I discovered Umera Ahmed’s ‘Peer-e-Kamil‘ (‘The Perfect Mentor’) through a friend’s recommendation. I’ve read many books by Pakistani writers written originally in English, but I’ve never read a full book by a Pakistani writer written originally in Urdu. I’ve read only Urdu short stories. So I decided to read Umera Ahmed’s book now.
Imama is a student in medical college. She is a good student and hopes to become a great ophthalmologist one day. But things don’t go according to plan. A friend tells her something and one thing leads to another and Imama has a huge religious crisis and loses faith in her parents’ religion. Her family is conservative and they are distinguished in their community and so there will be a huge earthquake at home if she shares this with her family. To complicate things further, Imama has been engaged to someone for a while, but now she falls in love with a new guy. Imama musters up courage and decides to tell these two things to her parents. As expected all hell breaks loose. What happens after that forms the rest of the story. (Not exactly. Imama’s neighbour is Salar. He is a brilliant, talented person, but he has a devil-may-care attitude. Imama’s and Salar’s paths cross and what happens after that forms the rest of the story 😊)
The whole book is the story of Imama and Salar and how their life paths cross and what happens after that. For the first half of the book, both their stories happen in parallel, but halfway through the book one of the main characters disappears from the story. Whether she or he comes back again – you have to read the book to find out.
Umera Ahmed’s writing is spare and moves along the plot nicely. Umera Ahmed doesn’t waste her time with long descriptions, monologues and sculpted sentences. There is no redundant sentence, there is no wasted word. The job of the prose is to move the plot at a good pace, and it does that effectively. The pages just fly and though the book is around 550 pages long, it doesn’t feel that way.
I loved Imama. She was a beautiful soul. Salar was such a huge contrast to Imama and he was more complex and in many ways the opposite to Imama. Sometimes he looked like a loveable rogue, at other times he was hard to like. But he was the character who evolved the most through the story. There were also many minor characters whom I liked very much, like Furqan the doctor, Saeeda Amma, Dr.Sibt-e-Ali who is the epitome of kindness, and many others.
The book has this legendary conversation –
“What is your question?”
“A very simple question, but everyone finds it hard to answer. What is next to ecstasy?” he asked Imama.
She looked at him for a while, then said, “Pain.”
“And what is next to pain?” he shot another question at her.
“Nothingness.”
“What is next to nothingness?” he asked in his typical style.
“Hell,” she replied.
“What is next to hell?” Imama watched him in silence. “What is next to hell?” he repeated.
“Aren’t you afraid?” He heard her query in an unfamiliar tone.
“Afraid of what?” he was surprised.
“Of hell – the place which has nothing ahead… everything is left behind. What remains after being condemned and destroyed that is worth your knowing?” she asked sadly.
“I fail to understand your argument – it’s gone over my head,” Salar declared.
“Don’t worry: there’ll come a time when all this will make sense to you. Then your laughter will end to be replaced by fear – fear of death, of hell too.”
I also loved this passage –
“Sometimes in our lives we do not know whether we have emerged from darkness into light or if we are entering into the dark – the direction is unknown. But one can differentiate, in any case, between the earth and the sky. When you raise your head, it is the sky above; and when you lower it, it is the earth below – whether or not it is visible. To move forward in life, you need just four points of direction – right and left, ahead and behind – the fifth is the ground under your feet. If that were not there, it would be an abyss, hell, and on arriving there one would have no need of direction.”
I loved ‘Peer-e-Kamil’. It is a beautiful story about faith. It is also a beautiful love story. Hope you like it if you decide to read it. It is a perfect read for the month of Ramadan. Hoping to read more books by Umera Ahmed.
Have you read ‘Peer-e-Kamil’? What to you think about it? Which is your favourite Umera Ahmed book?
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