Badaber, an area bordering the bustling city of Peshawar, was once famed for its grapes.
The question is, where did they go? How can a fruit just stop growing somewhere?
Lore has it that a Faqeer stopped at a village house and requested some grapes. He was coldheartedly turned away, empty-handed. He departed saying "I shall leave, and I shall take your grapes with me."
Just next door lived a wealthy Sikh family. They were very well-to-do, and their grape-trade stretched as far as Kabul.
On the same ill-omened day, their house was robbed and the entire family was beheaded.
Besides a crying toddler, only those who happened to be away from home at that ill-fated moment survived.
It was the ceaseless crying of the baby which led to the villagers coming into the house to check up on the family. They were horrified to find child clinging to the lifeless corpse of his mother.
The tale lived on and the whispers suggest two plausible explanations for the loss: khoonbaha (blood money), and the Faqeer's baddua (ill-wish).
It was believed that the land and prosperity were now tainted with innocent blood - so no grapevine would bear fruit in Badaber ever again.
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