Sheen... Sharaar (Sumaira Hameed)- Story Review by Shoby

Sheen... Sharaar (Sumaira Hameed)- Story Review by Shoby

Out of three stories that I have read (till date) in Sumaira Hameed's latest story collection Khayal Yaar, this tale is perhaps the simplest of all. Sheen Sharaar is yet another Sumaira Hameed's novel that revolves around not one or two in fact many of our living social dilemmas.

Let me confess we live in a society full of hypocrisy and we the human beings are the unit of the whole totality in a society. So whenever I say we live in the hypocrite society, I openly confess we all are hypocrites in one way or another. We all cry over corruption and we are unaware of the fact that we as a nation are unfortunately corrupt. The worst part is, we do not realise the reality.

Don't you think that the little wrongs that we regularly commit are all part of the corruption in a larger canvas. Well if Alveena was habitual in looting her mother for mere some bucks, don't you really think it was corruption. The first time she dated a stranger (Asad) by bunking her school, it was corruption. They keep on meeting without letting other know and this was corruption.

One pertinent thing to mention here is the attitude of their parents. Asad's parents came with the marriage proposal for Alveena citing that they both love each other but the proposal was rejected right on the money just because of the caste differences. Now this according to me, is a serious hideous dilemma in fact a crime that we regularly observe in our society. The so called caste and self proclaimed class differential is resulting in bigger crimes especially the incidents where girls running out with their boy friends and as a result, suffering in one way or another.

Same happened with Alveena in Sheen Sharaar. She was desperately in love with Asad and just because their parents did not wanted them to get married as both of them belonged to different castes, they decided to leave their parents and ran out of their homes. For a nice six months, they lead a heavenly life in Malaysia but fortune was having some other plans.

Asad died there leaving Alveena (apparently) with no positive option or foot path to follow and she was getting indulged in one bad to another. What happens next makes the story and obviously it needs to be read in the book.

Let me clarify, to me, this is (may be) the weakest written piece of Sumaira Hameed I have ever read if we talk about the narrative part. As I stated earlier, it was a simplest of tale that was all about delivering some essential communal messages.

Honestly speaking I did not found any out of the box amazing dialogues for which Sumaira is famous. The most mediocre thing in the while story to me was the ending portion, which acted as a spoiler to me. Yes, I am not 100% satisfied with what happens in the end with Alveena as I feel some more brutal climax would have surely enhanced the overall feel of the story. Having said this, I can indeed give Sumaira the margin on her take for the ending part as we have seen the ruthless ending of Rebica earlier on in the story. 

However, the treat is on when you get to see the real Sumaira's writing prowess in a few moments:

Ishara khultey hi gaariyan tezi se guzerney lagi or in gaariyon ke neechey is ne baba, amma or Asad ko dekha.

Bura lagta hai... Bura laga bhi... magar sirf pehli baar.

Within the heart of the story, Alveena is seen having conversations with her own self just like in the story Khayal Yaar but here the difference is, this time Alveena is talking with the Nafs e Ammara part  (nafs that overwhelmingly commands a person to do sin) rather than Nafs e Lawwama (self incriminate, to self reproach). We all believe that throughout the whole life journey of a person, we are guided with two powers simultaneously.

Satan is always putting all of his efforts & strenghts in making us do wrongs. According to QURAN PAK, “(Iblees) said: ‘Because You have sent me astray, surely, I will sit in wait against them (human beings) on YOUR straight path. Then I will come to them from before them and behind them, from their right and from their left, and YOU will not find most of them as thankful ones (i.e. they will not be dutiful to You) (Sura Aaraf: 16,17).

And as ALLAH PAK wants us to walk on HIS righteous path, HE has embedded a mechanism within us that whenever we are about to commit a sin, someone from within stops us or at least struggles to halt us from doing so. Same happened in the story Sheen Sharaar as well.

No points in guessing that the story Sheen- Sharaar is a strong dose of social lessons and it stands tall when it comes to the preachy part of the story.

The best line of the whole novel that real touched my heart quotes:

Jo aap ne kiya, aap ka amal hai... ALLAH Raham kerta hai or yehi US ki sift hai.