Ab Ke Bichde To Shayad by Mohammad Waseem Baloch

About this novel

Ab Ke Bichhde To Shayad by Muhammad Waseem Baloch is a long Urdu novel about dreams, sacrifice and a village boy. He will pay a heavy price to make his dreams come true.

The writer opens with a short statement of purpose. This is not just a story, he says, but the tale of a character who goes through countless difficulties to fulfil his dreams, because dreams always demand sacrifices. Sometimes you must give up your own peace and sleep, and dreams seen with open eyes often remain unfinished.

Then we meet Ahsan, who lives in Khan Pur, a village near Lahore. He has three brothers and one sister. Mehboob is the eldest, then Ahsan, then the youngest, Saad, and their sister Sana is older than Saad. Their father, Tauseef Ahmed, works on contract land. Tauseef has an elder brother, Qamar Abbas, who has three children, and the youngest brother is Sabir Ali. The brothers all live together in one house, and their children are so close that no one would ever guess they are cousins and not real brothers and sisters.

Mehboob was weak at studies and left school to work in the fields with his father, while Ahsan was bright from the start and loved to read. He is the darling of the whole family. Qamar Abbas’s eldest son also left school to work with his father, but the younger cousins are all clever students, though very mischievous too. Ahsan, the ringleader, often gets the others into trouble.

One morning, Ahsan, Sabir and Saad are walking to school. Ahsan is in class six. When Saad and Sabir admit they haven’t learned their lesson and have a test today, Ahsan comes up with a “shaitani” plan: they’ll say they were late and the school gate had already closed. Saad doesn’t want to go back home and get scolded. Muhammad Waseem Baloch fills these pages with village warmth and childhood fun before the deeper story of the title begins.

خواب پورے کرنے کے لیے اکثر اپنی نیندیں قربان کرنی پڑتی ہیں۔

Read more by Muhammad Waseem Baloch: Kaho To Laut Jaate Hain, Ishq To La-Zawal Hota Hai and Khilari, or see all Waseem Baloch novels.