Marad By Zainab Shamim

About this novelette

Marad (Urdu: مرد) by Zainab Shamim is a short social novel about something rarely written about: the pain and helplessness a man hides inside. The writer says so on the first page, and the opening chapters show exactly what she means.

In a small house in the middle of the city lives a family of five. Qaiser sahib runs a small cloth shop that barely covers the household. His wife Naseema looks after their twin daughters, Shanzay and Shehzeen, who are in tenth class, and their eldest son, twenty-one-year-old Farzeen. Farzeen studies through the night for his exams and, without his parents knowing, also works as a waiter at a hotel.

مرد بھی روتا ہے، بس آنسو کسی کو دکھائی نہیں دیتے۔

Today his graduation result is out. He sits nervously in front of the computer, chewing his nails and scrolling the pass list until he finds his roll number: he has come first. He runs to his mother, lifts her by the arms and spins her round. Her reply cuts him down at once. What’s so special about that, she says; he does nothing but read, so where else would he come? She pushes money into his hand and sends him to the market for groceries, complaining that he sits around all day doing nothing. Farzeen swallows his happiness and goes.

That evening his father asks where he’s been. Farzeen tells him he went for a job interview, but they want either experience or a “sweetener” of five lakh rupees. Qaiser sahib’s answer is just as harsh: all this education is worthless, and he should find some other work and stop being a burden.

Zainab Shamim writes simply and honestly about a young man who does everything right and still hears only blame at home. It’s a moving read for anyone who has felt unseen by the people they love.

You can read Marad online here or download the complete PDF for free. For another story about a young man fighting unemployment and family pressure, read Daldal by Riaz Aqib Kohlar.