Pyar ka Pehla Shehr – پیا ر کا پہلا شہر

Pyaar Ka Pehla Sheher is not a book, not pages inked with a storyline.
It is life. It is a reality.

I remember reading an excerpt from the book. And it was so intricately put, so beautifully structured, with bots of pure urdu language making me fall harder for it. I love URDU. And Especially the people having *Adbi zouq* and So this book has definitely MY KIND OF TASTE.

This is my first read from Muntansir Hussain Tarrar ‘s works. And I’m so happy about that.

This book is structured on the idea of love. A person’s first Love in love’s first city. A realist, a lover, a traveller and a Pakistani boy Sannan.
(کرسمس کی شام کو یہاں سے ہزاروں میل دور میں اپنے کمرے میں بیٹھا اپنے پہلے پیار کو۔۔ تمہیں۔۔ اور پیار کے پہلے شہر۔۔ پیرس کو یاد کروں گا۔)

Wallah. (Hear me SCREAMING)

Tarrar Sahib has highlighted the idea of محبت through incapacitation.

We humans fall in love. But are, in Tarrar’s words, اپاہج.
We are the tyrants to our own bodies. We are our own debilities. We are murderers of our own very souls.

Tarrar says, that Muhabbat is not confined to the boundaries of beauty, person’s own will, or mehboob’s enfeeblement.

It is the soul that’s connected. It is the warmth recollection of memories of beloved and the lover that stays forever.

Mehboob is not ‘beautiful’. Mehboob is the one who’s the ‘beloved’, regardless of him/her being physically or mentally unfit and deficient.
( پسکل: اطالوی زبان میں پیا ایک خوبصورت لڑکی کو کہتے ہیں۔
سنان: ہمارے ہاں پیا محبوب کو کہتے ہیں چاہے وہ خوبصورت نہ بھی ہو۔)

Tarrar narrates, that every person is incapacitate or handicapped. (اپاہج)

This can be either physical or of mind, of relations, of your own limits.

With pops of realities, Paris ki سیر, the enveloping love in the air, old musical classics playing and humming the trees, the resplendence of دریائے سین, introduction to different people committed to different professions, the story hugs different characters, whom Sannan meets.

The flirtatious talks of Madam Zee, the bald Parrot with its constant ‘ٹیں ٹیں’، the drunken American driver, the lazy bugger-Painter Paul, the Pakistani Kahari Sahib who’s quite warm hearted, are all fun to read about.

This travelogue of Paris, described through love’s eyes, realistic thoughts and characters to mourn and cherish in heart, fixes its part, on two main subjects.
1) Love beyond beauty,
2) and the idea of self acceptance. The idea of loving yourself, no matter how filthy you are. The ‘will’ to accept your flaws and your inner beauty. These all things make this Book my DREAM NOVEL. My ultimate wishbook. And A MUST READ for you all.

Two women that etched their characters into my Heart are Pascal and Jenny.

Both are handicapped. And you need to read the book to find out how.

One of the finest books in Literature, Pyar Ka Pehla Shehar inculcates a sense, an emotion, a pure احساس, to love. To fall in love with the idea of love. With a love BEYOND borders, restrictions of thoughts. And then to cherish this love for a lifetime. Even in the absence of the beloved, with memories.

It breathes desire of being loved too. Every person is thirsty for love. Everyone wants to be loved. And so is narrated in the story, either examplified through the story of Hunchback of Notre dame or through tales of Beauty Goddess Venus de milo.

Some of my favourite key words include
سٹیمر، ریڈ کورٹ، نیلی آنکھیں، مشرقی لڑکی، سنین، جھمکے، راج ہنس، گلاب۔

So GUYS!! Read it and find out WHY are they my faves. I give this book FIVE STARS.