|
: If you enjoy Arabian Nights or Salman Rushdie’s Haroun and the Sea of Stories, Omair Ahmed’s tales should fascinate you. He sets it up quite nicely too with a storyteller, fleeing from Delhi after his beloved city is devastated by the forces of Afghanistan’s Ahmad Shah Abdali, chancing upon an isolated casbah — and thereby hangs many tales. As the story-teller gazed at the haveli, belonging to a Pathan, he saw a begum emerge. “… he could tell it was a woman, and she was beautiful. His decision was made for him. And isn’t that the sum of love? The whole story of love? Something that takes you by surprise, something that is seen from a distance, and yet recognised instantly and clearly? Something you are scared of your whole life long, and yet, when faced by it, reach for with open arms?” As the story-teller and the begum tell stories to each other, notions of love are explored in their tales.
The story-teller has the first say and he chooses to narrate the story of Taka and Wara, wolf-cub and boy. It’s a story of love and loss and betrayal and the irony is not lost on the begum, who has given shelter to the story-teller. “My lady says,” the begum’s maid tells him, “that you know betrayal very well , story-teller, and of the giving of pain to those of generous hearts.”
The begum offers a counter-story — “… a story from my homeland where men have broken open mountains to win their beloved’s hand, where death is a small price for loyalty, and where a brother is a brother… ever and always.” So, she tells him the story of Aresh and Barab, a tale of a friendship that transcends death. Thus they speak to each other, through stories, and they are drawn to forbidden desires, and we, the readers, to their forbidden love story.
Discuss this story on expressindia forums
|
|
 |
 |
 |
About Us | Contact Us | Advertisers | Site Map | Make us your homepage | Work for Us | RSS | Subscribe | Electronic Edition | Privacy Policy© 2010: The Indian Express Limited. All rights reserved throughout the world
