discomfort. He was feeling hurt within;
when the hookah was placed in front of him,
his heart started beating faster.
“What will happen if mom and dad
come to know about this? What if someone
sees me? Do I have to try this? If I don’t, what
would they all think of me? Even if it is ok
with Miraj, his cousin-sisters are also present
here, won’t it make me look bad? Will they
make fun of me? What if these people think
of me as one from a middle-class family? His
brother and cousins will look down upon
me...”thus Param felt choked up, with all
these questions that were whirling
around in his head, as well as from all the
smoke that was emanating from the
hookah.
Miraj shook Param saying “Where
did I lose you my friend?”
Shaken out of his reverie, Param
unwillingly took the pipe of the hookah
to his mouth, and at the first puff, started
coughing. Everybody was staring at him.
“Never mind! This happens when it
is the first time,” Raj told Param grinning
sarcastically.
For the first time, Param realized
how insulted he was. For the sake of
‘enjoyment’, he had to try a thing such as
a hookah, which he disliked, and this gave
him a good deal of suffering. Whether
it was done forcibly or to save his
face, so to say, it was still very
hurtful.
“ H o w w a s t h e
inauguration? What did you eat
there?’’ Asked Param’s mother
when he got home.
“I only had coffee.” He lied
to his mother, but thereafter he had
a lot of remorse. He was haunted by the
thought, “Am I doing something
wrong?”
Let us see
what Dadashri says
regarding this matter...
Akram Youth | 05