Yahya’s phone began to ring. He took it out from his pocket and looked at it. It was his close friend Usman’s call. He answered the call hopefully:

“Yes, Usman?”

“Hey, are you watching Shahrukh Rizwan’s show?”

“Uh… No, not actually. Wait, tell me what are you doing at the moment?”

“Nothing important just watching the show.”

“You know what? Why don’t you come here to my place?”

“Right now?”

“Yes, please. Dinner’s on me, come on.”

“Okay, let me think”

“No Usman, just come over”

“Alright alright, I’m coming. Just give me a moment I need to refresh.”

“Make it quick.”

He disconnected the call. He then kept the phone aside and turned on the television again. Shahrukh Rizwan appeared on the screen and continued speaking:

“This year I have some different plans. This time I will bring something like never before”

Yahya paid attention to his words now. Shahrukh Rizwan continued:

“Haters can hate me as much as they like. They are the ones who give me more and more views and they burn deep down inside. I shall always be a famous personality because of them.”

Getting angry on his sentence, he switched off the television. He controlled his temper and spoke after a minute:

Don’t worry you so called famous personality. I will expose you someday.

He stood up and continued speaking:

How? I don’t know at the moment. In what field? I don’t know either, but someday. Someday you are going to resent me the way everybody resents you.

One hour later, Yahya was lying on the bed in his own room. He was quite tensed. He opened the drawer of the side table by his side and took out the frame. It was a portrait of a thirty-year-old man. He looked at his face for a while and then kept it on the top of the table.

His phone began to ring. He answered Usman’s call:

“Yes?”

“I’m outside. Open the door”

“Okay, one minute”

He sat up and stood up. He rushed to answer the gate.

Minutes later, the two friends were in the same room. Usman was sitting on the bed and Yahya was lying. Usman asked him:

“So what happened? Why aren’t you watching the show?”

“I don’t know, I just don’t feel like watching him right now.”

“Well, you’re the only one who makes perfect videos on him. And your fans believe that you have neither hatred nor likeness for any celebrity. This is the reason why they call your videos ‘free of prejudice’ videos.”

“I know, you’re right. I just need something special. This is all about patience. I might have to wait several months in order to find some perfect content. Only then I’ll be able to claim his acts as publicity stunts.”

“I agree. So this is what’s upsetting you?”

“Yes, perhaps. You know you’re the only person in this entire world, with whom I’m completely honest. I’m like an open book before you.”

“Should I feel privileged?”

They both laughed out loud.

“Let’s order dinner,” Usman suggested.

“Sure.”

Usman took out his cell phone and searched for some food deals. An old man’s advertisement appeared before him. He asked Yahya regarding the person he saw:

“So what is your opinion about Mr Ahmed Malik?”

“Ahmed Malik…He is the nicest person on this planet. Everybody likes him for what he does. I like to call him Robin Hood who does not steal from the rich but feeds poor through his own earning.”

“Yeah… I mean can you believe him. He’s a saint, as one in million. He earned through labour all his life and spent more than half of his income on the poor. And he does that every year.”

“I agree, he is a saint. May God bless him.”

After a little further talk, Usman asked him pointing towards the portrait frame:

“Who’s he by the way?”

Yahya turned and looked at the picture. He replied:

“He was my real father.”

“Oh…So he passed away six months after your birth?”

“Yes…In a car accident. I never got to see him. And yet I respect him. I talk to him when I’m alone. I see him in my dreams.”

Usman didn’t know how to respond so he just dialled the number.

One Month Later

Yahya was sitting alone in some restaurant. He was having coffee and was thinking about his final exams that were starting next week. He could hear other people talk around him but he wasn’t paying close attention to their words. Until he heard someone say:

“Did you get to know about Ramshah Khan’s fire incident?”

His ears turned towards that conversation and now he paid attention to the guys of his age talking. One of the young adults spoke:

“What happened with Ramshah Khan?”

“Her house burned down because of the fire,” the other friend replied.

“When did this happen?”

“The news was revealed yesterday evening.”

Yahya immediately took out his phone and turned on the internet. He was now desperate to hear the news himself.

As he found the news on some news channel on YouTube, he played the video and raised the volume. The narration began:

“Actress Ramshah Khan’s apartment was found burning in fire. She was sleeping in her room when she felt something was burning and eventually woke up. The fire brigade department rescued her but her house was completely burned down.”

Oh, that’s not good. Yahya said to himself.

He stood up and prepared to leave for his home.

Several hours later during the evening, he was in his home watching some news channel. Ramshah Khan’s fire incident was the latest and biggest news and it was spreading through almost every news channel. In some news channel he saw Ramshah Khan giving her statement to the press:

“I survived somehow. I could have died. Thank God, I had insured my house and furniture.”

Yahya was wondering while watching her:

What if this is not what it appears to be? What if this is another one of her publicity stunts?

He stood up and immediately went to his room and picked up his laptop. He opened it and accessed directly to Ramshah Khan’s older video. He had actually just remembered something and wanted to clarify his mind.

As he finally found the video, he clicked the link and watched the four-minute video. In the video, Ramshah Khan was seated as a guest in some morning show. There she revealed several parts of her personality but the part that Yahya wanted to hear came during the second half. She spoke and he paid attention to her words:

“No one is like me. I am the expert and mother of stuntmen.”

“What kind of stuntmen?” the show’s host asked.

