Borshay (Sumaira Hameed)- Novel Review by Shoby

Borshay (Sumaira Hameed)- Novel Review by Shoby

As I stated earlier while reviewing RAB ul Bashar, its mandatory for Sumaira Hameed's writings to have a title that has the ability to not only move you but to make you think and think deep. Honestly before even starting the novel, I kept wondering, now where did this term "Borshay" came from and then all of a sudden someone whispered in my mind, If Hamlin of Germany can witness Pied Piper with a pipe to lure the creatures, Sumaira Hameed has all the liberty to acquaint us with "Marya" who used to lure glow worms through her very own unique musical instrument which she used to call "Borshay". Should I call her the female version of Pied Piper??? Lets explore the new novel Borshay to know more about it.

This (kind of a) fairy tale is based in 18th century Ireland where Mr. Oscar (the wannabe painter) is shown to be travelling from within the woods in a typical Irish winter night. It is said that night is dense as it comes with deep dark secrets embedded within. Mr. Oscar has left the home to prove his mettle in the said art but fortune has some other plans as another genre of art has line-crossed him.

Oscar heard sounds of some unique musical instrument and this diversion in attention costs him to meet a mild accident. Forget the accident and focus on the bigger canvas. he happens to meet Marya, the queen of pulchritude who has the magical ability to entice the glow worms to dance on her melodies sprinkled through a unique musical instrument that her father has developed and named as Borshay.

Oscar is stunned with the harmony & synchronization among the girl, the instrument's melodies & the dance of glow worms, however he assumes her a witch who has spell caste the whole jungle. Considering the same he grabs her to ask about her reality and then... Kuch baaton ka idraak aadhi raat ko jungle mein baghi se gir ker jadugarni ka haath pakar ker hi hota hai... He gives the mysterious beauty a name- Ms. Light Bug... :-) Cupid is all set to throw the arrow here...

He meets her the next night and this time its Marya who destroys his art which happened to be the painting of Marya herself & he made it unintentionally. But who cares when he can have the once in a blue moon opportunity to witness live dance of glow worms and that too which can be emerged from the unique melodies of Borshay, played by this damn awesome beauty.

Mr. Oscar is truly madly deeply in love with this Borshay... Borshay or Marya, the time will tell. Anyways, he is so busy in his Borshay loving routine that he has almost forgotten what his primary objective was. He no longer remembers that he came here to showcase the best of his painting talent.

Now he wants Marya to play Borshay for him but she refutes, in fact after getting irritated, she hands over the instrument to him so that he can play it himself. Later on, when Marya asks him to return Borshay, he repudiates to give it there and sends him a message to play it in jungle for him, if she wants the Borshay back. An extremely romantic cum heated discussion makes the scene one hell of an affair. Check the conversation:

Marya: Mujhey Intezar kerney ki adat nahi hai, mera Borshay kahan hai?

Oscar: Mujhey intezar ki adat hai. mere jugnu kahan hain?

Marya: Woh mere jugnu hain.. Sirf mere...

Oscar: Main tumhari aknkhon ke jugnuon ki baat ker raha hoon.

They say love changes you to the moon & back and same happens with Oscar. Even his relationship with his father is getting much better. Meanwhile Marya visits Ireland and feels some sort of inferiority complex. On the eve of new year, Oscar & Josephine compels Marya to show off the magic prowess of her Borshay which she unwillingly does and then what happens afterward makes the whole premises of the story crystal clear. Lights blew up & with the lightening of fire, glow worms gets burnt. And Marya gets furious & rightly so. After all she considers one of these glow worms as the remains of her father. And then Marya leaves the celebrations, Mr. Oscar & most importantly The Borshay.

Marya leaves not only Oscar but everyone else and goes back to Italy where her mother resides with her family. Oscar goes in search of her & starts playing Borshay in the same woods where he met Marya.

While in search of Marya, Oscar starts playing Borshay & a time came when he played it with such honesty & authenticity that people of Italy started knowing him by the name of Borshay & not Oscar. (Ranjha Ranjha kardi ni main apey ranjha hui... Ranjha Ranjha saddo ni, menu heer na aakho koi)...

And then one day he was so indulged in playing Borshay that he didn't even noticed that fire has caught him & he got burnt, however with luck, he remained alive and then after so many days, he met once again with Marya along with the Borshay... And the story of Borshay, Marya & Oscar keeps going on...

Mohabbat kabhi laut ker nahi ati... Kiyo ke woh kabhi chor ker nahi jati...

First thing first, Borshay is not an easy read for the audience who has the habit of reading normal Saas-Bahu stuff. Its unique not only by the subject matter but also with the treatment of the author. Its now a hallmark of Sumaira that whatever she writes, she chooses a different domain altogether.

Borshay has the feel of those beautiful fictional tales that has been part of our bed time stories for long. I believe it is one such literary piece that may equally be enjoyed by the early-teenagers even younger kids too. Marya Khirki ke rastey apney kamrey mein kood gai... Sumaira gives us a sweet taste of those epic fantasies that were till date proud of only foreign literature like Rapunzel.

If it is Sumaira, it has to be a heavy dose of some not-yet heard monologues spree here. Sumaira punches a master stroke by saying Agar woh aisey hi rang badalti rahi to Oscar ko apni painting ke liye kuch rang us se bhi udhaar leney parey ge. Ah... Sweet... Bravo....

Sumaira never gets shy in writing some real subject oriented lines. Rang sab hi achey hotey hain... Bura to inhain ghalat stroke ker detey hain... Yes, it is the real mantra of life that is conveyed by Sumaira so beautifully in these lines. Hum sab hi mohabbat karney waley humdard insan hotey hain, us waqt tak jab tak humari mohabbat or humdardi ka imtehan na ley liya jaey.

While reading Borshay, it reminded me of few other celebrated stuff as well. Especially the initial scenes when Oscar & Marya meets in nights were too close to Fyodor Dostoyevsky's White Nights. Kudos to Sumaira for keeping up her own unique style while telling this story in such a way that it can easily be placed in front of the global audience.

It seems like Sumaira Hameed has so much to say, so much to express and these few pages are mere a reflection of what she is really capable of. Although I leave it to the author but still I firmly believe that stories like Borshay are so broad that they can easily be converted into an episodic material.

Although somewhere in the middle, its a bit hard to focus on the on-goings as the finale to come is a bit as-expected sort of proceeding but still Sumaira's different writing style keeps you hooked up with the story till the very end. I am happy that Sumaira has once again took the challange of trying something very different which is usually not tried by our authors today. The reality is none of our today's Urdu digest author has tried this genre in particular. 10 on 10 for Sumaira for attempting this one.

At the end, I just want to quote one monologue, that is my personal favorite from Borshay,

Mohabbat ehtamam hi chahti hai... Iltaja to mangney walon ka shewa hai. Ilteja to unhain darkar hoti hai jinhain ksii cheez ki zarurat ho... Mohabbat mein zarurat kahan reh jati hai...

Ms. Sumaira Hameed's comments on my review...