Kaho to Laut jate Hain by Mohammad Waseem Baloch

About this novel

Kaho To Laut Jaate Hain by Muhammad Waseem Baloch is an Urdu novel about a billionaire’s son and a middle-class boy. Their deep friendship is tested by the class differences that try to come between them.

The novel opens with a question. “Asad yaar, ek baat to batao,” Wasi says. Asad is the son of a rich man who grew up in huge bungalows with an army of servants, an upbringing that often makes people proud. Yet Wasi has never seen any arrogance in him, and wonders why someone like Asad would choose a “third-class banda” like him as his best friend. Asad gives him a strange look and teases him for talking like a philosopher, then says that real happiness lies in the happiness of the people we love.

Wasi feels awkward and admits he is sometimes afraid that Asad’s father won’t approve of their friendship, and tells him to make friends among people of his own status. Asad scolds him for always thinking negatively, drags him off to a hotel to eat, and Wasi finally laughs.

Muhammad Waseem Baloch then gives the background. Asad’s father, Haider Ali, is a very rich businessman whose textile factories run across Pakistan, and he counts among the wealthiest people in the country. Asad is his only son, so guards follow him everywhere, to school, college and even the market. Asad hates it and has tried to tell his father he wants to live freely like a normal person, but Haider Ali believes that in a society full of “wolves,” the weak are eaten alive.

Wasi comes from a middle-class family. His father farms to feed his children, and his elder brother Adil works with their father in the fields. Wasi’s family often tells him that rich people don’t make friends with the poor, but Asad doesn’t care about status at all. Their friendship is the heart of this story.

سچی دوستی کبھی امیری غریبی نہیں دیکھتی۔

Read more by Muhammad Waseem Baloch: Ab Ke Bichhde To Shayad, Ishq To La-Zawal Hota Hai and Khilari, or see all Waseem Baloch novels.