Amar Bail - The Novel by Umera Ahmed - Page 25

YES!! *raises both hands* In fact, I read some excerpts from its currently publishing sequel too which made me cry and I went back to PeK's one particular excerpt.

Javey, I'm assuming you've read it too. It looked like you read quite a few English versions (saw your comment on 'What you're reading right now?' thread xD)

Tum mera peecha nahin choro gi, haina? xD

LOL I will defo write it soon :')

Haha.. Definitely not... Kisi tarah peecha nahi chorun gi... So dont even think of it 😆 Ke aap jaan bachaa kar nikal jayein gi 😆

IKR!? That book is literally a class apart. After all, it's not Umera's most famous work for no reason. The wordplay is so, so strong. She hits home and leaves her readers stunned. At one point, I literally kept the book down because I was forced to think about MY sins. One of my friend's mum read it first in her early 20s and last year her mum read it again (in her 40s) and she remarked that if PeK is re-read at a different age or phase of your life, the book leaves a different impact.

It's beautiful how both of them had a completely opposite journey. Imama was so determined to convert and here was Salar not realising that what he was born as was actually a blessing that Imama was fighting for. Imama's journey was really really inspiring. She had all the comforts of a good life yet she questioned what she believed in. It was inspiring because when everything is good around you, you don't tend to question. It's mostly our miseries that make us judge and take a step. But she questioned and fought when she had all the blessings. Salar's journey.. it's possibly the best I've ever read in religious fiction.

I've read about 10 novels and short stories of Umera and nothing comes close to PeK and Amarbail. I honestly don't compare these two because I love them equally but if asked to choose strictly, Amarbail tops for some reason I still don't know.

I am going to read every post of this thread that I couldn't read earlier..

Umer Jahangir's character is like a beauty on a whole new level. He was actually what they call a 'grey character' that makes a book a piece of literature. He had some real, major negatives which kinda stood out. And the good points, though less, were something that, when combined with his negatives, actually came out as a character whom you can't help but fall for.. the real and one of its kind.

Umer was, at the beginning, a guy with a living conscience. He just could not do anything wrong like other men in his family and have a sound sleep. He definitely was desperate to be away from his father from the very beginning but his ambitions and goals were checked by his moral. It was so vivid in the scene when he could not bear the shame of Jahangir's third marriage. He just could not roam around pretending as if nothing had happened because, at that point, he had not embraced the elite lifestyle to maximum. He was weak at certain points. but well.. fast forward to six years later and there was another Umer Jahangir in front of, the one moulded and shaped into a corrupt bureaucrat. Six years later, he was just another Jahangir or Abbas Haider, not worse to that level but to some extent.. he was just one of them.The part of Shehbaz Muneer's murder .. it literally portrayed Umer's character like an open book to the reader. It conveyed the message that after having started his career in civil service, he had done things he wasn't supposed to. He played his role in the corrupt bureaucracy and its practices and with years, his lust just grew and was never satisfied. In fact, he had come to a point in those six years where his conscience was practically dead. His ambitions and actions began to unchecked and this is the point where Umer Jahangir became my most favourite literary character of Urdu books.

"Zameer?" Woh talkhi se hansa. "Is dunya mein zameer naam ki koi cheez nahin hoti, Aleeza. Kam az kam mere liye jese insaan ke liye tou nahin jisne poori zindagi haram khaya aur kamaya ho aur uske pait mein ab harmaam ki itni ameezash ho chuki ho ke na tou woh halal kha sakay na kama sakay."

"With power, I'll be able to do everything that I haven't managed till now."

"What I've made in the last five years, I would not make in even ten years if I were abroad."

Umer's words about the NGO part were so good. I really read deep into his character that time.. the way he said that he won't just remove the thorns of the cactus plant if it's harming him, he would remove the plant itself.. 'play safe and take no risks'. If anything or anyone was an obstacle in his path, he wouldn't even rethink before getting himself rid of that person or thing. That was the first moment that the new Umer was revealed. But later the Shehbaz Muneer mess turned him into a cold blooded and immoral man. He was kind of moulded into that.. he tried to resist and stand up for the injustice that Shehbaz went through but what? He gave up to the system. That's the deeper analysis that at the end, everyone has to give up in front of the influential system. The system he was a part of was too strong to defeat, there was no choice for Umer Jahangir to raise a voice against it. He may be someone whom Aleeza could not win an argument from, who was too aware when compared to Aleeza but when compared with the likes of Jahangir/Ayaz, he was too naive. He was too naive to survive in the civil service and that's what the men in his family changed in him. These people have no choice but to let go off their conscience and do what the service requires them to do. At last, the simple thing is Umer Jahangir gave up in favour of the system because his lifestyle wouldn't have been luxurious if he had moved away from the negatives of the system and lived a mechanical life in America or the UK.

