Ishq Nasheen By Isha Gill

About this novel

Ishq Nasheen (Urdu: عشق نشین) by Isha Gill is a complete Urdu family romance about Rabail, who pays for her elder sister’s choice. After her sister runs away from home, Rabail faces her Phuppo’s taunts and her family’s new fear every single day.

The novel opens on a scorching afternoon. Rabail has been waiting at the university gate for her brother Soban, who usually picks her up after college, but today he hasn’t turned up. Tired of waiting, she sets off on foot, wishing she hadn’t forgotten her wallet so she could take a rickshaw. She reaches home at three, and her heart sinks when she sees her Phuppo sitting in the lounge. She wants to turn right back.

The taunts begin at once. “Oh, here comes the queen! Can’t you come home before evening?” Phuppo asks, eyeing her head to toe. “Have some shame, roaming around with your studies as an excuse. Juwairiya, keep an eye on her, or one day this one will also run away like your elder daughter.” Rabail’s mother, Juwairiya, stands silently by the kitchen door. Rabail, trembling, explains that Soban Bhai didn’t come and she didn’t have money for a rickshaw. Phuppo sneers at the excuses and says she’d better not go anywhere – the whole neighbourhood is talking already. Holding back tears, Rabail goes quietly to her room.

بڑی بہن کا ایک قدم، اور چھوٹی بہن کے حصے کے طعنے۔

Isha Gill then explains the family. Umair and Juwairiya married by their own choice and always wanted their children to have the same freedom. They have three daughters and a son: Faryal is the eldest, then Rabail two years younger, Soban three years younger than her, and finally twelve-year-old Mahek. Umair and Juwairiya trusted their daughters completely – until Faryal broke that trust by leaving home with someone. Since then the family lives with the shame and the constant whispers of relatives, and Rabail feels she is being punished for something she never did.

Isha Gill writes about family honour, trust and the burden placed on daughters, and the title – “the one who lives in love” – promises that Rabail’s own story will be very different.

You can read Ishq Nasheen online here or download the complete PDF for free. More by Isha Gill: Kar Meri Chahat Qubool, Raah E Mohabbat and Tu Man Talbat, or see all Isha Gill novels.