Book Review: Roshni Ki Udan [Jasoosi Duniya issue 309] by Ibne Safi B.A.

जासूसी दुनिया अंक 309- रोशनी की उड़ान [लेखक- इब्ने सफ़ी बी.ए.]

सप्ताहांत की शुरुआत हो चुकी है. पिछले हफ्ते कई कारणों से कोई भी किताब नहीं पढ़ पाया था, इसलिए इस हफ्ते पहले से ही विचार कर लिया था कि कम से कम दो किताबें पढ़नी ही हैं. इसीलिए अपने इस प्रायोजन की पूर्ति के लिए मैं आज कार्यालय से आने के बाद सबसे पहले लग गया एक किताब पढ़ने. कोई तय नहीं था की कौन से लेखक को पढ़ना है, परंतु जैसे ही मैंने आज एक किताब पढ़ने का विचार किया अतएव ही सबसे पहले मश्तिष्क में नाम उभरा सर्वप्रिय लेखक इब्ने सफ़ी बी.ए. का. तो मैंने उठाई जासूसी दुनिया का 309वां अंक ‘रोशनी की उड़ान’ और पढ़ गया एक ही बैठक में.

सर्वप्रथम जब से यह चर्चा सामने आई है कि शायद जासूसी दुनिया में इब्ने सफ़ी जी के नाम से प्रकाशित कुछ नॉवेल उन्होने नहीं छद्म लेखकों ने लिखे थे, तब से हमेशा उसे पढ़ते वक्त मन में एक शंका बनी रहती है कि क्या इसे सफ़ी जी ने लिखा है या किसी छद्म लेखक ने. बहरहाल किसी ने भी लिखा हो, इस किताब ने मेरा सरहनीय मनोरंजन किया.

कहानी की शुरुवात होती ही एक रहस्यमयी महिला मिसेज मालिक से [जो की अपने अजीबो गरीब आचरण से इस उपन्यास में एक विशेष स्थान प्राप्त करती हैं], जिनके फ्लैट में एक दिन दो लोग किसी शख्स के बारे मैं पूछ ताछ करने आते हैं, इसमे वो उन्हे धमकी तथा प्रताड़ित करने का प्रयास करते हैं मगर मिसेज मालिक एक अंजान शख्स जिसका नाम वह ढंप बताता है की मदद से उन अराजक लोगों से बच जाती हैं. इधर राजेश सर शंभू दयाल की आज्ञा से एक विदेशी जासूस मिस्टर ब्राउन [जिसके बारे में उसे अधिक जानकारी नहीं है] की मदद एक अंजान आदमी को खोजने में कर रहा है, जिसके बारे मैं उसे कुछ भी नहीं मालूम. इस खोज में राजेश को एक रहस्यमयी हवेली का पता चलता है तो की खाली ही महसूस होती है परंतु उसे यह आभास होता है कि इस हवेली का संबंध इन सब मामलों से जुड़ा हुआ है. इसी बीच दो विदेशी तथा अंजान गुटों में टकराव होता है जीने पीछे राजेश लग जाता है.

नवेल का लेखन सराहनीय है, तथा कहानी पेज दर पेज नए गुत्थी से हमारा सामना कराती है. जैसे जैसे हम आगे बढ़ते हैं हमें यह भी ज्ञात होता है कि जो कहानी एक रहस्यमय शख्स की तलाश से शुरू होती है उसका संबंध कुछ देशों के राजनयिक मसलों से जुड़ा हुआ है तथा जिसका असर भारत वर्ष की सुरक्षा पर भी पद सकता है. इसी दौरान कहानी में राजेश के सदृश्य [उसी के समान दिखने वाले] का भी अवतरण होता है जो की अपने कार्यों से राजेश को भी संकट में डालने का प्रयास करता है. कथानक में कई बार ऐसी घटनाएँ होती हैं जो राजेश के साथ साथ श्री शंभू तथा राजेश की सहयोगी मेरिया को भी कई बार संकट मे डालती हैं. वैसे इस नॉवेल में हमारा सामना एक किसी धातु के बने अजीब रोशनी छोड़ने वाले हथियार से भी होगा, तथा हमेशा की तरह राजेश अपनी अजीबो गरीब हरकतों से हमारा मनोरंजन तो करेगा ही.

