I.

People, beware the silver tongued serpent.
Fangs bared beneath his guise, benevolent.
A self serving ruler, indulgent clown.
Have me instead and I won't let you down.
The words I share is all you'll ever need.
A decent life, if to me you pay heed.
Hand me your children, I'll teach them the ways
To live, love and learn. Any doubts I'll raze.
You'll have no more want, no thirst for the new.
Oh just let me, let me liberate you.

by Waziha Aziz

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'Duty': Sehri Tales selections, Day 26

III.

My phone was pinging nonstop as I walked to the bus stop, Spotify's 'good energy' playlist blasting in my ears.
The family Whatsapp was deep in passive-aggressive negotiation on dividing up chores. The Dhaka groupchat was out of control; there were 70+ hangout photos to be downloaded and admired. The London groupchat was chaos as everyone tried to settle on a date for board game night.
My work emails kept flashing up. Shefali, Please update columns T, U and V in the attached spreadsheet...; Hi All, please sign Peter in IT's birthday card and Monzo me £2...; Hi Shefali, can we change our 1:1s to Wednesdays going forward?
Where was the bus? I looked up to scan the horizon. A guy on a bike weaved through the stationary honking traffic and swerved dangerously close to the pavement. Before I realised he'd taken my phone, he was a vanishing speck down Aldwych.
The audio on my Bluetooth headphones fizzled, then died as the connection broke.
I froze in shock for a few minutes before going back to the empty office to call the police; then emailed my friends and work that I'd be incommunicado until I got a replacement phone sorted.
The only sound was the hum of the servers. My hand instinctively reached for my phone before realising it wasn't there. It should have felt inconvenient, even a little frightening. I felt that I was floating around, unreachable, untethered. Why, then, did it feel like liberation?

by Mehrangez Rahman

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