Jani Dushman By H Hoor

About this novel

Jani Dushman (Urdu: جانی دشمن) by H Hoor is a romantic family novel about two cousins, Heer and Qais, who have fought like enemies since childhood. The writer says it plainly at the start: this is the story of a girl who comes to love her own mehram, and of a bond that looks like dushmani from the outside but is really silent love.

It opens on the evening everyone in the neighbourhood is up on the rooftops looking for the Ramzan moon. If it is sighted, there will be sehri that night. Sixteen-year-old Qais, innocent-looking and handsome, is busy throwing pebbles at the girl with two ponytails on the next roof. Thirteen-year-old Heer shouts down to her grandmother: “Dadi, Qais mujhe pathar maar raha hai!” A moment later a stone hits her on the head, and her howls bring the whole family running.

باہر سے دشمنی، اندر سے خاموش محبت۔

The two families live next to each other, and the fight carries on downstairs. Heer’s mother Shaista is furious that the family’s spoiled boy keeps getting away with everything. Qais puts on his most innocent face in front of Dadi and asks how she could think he would do such a thing, and of course Dadi believes her favourite grandson. Heer, for her part, is clearly Dada’s favourite: when he brings home treats for all the children, she gets the special ones. In the middle of all the shouting, someone calls out that the moon has been seen, and the whole house wishes each other Ramzan Mubarak.

H Hoor keeps the tone warm and funny, with lots of nok jhonk: Qais pulling Heer’s hair, Heer calling him a badtameez, and Qais grinning that she is his “jani dushman”. The childhood scenes set up the cousins’ rivalry, and the title tells you where that rivalry is heading.

You can read Jani Dushman online here or download the complete PDF for free. If you like H Hoor’s style, read Tera Deewana and Sar e Raah Chalte Chalte, or browse all H Hoor novels.