Muhabbat Ka Khel By Usama Ansari

About this novelette

Muhabbat Ka Khel (Urdu: محبت کا کھیل) by Usama Ansari is a short Urdu story told by Bayan, a young man who never wanted to fall in love. Then a girl chased him until he gave her his heart, and she broke it, which is why he calls love a game.

It opens with a line that sums up his feelings: “I love living, but I also want to love.” Love, the narrator says, is no less than a punishment; it strikes where a person least expects it and draws a curtain over even the cleverest mind. No matter how intelligent someone is, when he sees one of the Rabb’s beautiful creations, words fail him, his reason is fooled, and he falls in love knowing exactly what he is doing.

“My name is Bayan,” he tells us. He had never wanted to fall in love, but one moment and one person suddenly entered his life. He hated the very idea of love – until she appeared and made him hers. People call such a person the Rabb’s masterpiece, the kind boys take time out just to see. When she started loving him, he felt ashamed and told her plainly that he wasn’t a good match: he wasn’t of her standard and had no future. But she accepted him anyway, saying that those who truly love don’t think about profit and loss. Hearing that, he let himself love her too.

جس نے کہا تھا محبت نفع نقصان نہیں دیکھتی، اسی نے اوقات یاد دلا دی۔

After a year, he offered to send his family and get engaged. “What’s the hurry? It’s only been a year,” she said, and he stayed quiet. Three years passed this way, and when he asked again, her answer cut deep: you have no future, you’re not of my standard – you don’t even have the means. The words he had spoken four years earlier, she had remembered. Then one day a friend handed him a wedding card: hers. He went to the wedding with his friends, everything was nice except the bride, and he came home heavy-hearted, wondering how she could waste four years if she never loved him. He still remembers the date, 18 February. Life went on in silence – until one day a message arrived from an unknown number, full of poetry.

Usama Ansari writes simply and from the heart, about betrayal, self-respect and the lessons love teaches.

You can read Muhabbat Ka Khel online here or download the complete PDF for free. More by Usama Ansari: Kafir Aur Musalman, Mohabbat Aur Sakoon and Dil Darta Hay, or see all Usama Ansari novels.