Story Chapter 2: Halwa

Here's the second chapter of the short story I'm writing (click here to read Chapter 1 if you haven't already).
Those of you who often read my short stories will by now be used to the frequent food references in my writings (yup, I'm a foodie, and what my protagonist had for lunch is as important to me as my own lunch, lol). In some of my recent writings, though, I have been resisting the urge to include anything food-related but in this piece, I finally gave in (maybe I even went a bit overboard). :D Anyway, I do hope it did this chapter some good.
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Chapter 2: Halwa

Fareeha pressed the bell. She waited. It seemed like the old lady was taking longer than usual to open the door. Pressing her ear to the gate, Fareeha listened intently for the sound of footsteps. She could hear none. Should I ring the bell again? she wondered. Just then, she heard the front door swing open, snapping her out of her thoughts.

As she stepped into the kitchen, Fareeha couldn't help wondering why the old lady looked immensely subdued and silent today. She had been serving her for over an year now, and she understood her moods better than anyone; although she could still be quite unpredictable. Indifferent to the thoughts in her head, her hands worked mechanically. After having cleared up the dishes, she filled the kettle with water and reached for the bread, then stopped.

Breakfast for the old lady was typically a modest affair which consisted of bread with butter, and tea. But today, Fareeha decided, she would cook her something, to lift her mood. She decided to make her some halwa*, from the simple recipe her mother had taught her when she was eleven; one which required nothing more than sugar, milk, semolina and a bit of ghee.

After giving the soft, golden mixture a final stir, Fareeha spooned out the halwa into a bowl. She poured the tea into two mugs - the lady always insisted that she have tea with her; there was no point in having tea if you had it alone; she had always said. Arranging the breakfast onto the tray, it suddenly occurred to her that the old lady wasn’t supposed to eat halwa - she was diabetic. Her moving hands froze. How could she have even forgotten? For a full minute, Fareeha stood there, pondering over the dilemma. She was the young village girl who did not know much about diabetes, she had no idea what consequences her decision could have.

Finally reaching a conclusion, she picked up the tray, halwa and all, and walked towards the living room. To her uneducated mind, halwa - no matter how much sugar it contained - could not hurt much, at least not as much as it could hurt to lose a son to an overseas country.

* * *

Hasan walked out of the house, closing the gate behind him. He hurried towards the car, digging in his pocket for the right keys. He stopped. He sniffed the air. His nose instantly recognized the pleasant aroma of ghee and roasted almonds: it was suji ka halwa**, of course. Almost reflexively, he smiled.

Hasan unlocked his car, went in and started the ignition. As he reversed the car, he wondered where the smell was coming from. It could only be the house next door, but this was hard to believe; because the only inhabitant of the house was an ailing old woman who lived alone. She possibly couldn’t be cooking halwa, could she? I must have been dreaming, Hasan told himself, as he turned his car towards the bakery nearby, to buy the halwa puri*** his wife had asked him to get for breakfast.

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Translations (for those who don’t understand Urdu):

* halwa (according to the dictionary): a sweet Indian dish consisting of carrots or semolina boiled with milk, almonds, sugar, butter, and cardamom.

Clarifications: 1) halwa does not have to be Indian, it can be Pakistani as well, and 2) in short, halwa is simply a very delicious desi food, and does not have to contain either carrots or semolina.

**suji ka halwa: halwa made with semolina (yep, suji is semolina)

***halwa puri: the dictionary translates puri as: (in Indian cooking) a small, round, flat piece of bread made of unleavened wheat flour, deep-fried and served with meat or vegetables.

Clarifications: 1) Pakistanis eat puris too, 2) it isn’t typically served with meat, 3) it is often eaten with halwa, hence the term halwa puri. ;)