Husna Novel by Huma Waqas

About this novel

Husna (Urdu: حسنیٰ) by Huma Waqas is a long, complete Urdu family drama that begins with a newborn taken from its mother. A powerful, cruel man takes the child, and the story then jumps to the poor streets of Lahore and a young man with a worn-out shoe.

The prologue is dark and dramatic. “Give me the child,” Malik Anwar demands, pulling a newborn from the arms of a frightened woman named Sabira. The haveli is wrapped in darkness; in one of the small rooms behind it, Malik Anwar stands with a frightening expression, holding the baby wrapped in a light blue cloth. “Malik Sahib, the child is alive,” Sabira whispers in fear, as if warning him of something he doesn’t know. He knows, he says – and his wife, Shehrozi, must never find out. Sabira pleads that he not commit this cruelty: she has seen the nikah papers; the child is not illegitimate. Malik Anwar still insists that he won’t let this child be raised in his house. As Shehrozi’s cries begin to echo from her room, Sabira joins her hands and begs him not to harm the baby. He pushes her aside, holds his hand over the crying infant’s mouth and walks quickly to his jeep, while Sabira stands helplessly with her dupatta pressed to her lips.

حویلی کی تاریک رات، ایک نومولود، اور اس کی قسمت کا فیصلہ۔

The story then moves to the present. In a run-down market of Lahore, a young man in his one good pant-shirt, his hair neatly combed but his face worried, stands in front of a roadside cobbler. “How do I stitch this?” the cobbler asks, turning the shoe around. It’s so worn that the stitching is already coming apart everywhere. “Just do whatever you can,” the young man says, wiping sweat from his forehead and glancing at the polished shoes of passers-by. None of them, he notices, are in a condition like his.

Huma Waqas links a hidden birth with a struggling young man, and readers will want to know how the two threads connect. Readers should know the prologue involves a threat to a newborn, though no harm is shown on the page.

You can read Husna online here or download the complete PDF for free. More by Huma Waqas: Mohay Piya Milan Ki Aas, Kali and Charagh Sham Say Pehly, or see all Huma Waqas novels and our Huma Waqas novel list with a short guide to each book.