Dastak Dil Pe by Hayat Khan

About this novel

Dastak Dil Pe (Urdu: دستک دل پہ) by Hayat Khan is a complete Urdu romance between a strict, perfectionist boss and a carefree young woman. Zaheer Khan expects everything done perfectly, and Alisha’s father is fast losing patience with her.

The novel opens in an office. “Rozy… Rozy!” “Y-yes, sir?” “What is all this? When you know I can’t stand the slightest disorder, why don’t you understand?” Rozy, terrified, rushes to rearrange the perfumes on his desk – but he only shouts more: did he ask her to fix them? “Get out!” She pleads, but he threatens to fire her on the spot – he doesn’t like careless people. “Don’t let me see you around here by evening,” he warns, and walks out. Rozy, close to tears, grumbles that this strange man wants the whole world to dance to his tune; he’s like a discipline-obsessed stick and nothing else. This, the writer announces, is the one and only Mr Zaheer Khan, a proud Pathan from the Yousafzai tribe, managing director of the Khan Group of Industries.

Then the scene changes to a home where a girl has just woken up. “Mama, where are you?” Her mother answers that she’s right there – the girl’s speaker must be broken. Alisha flops onto a sofa and starts complaining, and her mother scolds her for her behaviour – her father doesn’t like it. Alisha teases that her father doesn’t like anything about her; and quotes a Shah Rukh Khan line to make her point. Her mother reminds her that she’s not a child anymore and her silly talk and Indian-drama dialogue need to stop. Alisha begs her “dear mother” to make breakfast while she washes her face.

ایک سخت مزاج باس، ایک شوخ لڑکی، اور ناراض والد۔

Alisha is introduced as the only daughter of successful businessman Irtiza Khan – the “cheerful princess” of the house. At breakfast, her father is clearly unhappy. Her university is finished, he says – in the last ten years they’ve received nothing but complaints from school, college and university. Now what does she plan to embarrass them with next? He wishes she were a son to support him in his old age; why has he built such a big business, only for it to go to strangers?

Hayat Khan sets up two opposite personalities with plenty of comedy, and the title – “a knock on the heart” – promises love arriving unexpectedly.

You can read Dastak Dil Pe online here or download the complete PDF for free. More by Hayat Khan: Rang Zindagi Ke, Talab E Wafa and Dhanak Rang Zindagi, or see all Hayat Khan novels.