The name of the novel ‘Yaraam’ by Sumaira Hameed, means a beloved or a lover. When you first encounter such name it gives a feeling of a typical ,mourning and tragic love story with bits of conspiracies and a lot of disappointment ,But I object it is not just a love story with all these aspects but contains a lot more gems of wisdom put together in a beautiful, engaging ,and exciting events. It triggers almost a wide range of emotions and enforces our brain to think and ponder over the situation and feel in depth for every character. You laugh with them, enjoy their silly jokes, pranks and feel very light. In literature, the most common elements of romanticism are moon, night and stars .On contrary, Sumaira Hameed takes a different way and starts a novel with an imagery of ‘Sarma ki Dhoop’
‘’Amar Prem ka agr koi lad ka naam hota tou wo sarma ki dhoop hota’’
This Imagery takes us to the introduction of our heroine’ Amraha’ before diving in the characters of this novel let’s just introduce you with the main theme of this novel.
MAIN THEME
Although highly condensed with love story, it unfolds in a very interesting way. It is a journey of change and transformation for some characters and their influential past which molded them into their present form. Amraha applies for the University of Manchester as she wants to get rid of the environment she was brought up and was tagged as ‘Manhoos’ and was accepted by an emotional and more appropriately self-pitying mail of her .The fun and interesting part begins when the description of the University and its environment is sketched. It is here when different people get to know one other and learn what life is! The Manchester University Motto is very interesting‘’There is no time to cry and just smile’’. In my opinion, the main theme of the novel is harkat main barkat, to overcome fear, be confident, learn from your past; take hold of your life, ignore foolish myths and unnecessary objections and be strong. Life is about facing the harsh realities of life, surviving through them and being thankful for what we have. I must appreciate the efforts of the writer in bringing all these lessons into light through a love story.
VARIETY OF CHARACTERS
Apart from Amraha, every main character in this novel is influential in one way or the other. There is depth in every character and everyone has a story, which unfolds to describe the beauty of their character and the source of their strength. Why Amraha wasn’t much influential in the beginning , the reason behind it was that, this character was shown to learn that it’s not only her there are many people who lose so much in life but still are trying to live happily.
Amraha: The perfect example of a roti dhoti, sensitive and weak heroine. I felt for her at the beginning because of the stupid and irrational myths that degraded her personality and destroyed her self-esteem. She is a submissive personality, but her grandfather supported her and tried to restore her self-esteem. The writer grasped the attention here by adding these lines ” for every person there will be someone who will love them even if the whole world hates him/her’’.
Her grandfather was the support system for her and she manages to get admitted in the University of Manchester. She enters a whole new world and learns a lot. It is hilarious, enjoyable and adventurous and I believe Manchester World is fun. By the end of the encounter and love part of the novel, She couldn’t accept the proposal because there was a big’’ because ‘’and at that time it seemed that Amraha is so selfish, harsh, brutal and self-absorbed girl. I think Amraha was way too rude even when the writer made us understand why it was the way it was, Still it was harsh. I want you to read it and figure it out.
Aliyan: The hero of this novel and already a heart-throb of the University is a handsome, attractive and wise personality. He has a disturbing past and that was the reason he didn’t like Asians. He behaves nicely with Amraha and fall for her when he and his friends planned a bomb blast prank .After the confession Aliyan doesn’t remain the same person and his friend Carl (The Manhoos Mara) tries to bring him back. Aliyan is intelligent and smart and he beautifully described about the colours of flowers and the pre-conceived notions about them.
Carl ( The Manhoos Mara) : Why Carl is manhoos Mara, this is epecially shown by his naughty , hilarious and scary pranks, he is such a treat to read. Always up to something scary and adventurous, a bit too scary but is a breath of fresh .He is Aliyan’s friend which actually is hard to believe because they shared a unique chemistry. The pranks were hilarious and I enjoyed it a lot.
Veera: A girl from Russia, She is energetic, bold, adventurous, strong and beautiful. She is a nice character and I was impressed by her take on Amraha that she was selfish and did wrong with Aliyan, this depicted her smartness. I enjoyed her strong character, especially when she challenges or accepts the challenges of ‘’ the manhoos mara’’. At one point, I felt for her but she moved on because this was the essence of her personality.
Sai : This is another unique character and is trustworthy. He has a habit of wearing a sign board named ‘’Talk to me’’ if I am not mistaken. The purpose is to listen to people’s stories, their fears, their dreams, and relationships and this behaviour was in response to his past. When Nobody listened to him, he felt devastated so he started this weird activity to console others.
There was an interesting activity called ‘’Tweet’’. Tweet was kind of a debt treat, you ask from someone as ‘’Tweet Me’’ and he would give you something to eat and whenever he would ask for ‘’ Tweet Me back’’ you had to pay it back.The exam-phobia was such a delight to read and is very funny.
WEAK ASPECT: The negative or weak aspect of the novel is after the separation and a bit re-union part it becomes a bit slow as the writer was giving time to every emotion to be explained with unnecessary details that I had to skip a few pages and reach the end.
A good novel to read and invest time on, it was enjoyable and lesson-oriented but is only for one time reading, you can’t read it over and over again.
Leaving you with this lesson
‘’There are never any winners or any losers, participation is. Remember that and enjoy the challenge of each moment so it arises now’’.
Asma Jamali