Short Story (humour): Mullah Nasruddin's father-in-law stops talking

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Mullah Nasruddin has had his old father-in-law living with him, and his wife, for more than a year now, since the old man's own wife had died. The problem was now that the old guy had started reading some of the Mullah's books. He read one on Mahatma Gandhi, who used to go on long talking fasts, and during these, he would not even speak to visiting dignitaries, from other countries, but he expected them to talk to him on chalkboards, instead. Abdullah, the father-in-law, went on such a non-talking fast himself. Now, the Mullah's wife never trusted the old guy, enough to give him a key for the house. He might lose it, as he was very careless with these things. The wife, though, went off to her work early, and came home late. The Mullah was left with the headaches, caused by this old man. Today, for example, the Mullah was busy writing his coming talk, to be given to his fellow townsfolk, that coming Saturday night, as he gave out some of his wisdom, as resident town Holy man, every Saturday night, from the Town Hall. The old guy, marched up the hall, at a pace belying his advanced age, opened the front door of the house, right next to the Mullah's study, went outside, and then slammed the door so hard, that the whole neighbourhood could hear it. "He might be being silent in his words, but his noise is still being made in other loud ways," the Mullah mused to himself. The Mullah then had to stay close-by to the front door, as it was left now unlocked, until the old guy came home again, after his walk, and his bout in the local watering hole too. It was 4 hours later, when the old drunkard staggered home through the front door of the Mullah's house again, and went straight through to his bedroom, and rested on his bed. No doubt, he would tell the Mullah's wife in their own dialect, that he just had a nap, for all of the afternoon. Funny enough, his non-talking fast, was only specific to the Mullah. The Mullah, the good man that he is though, always says nothing to his wife, about the abominable ways of his father in law. He is silent about that too. Photo Credit: The photo used in this article was sourced from the free media site, pixabay.com Mahatma Gandhi was sometimes as silent as his statue is now in real life too. "Does not everything depend on our interpretation of the silence around us?" A quote from the British writer, Lawrence Durrell, (1912 to 1990).