“You know…. publicity stunts,”

“Oh…Really? Impressive! You’re bold enough to admit that.”

“Yes…I pull out these stunts in a manner that no one can easily catch me. Although I keep myself safe and always have a backup plan to restore my loss.”

He paused the video and remembered her words from the news channel interview:

Thank God, I had insured my house and furniture.

He then made its link with her old sentence in his mind:

Although I keep myself safe and always have a backup plan to restore my loss.

“That’s it…This is a publicity stunt I’m sure!”

He kept his laptop aside and took out his cell phone from the side table’s drawer. He dialled his friend’s number. After a few rings as his friend answered his call, he spoke:

“Hello, Shan? Where are you?”

“I’m outside for a little work,” his friend replied. “Is all ok?”

“Well, we need to make a video.”

“Oh…What about?”

“It’s about Ramshah Khan’s publicity stunt.”

“Wait…You mean the fire incident?”

“Yes.”

“Oh come on Yahya don’t be like that.” his friend replied not liking his answer. “Please don’t consider everything to be a publicity stunt!”

“Trust me, Shan. You will believe me later”

“For God’s sake Yahya, your fans are going to dislike you… Really badly.”

“Don’t worry about that. I’ll handle that. My words are always carefully measured and then displayed in front of the audience.”

“Ok, I’ll do it. Tell me when should I drop by at your place?”

“Come tomorrow evening,” Yahya answered. “Today I’m going to gather all the stuff I need and I shall make my speech. Tomorrow come along with your camera and then we shall make our video”

“Ok, ok I will.”

The call got disconnected. Yahya stood up and changed the channel. The channel he switched to was, unfortunately the channel where Shahrukh Rizwan was doing his show. He switched off the channel getting annoyed and thought:

I’ll deal with you later. Right now my victim is Ramshah Khan.

Four Days Later

Some ordinary twenty-two-year-old boys woke up from his sleep and checked his cell phone. He saw that he had a notification from his subscribed YouTube Channel. As he checked it out, it was a new video from Yahya Taimoor’s channel. He clicked the icon and played the video.

The video began with those five titles appearing on the screen.

The title Publicity Stunts opened out large and the video began with Ramshah Khan’s photo. Yahya’s narration began:

“My friends today I’m going to share my opinion regarding Ramshah Khan’s latest fire incident.”

Two girls who were sitting at their university’s cafeteria and were watching his video in the cell phone stopped the video here. The one who paused the video said to the other one:

“Let’s wait for Komal. We’ll watch it with her.”

“No, I want to see how” the other one insisted. “I’m eager to watch his views.”

They resumed the video. The narration continued:

“This video can be a bit offensive to some viewers. So all of those who have sympathy for Ramshah Khan or those who are her die-hard fans, I would urge you to stop the video now and proceed no further.”

Some teenager paused the video in his laptop and wondered:

Should I or should I not watch this any further, since I’m a big fan of Ramshah Khan. But at the same time, I like Mr Yahya. Well, I think I should mentally prepare myself for some bad thoughts.

He continued the video. This time Yahya Taimoor appeared on the screen and spoke gently:

“This fire incident took place inside Ramshah Khan’s apartment. And she survived. If you’d ask me the truth behind this accident, my answer would be... Well, it was a pure publicity stunt.”

Some pictures appeared on the screen of Ramshah Khan’s previous similar stunts. In the background, Yahya’s narration continued:

“This woman has been found guilty before of such acts. You cannot deny the fact that she was somewhat forgotten by the media and no one was entertaining her. So to get some attention from media and from her fans, she pulled this stunt.”

One of the viewers who lived in some distant city spoke watching this part:

Oh, come on that can’t be true.

Yahya appeared on the screen again and spoke:

“My friends, my fans, my viewers I have great respect for your sentiments and I would never intend to hurt them but you guys need to think logically…How about this? Let me show you a perfect video of Ramshah Khan’s old interview.”

The old interview’s video began where Ramshah Khan appeared speaking:

“I pull out these stunts in a manner that no one can easily catch me. Although I keep myself safe and always have a backup plan to restore my loss.”

The same clip repeated again. After this, her latest interview’s clip played where she stated:

“Thank God, I had insured my house and furniture.”

Yahya finally appeared on the screen and spoke:

“Guys…now I want you to think. I want you to sit down, calm yourselves down and think for a moment. What does pulling out stunts in uncatchable manners mean? What does keeping oneself safe and having a backup plan to restore the loss mean? House and furniture insurance? Most probably. Think about it after removing away all the glasses of favouritism. Think as a neutral person. And then I’m sure you will gain the same perspective”

Yahya then appeared as walking and looking towards the viewers telling them:

“I’ll be back with some other interesting analysis soon after some time. Stay tuned to watch more.”

The video ended.

Some viewers liked the video and some disliked. The race between the likes and dislikes was tough. And the views had increased to more than 700K within forty-eight hours.

People were also uploading their remarks as comments on the video clip.

However, Yahya was at his university’s parking area. He was sitting on his bike having a drink. He was a bit anxious as if he was about to face something. He looked around and saw the empty space. He spoke by himself:

It’s the third time this week I have bunked my class. I’m just afraid to face people… But tonight I have to. Tonight I’m going to finally check the response and read the comments. I just know that I’m right and I’m truthful.

But I need a little courage to face everyone.

He stepped down and sat on his bike.