A very short story

My Place

Written by Abdul Haleem Brohi

After I bought the land, to build a house, I had no money; and so I thought that my death is distant. Later, I got some money and decided to build the house, and so I thought, now my death is approaching.

When the land was dug for laying the foundation of the house, I started feeling as if my grave is being dug. Then the foundation was laid and the walls started going up.

I have always believed that when a person nears his death, he starts making a place for him to live in, and he dies when his place is ready. I have a thousand such examples and I myself…

The roof was laid and the walls were plastered. Then, the floor was also laid, and the windows and doors were in place. So, after the place was ready, a big get-together was arranged in which my wife started crying while taking the guests around the house. And then, my children also started to cry and so did the guests. No one spoke with me, no one welcomed me. And then I remembered that when a place is ready, the owner dies, and now my place was ready.  

PS: Abdul Haleem Brohi believed in this and gave us many examples of such incidents. He built his own place in the Citizen's Society, opposite Rajputana Hospital, but he did not have enough money to finish the work. Though he lived there for some years, he was never happy there. He sold it at the earliest chance he got.