कौन था वह रहस्यमयी शख्स जिसकी तलाश राजेश को थी? क्या कोई इतना विशेष हो सकता है कि उसके कारण कई देशों के राजनयिक सम्बन्धों पर असर पड़ सके? कौन थी मिसेज मालिक? राजेश क्या इन सब गुत्थियों को सुलझा पाया? यह सब पढ़ कर आनंद आया.

वैसे एक बात कहूँगा, कई बार जासूसी दुनिया ने सफ़ी जी की नॉवेल को ऐसे नाम दिये हैं जिनका मूल कहानी से कोई लेना देना नहीं होता, कम से कम मुझे तो यह उपन्यास पढ़ कर ऐसा ही लगा.

उपन्यास मनोरंजक और सराहनीय है. आशा करता हूँ आप सब में जिन लोगों ने इस नॉवेल को पढ़ा है वो भी अपने विचार हम सब से साझा करेंगे.

वैसे एक निवेदन यह भी है कि यदि किसी के पास इसका कवर पेज अच्छी क्वालिटी में उपलब्ध हो तो कृपया करके मुझे स्कैन करके प्रदान करने की कृपा करें, मैं उनका आभारी रहूँगा. मेरे पास उपलब्ध किताब के कवर की हालत जरा नाजुक है.

लेखन में कोई त्रुटि हो तो उसके लिए क्षमा प्रार्थी हूँ.

Details about the book-

Name- Roshni Ki Udan
Publisher- Nakhat Publication, Allahabad
Series- Jasoosi Duniya
Issue no.- 309
Writer- Ibne Safi B.A [Original- Urdu], Prem Prakash [Translator- Hindi]
Book language- Hindi

My rating: 4/5

My book Review- 'Maut Ki Awaj' by Akram Ilahabadi

मौत की आवाज- अकरम इलाहाबादी 

पिछले हफ्ते इब्ने सफ़ी बी.ए. जी की कृति ‘मूंछ मूँडने वाले’ पढ़ी थी, न जाने क्यों मगर मुझे उसे पढ़ने पर वह संतुष्टि प्राप्त नहीं हुई जो सामान्यतः सफ़ी जी की किताबें पढ़ कर प्राप्त होती हैं. शायद इसीलिए इस हफ्ते मैंने किसी अन्य लेखक की रचना पढ़ने का विचार किया और अपने कलेक्शन से मशहूर लेखक अकरम इलाहाबादी द्वारा लिखित उपन्यास ‘मौत की आवाज’ जो की जासूसी मासिक ‘जासूसी पंजा’ के तीसवें अंक में प्रकाशित हुआ था ढूंढ निकाला. हालांकि मैंने अकरम जी की लेखनी के शाहकर कुछ ही उपन्यास पढे हैं, चूंकि वो उर्दू लेखक थे और अब तक उनके केवल कुछ ही उपन्यास मुझे हिन्दी में मिल पाये हैं; परंतु यह कहना उचित होगा उनकी लेखनी भी काफी संतुलित तथा रोमांचकारी थी तथा इन कुछ उपन्यासों को पढ़ कर यह समझ सका हूँ कि वह भी पाठक को अपनी कहानी से अंत तक बांधे रखने की महारत रखते थे.

