Qismat Ky Khel By Haya Sheikh

About this novel

Qismat Ke Khel by Haya Sheikh is a family-based Urdu novel about a poor but self-respecting household and a proud rich one. Fate plays strange games with both families, as the title, the games of fate, suggests.

Karim Sahab is the maulvi of the local mosque. He has three daughters, Zoha, Sanam and the youngest, Maimoona, and one son, Awan. The writer tells us plainly that this is the story of the “safed posh” people who never stretch out their hands to anyone and never beg. When his wife Farida tells him the flour has run out, Karim Sahab only says, “Haan achha, Allah madad karega, main kuch karta hoon.” He runs a small shop and teaches children the Quran in the evenings.

Zoha left her studies after matric and now earns from stitching at home. Sanam, who is nineteen, continues her education privately and teaches at a small village school. The two youngest are still at school. Karim Sahab loves all his children, but he has a special bond with Sanam. Life is not easy, but the family is happy and grateful, and their mornings are full of small, loving chaos as Sanam gets the little ones ready for school.

The story then moves to a very different home. Taimur Sikandar, a police officer, wakes up late and greets his mother, Faiza Begum, who scolds him for coming home so late. Faiza Begum has a sharp tongue and doesn’t get along with many people. Her daughter is also staying with them, having come back after failing to settle with her in-laws, and her mother blames the in-laws for not valuing her.

Then Faiza Begum’s friend Sajida, who arranges rishtay, arrives with news. She has found a girl, the daughter of a maulvi sahab: very pretty, and as Faiza Begum wanted, from a poor family who will stay quiet and do as they are told. Haya Sheikh sets two very different families on a collision course in these first pages.

قسمت کے کھیل نرالے ہیں، جو کبھی سوچا نہ ہو وہی سامنے آ جاتا ہے۔

Read more by Haya Sheikh: Mere Khawab Reza Reza and Masoom Muhabbat, or see all Haya Shaikh novels and the latest Urdu novels.