The positives now. Despite having been conscience-dead, Umer Jahangir was capable of emotional attachment. It was kind of difficult to digest that a man so blinded by power and lsut was capable of loving someone so genuinely. The fact that he could love and care for at such a morally dead point is the beauty of his character. This characteristic really makes him the grey character. His love for Aleeza remained intact during those 10 years. There were times of literally no contact with her, yet he loved her the same way. It was not just pain on Aleeza's side, it was on his side too. "Us ne Aleeza ke saath apnay zehen ki screen pe Junaid ko ubhartay dekha aur woh saans nahin le saka".. this spoke volumes. The amount of pain and determination it would have taken him to sacrifice his love was so heartbreaking. We didn't get to see his side of the story much but some little instances say too much. Now before this post goes into Umer-Aleeza direction, let me get back to the point. I must say a little about Umer and Zara's relationship. Throughout the novel, Umer expressed dislike and contempt for her. But the reality was far different. It there's any time I have failed in interpreting a situation in a book, it's defo this. At one hand, Umer blamed Zara for leaving him and went as far as saying that Zara was wrong in not putting up with Jahangir's demands although he knew well what kind of stuff Jahangir wanted Zara to do. How on earth could Umer not realise the position her mother was in and what kind of a jerk Jahangir was? But well... on the other hand, he cried after that conversation. The last person he though at the the time death was none other but Zara. I don't understand if he loved Zara and just pretended to hate her or he did really hate her? Maybe it was somewhere b/w hate and love. Plus, he just wanted his parents out of life and wanted to act indifferent towards them. And Zara's return and meeting her only meant an opening to all the painful memories of his childhood, the resentment towards his mother for leaving him in the hell hole with Jahangir. I reached the conclusion that Umer wanted his parents out of his life so that he wouldn't have to revisit his past which was nothing but melancholic. Back to the topic, Umer loved only a handful of people.. Junaid, Aleeza and perhaps Nano and Judith too.

Umer Janahgir is such a well etched character. There's a kind of black and dark beauty to his character.. and it so striking. The little instances in the reveal so much about him. As Umera said in the foreword, 'Amarbail ek kirdaar ka novel hai', it really was the novel about Umer Jahangir. His character left such a huge impact on me. He's not the crush kind like Jihan or Salaar but he's beautiful in another way. From his bad childhood to his bad habits, to his intense love for Aleeza.. everything was so beautiful. And yes, what I really liked about him was his practical and realistic outlook towards life. He wasn't someone who gave Aleeza false hopes.. he would tell her properly that there wasn't an escape in life, that they were all a part of lost generation, that the people belonging to elite class are empty handed when it comes to relationships. He was the man who knew himself more than anything. He didn't let anyone know more about himself than he wanted to. He had this mysterious aura around him when it came to other characters and readers both and till the end you keep guessing what he really though. I swear I still wonder if Umer really thought that Aleeza hated him or maybe he knew that it was just Aleeza's temporary hate towards him.. I do get the feeling that maybe he knew Aleeza would cry the day he would die. He knew his faults and that was so deep about him. He is what I call a well etched character.. Umera Ahmed presented him so differently at every point and towards the end, she just tells you the most painful thing and you end up loving the character more.

Farah, finally done with Umer's character! Hopefully by weekend I will do a character analsysis on Aleeza too.

P.S. Ignore the typos because mujhe namaz parhni hai, so I don't have time to correct them. xD

Farah, appreciate my efforts. I wrote it yesterday in my literature class because the teacher was absent and I guess literature class helps me to think in a very literary manner, so that helped 😆though yes, I added quotes from the novel when I was home.. ab yaad tou hai nahin :p After Aleeza's character analysis, I will write about the two things that I loved the most in the novel: the theme of bureaucracy and Umer-Aleeza's relationship.