चलिये बात करते हैं ‘जासूसी पंजा’ मासिक के तीसवें अंक की, जिसमें प्रकाशित हुई थी अकरम इलाहाबादी द्वारा लिखित उपन्यास ‘मौत की आवाज’. किताब की शुरुआत होती है अत्यंत घनघोर बारिश की रात से जब शहर अकबरपुर के एक सम्मानित व्यक्ति सर अकबर की रहस्यमय ढंग से मृत्यु हो जाती है जो कि अपने पीछे एक नौजवान पुत्र शहजाद और पुत्री गजाला को छोड़ जाते हैं, सुप्रीटेंडेंट खान तथा सार्जेंट बाले को तफतीश के दौरान यह मालूम होता है कि अकबर जी मृत्यु के 1 हफ्ते पहले से कुछ अजीब अजीब आवाजें सुन रहे थे जो उन्हे कहती थी ‘तुम मर जाओगे’ तथा उनका बर्ताव भी बड़ा अजीबोगरीब हो चला था. प्रारम्भिक खोज बीन में पुलिस को कोई संदेहास्पद संदेह तो न हुआ परंतु उन्हे पूछताछ से यह जरूर आभास हुआ कि मृत्यु के पीछे लोगों को रूहानी ताकतों, शैतानों के होने का शक है. तफतीश के दौरान ही उन्हे सर अकबर कि वसीयत तथा अपने पुत्र को संबोधित एक पत्र भी प्राप्त होता है जिसमें वह अपने पुत्र को यह बताते हैं कि उनकी एक नाजायज पत्नी तथा बेटा है तथा वह पत्र के द्वारा अपने पुत्र से यह दरख्वास्त भी करते हैं कि वह अपनी सौतेली माँ तथा भाई को खोजे तथा उन्हे अपने साथ लाये.

पुलिस के जाने के बाद उसी रात अकबर जी के पुत्र शहजाद को भी उसी प्रकार कि अजीब आवाज सुनाई देती है जो उसे भी कहती है कि ‘तुम मर जाओगे’, इस घटना से भयभीत शहजाद और गजाला अपनी मौसी के साथ वह हवेली छोड़ के जाने का निर्णय लेते हैं मगर तभी वहाँ दो अजनबी आते हैं जो उन्हे यह समझाते हैं कि वे उनके पिता के पीर शागिर्द थे तथा उनके होते हुए कोई उनका कुछ नहीं बिगाड़ पाएगा.

परंतु अगले ही दिन शहजाद पर जान लेवा हमला होता है तथा वे दोनों अजनबी भी हवेली के पीछे बेहोश अवस्था में पाये जाते हैं. अत्यंत सोच विचार के बाद अन्य लोग भी सहमत होने लगते हैं कि उस हवेली में किसी शैतान का वास है जो कि सर अकबर के वंश का विनाश करके ही मानेगा.

क्या खान और बाले इस गुत्थी को सुलझा पाएंगे? क्या सच मुच हवेली में किसी शैतान का साया था? कौन थे वे दो अजनबी? सर अकबर के नाजायज बीवी तथा बेटे का क्या रहस्य था? इस उपन्यास में एक एक गुत्थी धीरे धीरे खुलती है जो कि हमें अंत तक इस कहानी से बांधे रहती है.

इस उपन्यास को पढ़ने पर हमें कई तथ्य भी प्राप्त होते हैं. जैसे कि यह आवश्यक नहीं कि कोई व्यक्ति हमें पहली नजर में जैसा प्रतीत हो, वह असलियत में वैसा ही हो. या फिर धन के लालच में एक औरत अपने पति के खिलाफ भी साजिश रच सकती है. तथा अगर हम प्रयास करें तो हर अकल्पनीय घटना के पीछे का कारण भी पता लगाया जा सकता है.

168 पेज का यह विशेषांक मुझे काफी आनंदित लगा, तथा अकरम जी का लेखन सराहनीय है.

और हाँ एक और बात, हिन्दी में पढ़ने के बावजूद भी इसमें उर्दू शब्दों का अत्यधिक प्रयोग है तथा इतने दिनों बाद पढ़ने पर मुझे गर्व हो रहा है कि मैं अभी भी काफी उर्दू शब्दों का अर्थ समझ पाता हूँ.    

आशा करता हूँ आप में जी जिन लोगो ने इस उपन्यास का वाचन किया है वह भी अपने विचार जरूर साझा करेंगे.  

