House of Clay and Water, This (PB)

One of the books I was eagerly looking forward to, this year, was Faiqa Mansab's 'This House of Clay and Water'. It was launched late last month and I got a copy and finished reading it yesterday. Here is what I think. #TheStory The first thing I want to say about the book is that I love that gorgeous cover! It is so beautiful! Now about the book itself. The story is set in Lahore and it starts with the story of Nida. Nida is married and her husband and in-laws are well off. On the surface, life seems to be comfortable and nice, but there seems to be an emptiness in Nida's life. The story goes back and forth in time, as we find out more about Nida's past and try to discover clues to find out why she feels the way she does. Nida goes to the Daata Sahib Dargah sometimes, to calm her spirit, and there, one day, she meets Sasha. Sasha is a free spirit and though she is married and has two young daughters, she rebels against the confines of marriage and goes out with different men who make her feel special. Nida and Sasha meet Bhanggi, in the dargah. Bhanggi is a hijra, a hermaphrodite. His life in the past has been hard, but these days he sits under the banyan tree and plays the flute. People assemble to listen to him and they also come to pray for and receive his blessings, because he is regarded as a qalandar, a Sufi saint. A beautiful friendship blossoms between Nida and Bhanggi and it looks like it would flower into something more. The rest of the story is about how the friendship between Nida and Bhanggi and Nida and Sasha evolve and what happens between them and their families. Well, I am not going to tell you more. You should read the book for yourself and find out what happens next. #Thoughts I loved many of the characters in the story, especially Nida, Bhanggi and Zoya, Sasha's daughter. Sasha was also quite fascinating - flawed and imperfect and complex. The story is mostly told from the point of view of Nida, Bhanggi and Sasha, but occasionally others join in - Zoya and for a brief while, Saqib, Nida's husband. The novel's depiction of contemporary Pakistani families - the relationship between men and women, parents and children, women and their in-laws - is very beautifully done. I also loved the novel's depiction of contemporary Pakistani society - the contradictory pictures of the city, the elegance and the poverty, the position of the haves and the have-nots. The life of a hijra and a hijra's role in culture and society is also depicted very insightfully. I also loved the novel's depiction of the city of Lahore - the sights, the smells, the noise, the dust, the traffic, the monuments, the beautiful architecture, the history, the contradictions, the poverty, the elegance, the music, the food, the celebrations - the novel takes the reader into the middle of this beautiful city and leaves them there. #Quotes I loved Faiqa Mansab's beautiful, gorgeous prose - there were many beautiful lines and insightful passages throughout the book. Here are some of my favourites. "I was an utterance in absentia. I was a forgotten word, uttered and mislaid long ago. I was the word that existed because there was another word that was my opposite, and without it I was nothing. I gained meaning only by acknowledging that possible other." "It is not often that I have two options to choose from. It is nice to be compelled towards something, otherwise one drifts through life unimpeded." "I'd morphed, altered, nipped and tucked away bits of my personality for so long, I no longer recognized myself. I feared that one day, even if I wanted to, I wouldn't be able to identify myself. I'd be forever trapped in an image of another's making, and there would be no escape because I would have forgotten to want to escape." "When death becomes an escape, when it becomes attractive, the purpose of life is fulfilled. To teach one it's futility, it's worthlessness, that is the purpose of life. Incongruously, its value lies in having imparted that lesson." "In the nights though, I couldn't help but weave the golden cloth of my dreams. Each stitch from heart to thought, and thought to heart, was painful to bear, even if it was joyous at times. Because each thread was fraught with the fears of being broken midway, lost and never found again." "I had never said those words because there were no words left. My beloved and I were both exiles from language. Our love couldn't be expressed in words. Our love had been woven into the melodies rendered by his flute, and it was subsumed in the atoms of the air we breathed. It had been consecrated in this shrine. It had never been named. It was an unnamed thing that had remained unspoken, unuttered, unsaid. I did not need to name it when he could already hear it." #FinalThoughts I loved 'This House of Clay and Water'. It is a beautiful, unconventional, unique love story, a spiritual love story. It is also a story about families and human relationships. It is a brilliant, debut novel and Faiqa Mansab is a fresh, new, exciting voice in Pakistani literary fiction. It is one of my favourite books of the year and I can't wait to find out what she comes up with next.

