited for an end to this horrible meeting. After an hour they all came out of the room with my father who was strangely, happy. He was laughing with them and as they left the house one man who was bald, turn his face and called my father and whispered into his ear and my father nodded his head. After that, my father called my mother to come out of hiding and said something to her and they both laughed. In the evening, after all my brothers had returned from school, a man knocked on our door. My father went out and spoke with whoever it was and brought a file with him when he came back. He went away and sat reading what was in it for an hour or so.

At dinner time, we had a wonderful evening relating stories, with my brothers telling us about their school, my father telling us his stories of war and my grandfather telling the story of his lifetime of fishing. Many of the stories were humorous and we all laughed, except my mother. She looked worried.

When we all went to bed, Shabnam and I slept in the same room as our parents, and I heard them talking softly about a new duty that my father had accepted. My mother was insisting that my father tell the men he could not do what they asked so that we could go on living their lives happily. She said there was no need for him to accept this huge risk. But my father said it would be okay and tried to quietly and calmly convince her. His voice was so calm and soothing that a sudden heavy wave of sleep came over me, closing my eyes.

In the morning, as usual my father was hurrying to do his chores. The hens,