     

My Rating: 4/5

My book Review- Lakhnavi Nawab by Janpriya Lekhak Om Prakash Sharma

लखनवी नवाब- लेखक जनप्रिय लेखक ओम प्रकाश शर्मा

किताबों की दुनिया से मुझे बचपन से लगाव रहा है, करीब 7-8 साल का था तब से कॉमिक्स का शौक चढ़ा जो की अब भी चालू है धीरे धीरे ही यह आकर्षण बढ़ता ही रहा और जैसे जैसे उम्र बढ़ती रही मैं कॉमिक्स के साथ साथ अन्य किताबों को पढ़ने लगा. घर में माता जी और पिता जी भी विभिन्न प्रकार की मैगज़ीन, पाठ्य, जीवनियाँ और नॉवेल लाया ही करते थे, तो मुझे हमेशा कुछ न कुछ पढ़ने को मिलता रहता था. हिन्दी भाषी होने तथा जादतर पढ़ाई भी हिन्दी मीडियम के स्कूल से करे के कारण हिन्दी भाषा से मेरा खास लगाव भी है. हालांकि अब नौकरी की भाग दौड़ में नॉवेल तथा किताबें पढ़ने के लिए जरा समय कम मिल पाता है फिर भी प्रयास करता हूँ की जितना हो सके कुछ ना कुछ नया पढ़ता रहूँ, वैसे भी किताबें तनाव या परेशानी में मेरे लिए औषधि का कार्य करती हैं.

कल मैं अपने छोटे से नॉवेल संग्रह में पढ़ने के लिए नॉवेल खोज रहा था और तभी मुझे एक यह किताब मिली. ‘जासूस’ जो की एक मासिक पत्रिका थी उसका मार्च 1965 का अंक. यह पत्रिका सन 1948 से लाला नारायनदास गर्ग के स्वामित्व में रंगमहल प्रकाशन, दिल्ली द्वारा प्रकाशित की जा रही थी [हालांकि इसका प्रकाशन बंद कब हुआ यह जानकारी मुझे नहीं है]. किताब के प्रथम कुछ पृष्ठों से आगे बढ़ा तो इसमें मुझे महान लेखक ‘ओम प्रकाश शर्मा’ जी द्वारा लिखित कृति ‘लखनवी जासूस’ प्राप्त हुई और मैं बैठ गया इसे पढ़ने.

कहानी को लखनऊ के नवाब नवाब वाजिद अली शाह के शासन के समय सेट किया गया है, वहाँ के एक सम्पन्न सौदागर की बेटी अपहृत कर ली जाती है परंतु विभिन्न प्रयासों के बावजूद भी पुलिस उसका पता नहीं लगा पाती है. इस पर लखनऊ के रेजीमेंट स्लीमन द्वारा चुनौती दिये जाने पर नवाब उससे शर्त लगाते हैं कि 1 महीने के अंदर अंदर वो सौदागर कि बेटी को खोज निकालेंगे और फिर अपने सबसे प्रतिष्ठित जासूस चतुरी पांडे को यह ज़िम्मेदारी सौंपते हैं. चतुरी यह कार्य अपने शिष्य नज़ीर के सहयोग से करने का फैसला करते हैं और इसके साथ ही शुरू होती है एक कहानी जिसमें उनका पाला कई लोगों से होता है जैसे एक झूठा मक्कार फकीर जिसका धर्म लोगो की सेवा करना नहीं परंतु धन कमाना, एक सौदागर जो कि अपने फायदे के लिए देश को भी बेचने पे तुला है, एक पागल औरत जो कि एक सम्पन्न परिवार की होते हुए भी दर दर भटक रही है. इसी कहानी में चतुरी जी अपने पुराने मित्र के पुत्र से भी मिलते हैं जो कि अंग्रेजों से प्रताड़ित किया हुआ है और अब उनके विरोध के लिए एक छोटी सेना का प्रतिनिधित्व कर रहा है.