Forbidden Love – A diktat in itself, unleashed on unsuspecting hearts like an ouroboros where forbidden swallows love and yet appears whole, showing no signs of damage. No one knows the pain except the latter that is now usurped by the former. But it is when the opposite happens, that the tale transcends its meagre form and turns one for the generations. Nida comes from a sophisticated family of high-ranking politicians and is married too, to one from this fraternity, but none of that sophistication and power has healed her wounds inflicted by her little daughter’s death. Sasha is trying hard to break the shackles of her middle class drudgery by seeking out pleasures outside her marriage, even as she protects her pretty daughter, Alina, from the preying eyes of the society and dismisses the state of her other daughter, Zoya, who thankfully is too plain to draw any attention. Bhanggi is an outcast hijra (eunuch) who, sitting under a tree in the Daata Sahab mosque, blesses and prays for worshippers at one hand, and is constantly at war with self and Allah, on the other. When these three imperfect and burdened souls cross each other's paths, nothing ever remains the same. This is a tale of merging and separating, stereotyping and rebelling, patriarchy and equality, suppression and freedom, violation and redemption, cowardice and courage. But above all, this is a tale of love - A love that blooms at an unconventional junction and between two people who are far, far removed from each other when it comes to their past experiences. Does a love without proximity carry the curse of disintegration? Or the curse of disintegration is a must as eternity is simply a mirage? Who decides the forbidden line when every heart is tainted? Can’t love simply be, without the prying eyes of society labelling it legitimate or not? Does such a label add gravitas to the love or crush it under its weight? Mansab extends the sprawling sky of Lahore, across crimson days and indigo nights, and nurtures the love of her protagonists with tenderness and purity, subtlety and sincerity. Her lovers are not the typical rebels or self-discoverers who make up their minds and go for the kill; they are the little children who retreat to their shelters when the rain falls hard and yet, they venture out again when it subsides, on slippery grounds, to collect its wet elixir on their souls. They step out and step in, forever toying with the line, not knowing when to cross and when to contain, but always knowing, to not malign the other’s heart. While the author does beautiful justice in sculpting the interlocked arms of ambition and failure, keeping the backdrop authentic and non-intrusive, it is her love story that brings a staggering element of poignancy, bordering on being impregnable. Upon reading the final line, I felt a prick in my heart. No, I didn’t know either of the lovers. However, they paraded in my world for three full days and their sharp, passionate pleas punctured my heart. But I didn’t bleed. Instead, I breathed in long, content breaths, as if a window of my heart was suddenly opened and a fresh breeze came rushing in from a land that invalidated ‘forbidden love’.

A story of 3 different people, their lives intertwined, well described. Their feelings are so well brought forth, you almost feel those with them. Intense book.

It's initially very boring. it might grab your attention mid way but over all not such a good one

- A brilliant work about the world that we live in. - Beautiful rendition of human emotions. - Sheds light in particular on the society and religion in Lahore and it's dealings with women and through the character of Bhangii, those who live on the margins. - Writing that tinges at your heart and makes you feel. - The interior monologues and the dialogues and the descriptions are all excellent. Takes you in to the novel. A must read. This is what a novel is.

It's been an amazing narrative to follow through different characters coming alive. Love the portrayal of Lahore in the novel with its touch of authenticity.

Superb book , doesn’t want it to end

Lovely book..amazing characters..unique story

Absolutely an amazing and memorable book! This is a wonderful poignant and heartbreaking story about love and friendship…. It will not disappoint.

It’s not everyday that you come across a book that’s so articulately written. Where religion, spirituality and love transcend the opinions of right and wrong. Characters so bold that they make you want to dive into their world no matter how sordid. No matter how sad. This is one of those books. And I’m sure, it’ll stay with me for years to come. Thank you for such a masterpiece Faiqa!