Gadariya (Ujlay Phool) – گڈریا (اجلے پھول)

Book Review: Gadariya is really close to my heart. It was my initial introduction to the work of Ashfaq Ahmed & no matter how many times I read it, it always leaves me in despair. This along with Aik Muhabbat Sau Afsaaney are two books that I can pick any time for a taste of tragedy & life.
It is a collection of short stories with endings totally different from what we usually read in fiction. There are no or very few happy endings, but life doesn’t always give people a satisfying ending. Does it?
It depicts whatever happens around us, to the people we see every day & to all of us at some point in our lives. Tragedies happen & life goes on. Everything will be fine in life & then, BOOM, it will hit you right in the nerves.
This book takes the reader on the journey of Dao Jee, who was a shepherd in his childhood but got lucky in getting on the path of learning & wisdom. A generous person who will go to any lengths to teach a boy (the protagonist) so that he can clear his matriculation exams. It is a story with loads of emotions, revelations from the past & how life takes a 360-degree turn.
The loss of Gul-tar’riyaa (a puppy) to the heartbreak a person suffers in reality, the things one promises to achieve so that he can marry the love of his life & become financially acceptable while life plays its cards brutally, a person who just couldn’t comprehend what he truly wants when its comes to love/ relationships & is always misunderstood by others; this books covers the ordinary stories in a unique way.
Toshey Billey will leave you a little haunted at how a disturbed soul can still linger on in the world to tell the tale.
Safdar Theila was both devastating & realistic at how some students gang-up in schools & colleges that even teachers are slightly afraid of them but one can never know that they can be the kindest when the time comes or when it is about their loyalty to their friends.
Ujley Phool refers to the impact of war on the lives of those left behind, Barkha is a simple story of the one-sided infatuation of teenage years & Aloevera is about unexpected connections one ends up building with the most unusual people.
Highly recommended.