Tu Lazmi by Suhaira Awais

About this novel

Tu Lazmi (Urdu: تُو لازمی) by Suhaira Awais is a short, sparkling romance about a newly married couple who are anything but a happy pair. Maida Malik has married Dabeer for a reason he doesn’t know yet, and she is already dreaming of getting out.

It opens with Maida sweeping out in a smart black-and-red suit, her head held high, towards the car where Dabeer has been waiting for half an hour. When he tells her to get in, she announces that she’ll drive today. Dabeer points out that they’re late precisely because she took so long getting ready. “Khush fehmi hai aap ki,” she sniffs, and when he teases her about her name, she corrects him sharply: she is only Maida Malik, and doesn’t need his name attached to hers. Dabeer reminds her, coolly, that she agreed to this nikah in her full senses, so why act as if it were forced on her?

نکاح ہو گیا، مگر دل ابھی راضی نہیں۔

Dabeer, who is very good at getting the truth out of people, locks the car and pockets the key: she can drive once she tells him the real reason. Since their nikah they have done nothing but bicker, and he had assumed it was simply a match arranged by their elders that Maida accepted under pressure. The truth is more practical. She wanted to finish her graduation in Islamabad, and her parents refused to let her live in a hostel. Marrying Dabeer was her ticket to study there. He is stunned by how little this marriage means to her, and by the fact that his bride is already planning a divorce.

Suhaira Awais writes sharp dialogue and stubborn characters, and the title, “you are necessary”, hints at how this convenient arrangement will change.

You can read Tu Lazmi online here or download the complete PDF for free. More by Suhaira Awais: Tum Faqt Mere, Kisi Or Ka Hun Filhal and Ghulam Hai Dil Ye Tera, or see all Suhaira Awais novels.