Page 187 of 12 Years
‘I do. She’s visiting,’ I said.
‘Okay. What are you doing out on the beach so late at night? Or rather, so early in the morning?’ Jamal said.
‘We couldn’t sleep,’ Payal said, ‘and I was craving a snack.’
‘An unhealthy and unpretentious snack, to be precise,’ I said. Everyone laughed.
‘Was it hard to become a juggler? What you did seems incredibly difficult,’ Payal said.
‘You know the hardest part?’ Jamal said. ‘It’s not juggling the balls. It’s juggling all the family pressure.’
‘What do you mean?’ I said.
‘We can all agree that juggling is not in the list of the top-ten lucrative careers in the world,’ Jamal said.
Payal and I smiled.
‘What do you guys do?’ Jamal said.
‘Private equity,’ Payal said.
‘I have my own cybersecurity company,’ I said.
‘See, now these are jobs my parents would be proud of,’ he said. ‘Desi parents don’t like jugglers. Not as their kids.’
‘You’re from India?’
‘No, Pakistan. Lahore. But janaab, it’s the same thing there. Desi parents want to control their kids until their kids are sixty. Maybe seventy, actually. After that, it’s difficult, because then the parents are usually dead,’ Jamal said.
Payal and I laughed.
‘So that was the hardest part. Being nearly disowned by my parents. Having to survive on my own. Doing little gigs at kids’ birthday parties and beach clubs, just to be able to eat. Fortunately, I managed to come here to Dubai. I can make a living now. I even have social media, with more than twenty thousand followers. I post reels of my acts. Helps me get more business. May I give you my Insta?’
We took out our phones as Jamal pointed us to his Insta account.
‘That’s impressive. How are things with your parents now?’ Payal said.
‘Not great,’ Jamal said. ‘They’re both lawyers. As were their parents and grandparents. My family runs one of Lahore’s most prominent law firms. I’m the first black sheep in generations.’
‘Don’t say that,’ Payal said.
‘My parents don’t understand. I love my job. It makes me happy. That’s all that matters. Hopefully, they’ll understand that someday. If they don’t, oh well. That’s just too bad,’ Jamal said and shrugged.
‘Your job doesn’t just make you happy. It makes people happy—kids, grown-ups, everyone. It’s beautiful,’ Payal said, her voice emotional.
‘Thank you,’ Jamal said and bowed to her. ‘Anyway, I better leave. I’m impinging on your couple time. Oh wait, you’re not a couple, right?’
‘No, we’re not,’ Payal said and smiled.
Jamal waved us goodbye and vanished on his unicycle.
After he left, Payal sat quietly and stared at the horizon for a long while. As the first streaks of daylight spread across the sky, her face glistened in the blush of dawn. I saw a tear escape her eye.
‘Payal? Are you okay?’ I said.
Payal nodded, keeping her eyes fixed on the water. It looked like the sea was on fire, with the light from the rising sun falling over it. Payal’s body began to tremble.
‘You sure?’ I said again.