हालांकि पत्रिका का नाम ‘जासूस’ होने से इस नॉवेल को जासूसी श्रेणी में प्रकाशित किया गया है परंतु मैं इसे सिर्फ जासूसी श्रेणी में तो नहीं गिनूँगा. मेरी नज़र में यह एक साहसिक घटनाओं वाली नॉवेल की श्रेणी में अधिक फिट बैठती है. लेखक ओम प्रकाश शर्मा जी ने नवाब वाजिद के समय की सामाजिक स्थिति का भी चित्रण करने का प्रयास किया है तथा कहानी के माध्यम से यह भी प्रदर्शित का प्रयास किया है कि किस प्रकार अंग्रेज़ धीरे धीरे करके भारत वर्ष के विभिन्न संप्रान्तों पर अपना कब्जा जमा रहे थे. नॉवेल के अंत तक लेखक ने यह भी चित्रण किया है कि जहां एक तरफ अंग्रेज़ भारत में अपने पैर जामा चुके थे वहीं दूसरी ओर उनके खिलाफ विद्रोह के भी बीज पड़ चुके थे जिसमें भाग लेने के लिए हर प्रकार तथा वर्ग के स्त्री – पुरुष जुडने लगे थे फिर चाहे वो कोई बुजुर्ग जासूस हो, नौजवान युवा हो, नया शादीशुदा जोड़ा हो या फिर कोई विधवा महिला.

भले ही कहानी में कमियाँ हैं परंतु मैं ओम प्रकाश शर्मा जी की इस कृति के लिए सराहना जरूर करूंगा.

My Rating- 3.5/5

You can read it online by clicking here

My Comic Review: Aghori 'Origins' published by Holy Cow Entertainment

Hi,

Was feeling a little down today, what all with this heat and all. So to get refreshed decided to head over to my first love and that is reading comics. Since long, I've not read anything new in comics specially Indian comics industry.
As you might already know that I am a big comics lover and run one blog for preserving and uploading old Indian comics as well as another blog where I translate English and Some other language comics in Hindi and post them for reading. Since long I've been buying and collecting old Indian comics which were used to published and are now not available easily. You might already know that in India there are only few comics publication in operation. So while I continued collecting old comics, I also decided to support these newer publications and buy their comics, and my first selection was holy Cow Entertainment as I'd already heard few good things about it from my fellow comics lovers.
So this month I bought all their issues which are published till now [1 or 2 are missing which I'll buy soon] and received them few days back. Today when I decided to read something I picked up one of most famous series of Holy Cow Universe, titled Aghori. I finished its first story line "Origins", and picked up my laptop to write something about it. But be ware as I am not a professional reviewer, and I am not sure how must you'll find this post interesting.

Ok! First thing first I am a big lover of DC/Vertigo comics series 'Constantine' and Its dark word and has since long hoped for something like that in Indian comics, but off course with Indian touch. And that is where this series gets my first point as it explores the dark world thorough the character of Aghori named 'Vira', who is a troubled soul and is trying to find his son whom he abandoned before his birth due to some unusual circumstances 12 years back and wants to help him.
Writer Ram V, who as per the information given in the comic was writing for the first time for any comics series has created a good world full of demons and dark powers.

I wouldn't go much in the story as it is better you read it yourself.

Fistly I'll talk abouth the story, Writer Ram V has created a good arc and as he himself accepts which is more towards philosophical way then mythological sens. In the story he has tried to depict and ordinary man in Aghori Vira who is troubled by his own deeds and wants to save his son. Thorough the various story lines in the arc he has also depicted various wrongs in our world when we kill the love in the name of honour or When a father can kill his own child just because she is a girl or a man can do anything out of greed. But he also showed that there is goodness in the world like friendship, as Ashwin a stranger helps the Aghori thorough all his troubles or Kindness, which Inspector Khare showed towards Vira after knowing his story. In the four part series [I should say 8 part, as was informed over the phone by CEO of Holy Cow Mr. Vivek Goel] he has created a journey of the man who fights the evils of the world in his quest to find his son.

Then the art. I loved It. I think it is good we are getting western world style art now in India too. Some people might not agree with me and can say that the older style of comics art was better but i like this full page more dynamic are with amazing use of colouring. A art is done by Vivek Goel and Gaurav Shrivastava mostly, and I must say they've done an amazing work.

