Jaddah Ki Galliyon Me By Hamna Tanveer

About this novel

Jeddah Ki Galiyon Mein by Hamna Tanveer is a light, funny Urdu family novel that opens with two sisters hooked on a TV drama. A strict mother and a very rushed namaz set the comic tone from the very first page.

“Haye, agar yeh mar gayi phir?” The novel opens with Hina staring wide-eyed at the TV screen, tears in her eyes. She won’t survive, she says, if anything happens to Rania. Her sister Mishal throws a cushion at her and scolds her for mourning already, because maybe Rania will be taken to hospital and survive. The two of them are completely lost in their favourite drama, their hands raised in prayer that the character will be saved.

Then their mother, Ruqayya, walks in. She has called them again and again, but they are sitting there as if they can’t hear a thing. She switches off the TV, threatening to throw “this nahoosat” out of the house. Mishal begs her to turn it back on, because Rania’s surgery is happening right now. “Namaz parho dono,” their mother orders, glaring at them both. Hina mutters that by then the character might die. Ruqayya snaps back that it doesn’t matter, and tells them she will ask their father to cut the cable, because they sit stuck to it all day. “Ab tum dono uthti ho ya main danda nikaloon?”

“Tauba tauba,” says Mishal, touching her ears as she leaves. Hina smiles and puts on her slippers, and their mother tells them to hurry and pray together before the time runs out.

Mishal does wudu at lightning speed and rushes through her prayer, worried only about the drama. Hina, shocked, asks how she prayed so fast. “Haan, meri speed tez hai na,” Mishal laughs, and runs off to watch. Hina makes a sad face and starts her niyyat. Hamna Tanveer fills these opening pages with everyday humour and warm family life, and the title hints at a journey to the holy city of Jeddah that may change these sisters.

دل کی تبدیلی کبھی کبھی ایک سفر سے شروع ہوتی ہے۔

Read more by Hamna Tanveer: Mere Maula, Tum Bin Jeena Mumkin Nahi and Nafrat Se Shuru Hone Wali Mohabbat Ki Dastaan, or see all Hamna Tanveer novels.