Tapta Sehra by Ayesha Imtiaz Farheen

About this novel

Tapta Sehra by Ayesha Imtiaz Farheen is a lively Urdu romance that moves between a college hostel and a job interview. Its heroine is confident, outspoken and not easily impressed, and the title means the burning desert.

The novel opens outside a girls’ hostel. Nooshi tells Sheraz that their friend Jeeni didn’t come to college today because she has a fever, and Sheraz is upset that he waited for her all morning. He wants to visit, but the strict hostel warden doesn’t allow boys inside. Nooshi teases him about the warden: last time she stood watch for an hour while he waited, and he still couldn’t get past her. Laughing, Nooshi promises to bring Jeeni down to see him, and heads in through the gate.

Then the story shifts to an office. The clock strikes ten, and a girl is waiting her turn for an interview, quietly reading a magazine while other candidates fidget and stare. When her name is called, she walks in calmly: “May I come in, sir?” The two men behind the desk are so busy that it takes a few tries before they look up. “Please have a seat,” one of them says. Her name is Taniya, and the interviewers start asking questions.

Taniya surprises them with her honesty. When they ask why she wants this job, she says simply that she does not need it, and she is not desperate. Some people work out of need, she explains, and she wants to work for her own satisfaction. When they mention that she has refused offers from several companies already, she says it is true, and she will do the same here if their demands are not right for her. The two interviewers look at each other and smile. “Itna attitude achha nahin,” one says. Ayesha Imtiaz Farheen sets up a heroine with plenty of spirit.

خود اعتمادی وہ زیور ہے جو ہر عورت کو سب سے زیادہ سجتا ہے۔

Read Kathan Raston Ke Musafir by Ayesha Imtiaz Farheen, or browse more romantic Urdu novels and the latest Urdu novels.