BY KHADIJAH BAWAZEER I want to tell you the story of Bitti Ftaim. Bitti is a slang of Binty (my daughter) and Ftaim is a nickname for Fatima. Fatima's old mother used to prepare dough for two loaves of bread which she then gave to Fatima for baking. Every day, an old dog would meet Fatima who, feeling sorry for him, always gave him half a loaf. And every day, Fatima's mother asked her where half of the loaf had gone but Fatima decided not to tell her because she knew that losing half a loaf was a grave matter to her poor mother. However, she kept giving half of a loaf to the old dog and day after day her mother kept on saying: “Bitti Ftaim, Sagaina Lagaina, Musra burr ishtaraina, Gharbalan Nagaina, nus gurus wain rah”. (My daughter, we worked hard, we bought wheat and took out the impurities from it. Where did half of a loaf go?) Eventually Fatima married a rich man, lived in a mansion where bread was in abundance. In fact, she had so much that she could give away as much as her heart desired. When her mother died, Fatima buried her in her garden and planted a tree on top of the grave. The tree grew very tall until it loomed over Fatima's window. Endlessly, the tree echoed the mother's voice asking her daughter for half of the loaf that was always missing. It is an open-ended story and I am not sure what moral message it wants to convey. But it sounds exotic and beautiful to hear even if told over and over again. It fascinated me as a child and still fascinates me as an adult. I feel that Fatima found something very appealing in the echo, although the nagging question might have annoyed her. I find the story interesting because it has a suggestive loose structure and open to various interpretations. It does not spell out a final ending but opens our minds to many possibilities instead. For example, the story says a lot about making decisions and taking responsibility for them and about doing good without expecting reward or accepting blame. The gratification in this case comes from within. This reminds me of the movie “Pay It Forward” that I had seen once. In this film, people learned to give for the sake of compassion and did not expect any immediate rewards. The story of Bitti Ftaim also says a lot about endurance. Fatima quietly endured her mother's tendency to blame and later honored her by burying her mother in her garden and planting the tree that grew to remind her again and again about the half loaf of bread, the sick dog and the days of want. Maybe all for the best. Fatima would not replace her compassion and integrity with the arrogance that wealth often brings. — The writer can be reached at [email protected] __
