Wisaal e Yaar By Mehwish Bint E Zahid

About this novelette

Wisaal E Yaar (Urdu: وصالِ یار) by Mehwish Bint E Zahid is a short Urdu story about Benish, a middle-class girl raised on radio and novels. It follows her long, uncertain wait for the right life partner.

The story opens with a friendly argument. “Benish, why do you keep calling that radio show? You went on air yesterday too and talked nonsense!” “It’s fun, yaar – teasing the presenters.” Her friend Aisha jokes about teaching those smooth-talking RJs a lesson so they forget how to sweet-talk girls – but Benish is told to stop wasting time and focus on her papers.

The writer explains how it all began. During her BA, Benish’s friend Aisha had a vivid imagination and used to tell her stories from novels in their free time. Those stories caught Benish’s imagination too, and she began reading novels herself – romantic, informative, all kinds – borrowing them from the library instead of preparing for exams. As a result she got a lower grade in her BA. Realising Aisha was affecting her studies, she distanced herself from that friendship and took admission for her master’s. Coming from a middle-class family, she couldn’t afford to stop her education, so she started giving tuitions at home alongside her studies.

ریڈیو کی آوازیں، ناولوں کی دنیا، اور ایک لمبا انتظار۔

For a year Benish kept calling the radio show, more out of habit than anything else, and one day a presenter asked for her number. She refused his friendship; life’s bitter experiences had made her firm about loyalty and sincerity, and she wanted to teach such people a lesson. When things with the RJ ended because she wouldn’t behave the way he wanted, she gave up the radio altogether. She completed her master’s with an excellent score, but had no clear destination. Her family began looking for rishtas; four years passed, proposals came and went, nothing worked out. Then Benish started having strange dreams – and during that time a proposal came that, for the first time, felt different.

Mehwish Bint E Zahid writes simply about patience, faith and destiny, and the title – “union with the beloved” – promises that Benish’s wait will end.

You can read Wisaal E Yaar online here or download the complete PDF for free. More by Mehwish Bint E Zahid: Wajood E Laraib, Ujra Diyar and Seher Hone Tak, or see all Mehwish Bint E Zahid novels.