Searching For- Qismat In- -

Qismat is the gap. The breath. The space where the universe shrugs and says, Not yet. Not quite. Keep going.

You said goodbye three years ago. The call lasted eleven minutes. You remember the number—not because you memorized it, but because your thumb still hovers over the same digits when loneliness sharpens its teeth at 2 a.m. You never press dial. Searching for- qismat in-

Between the chai cup and the wrecked phone call. Between the hospital corridor and the janitor’s forgotten song. Between the name you were given and the one you chose for yourself. Qismat is the gap

One morning, you hear a word in a language you do not speak. A documentary about the Arctic. An Inuit elder says qimmirq —the act of waiting for the ice to break. It is not a noun. It is a verb. A waiting that is also a becoming. Not quite

Qismating. The act of arriving at the thing you did not know you were walking toward.