Now I move towards printing. Yet paper quality is good. But what irked me sometimes was the selection of colour of text and type of font at some places, as sometimes they were hard to read due to bad taxt colour selection in the Panel. Also book binding or should i say sticking of the pages i not satisfactory as some pages came of during my first reading itself. I hope they take care of these things in future.

All in all it was an interesting read. Would sure start 'Aghori: Bloodline' series very soon.

Next time I'll be back with the story lines too in my reviews.


You can buy these from the official website of Holy Cow Entertainment here. They are on sale at present.

My Book Review: 'Bhayanak Daldal' by Aarif Marharvi

In my journey of searching old hard to find Hindi books and novels till now I have got to know many publications and series which are now stopped and very little known to people now a day. At the peak of its time Hindi writing used to present many diversified options to readers to enjoy. At one side we were presented with many socially themed novels written by amazing writers such as Gulshan Nand,a Gurudutt, Raj Vansh etc. then on the other side we used to get good mystery, thriller stories written by Ibne Safi [Originally in Urdu], Ved Prakash Kamboj, Om Prakash Sharma. At that time Pulp fictionhad its own big fan following. I've also reallized at that time there were many monthly magazines who used to published detective novels/stories on mothly basis, some ofthe monthly magazines which are known to me are Jasoosi Duniya, Jasoosi Fanda, Jasoosi Panja, Guptchar etc.
I short there were lots of options for Hindi reader which in my opinion we lag these days.

Now onto this book.


A few days ago i was going through my old books collection and was searching for any mystery book to read. While going through my collection i found this novel titled 'Bhayanak Daldal' written by Aarif Marhavi for Jasoosi Panja series of Star publications, Delhi. 
The one thing which i experienced from this book is that don't go after the book by its cover (As i found here that the book cover had no relation with the story).
The novel follows the adventure of an Extra ordinarry detective / Secret service officer Kaisar Hayat Nikhattu a.k.a Marshal Q. 
The story starts with the murder of Mr. Shamsher Singh a well respected and known man of the city under Unusual circumstances while he was receiving protection from the Secret Service department. The murder was more unusual as it was done through a blast in Mr. shamsher's room without anyone entering in the room around that time. The blast had resulted in taking away the head of the victim, making it tough for the police and Secret service to identify the identity of the victim.. 
The case was under Civil police jurisdiction, still a Private Detective Kaisar Hayat Nikhattu enteres the murder scene in an different getup and fake identity of higher departmental officer and tries to solve the mystery behind this murderer. Looking at the crime scene as well as various circumstances he deducts that the murder was done by someone close to Mr. shamsher. Before He or Police could find anything else victim's foreigner wife Shirle fled the scene after murdering a police officer and breaking the heavy security. She also informs the police commissioner about the true identity of Kaisar stating that he was not someone he was claiming to be. But before the civil police could do any thing Kaisar was able to get away from the Police but after coming out he finds himself in a lot of trouble with a vehicle following him and trying to kill him. He fights them and was able to catch one of the people trying to hurt him. He brings that person to the secret headquarter of Secret service.
In another place a member of the secret service named Deepak has been caught by some mysterious criminals/ Gangs who use various high tech technologies to find out about the position and information about the other members of Secret service from Deepak, who under the influence of some kind of hypnotism gives up all the information. Although he couldn't give any information about the chief of the secret service 'Marshal Q' as he didn't have much information about him.
Based on this information the Gang finds out about the secret service's headquarter and also plans to kidnap all the members of Secret Service. But Secret Service chief Marshal Q gets a snif of their planning and orders all the workers/ agents of the Secret service to change their base and place to be safer from a probable kidnapping. He also starts planning his own action against the gang. 
Marshal Q informs his remaining colleagues in the secret service that he'll be taking help of Kaisar in this case. He does that as no one knew that kasiar and Marshal Q are same person and not the two different people.
In this journey Kaisar comes across a beautiful lady who offers to go on a date on their first meeting and meet him at the time of dinner, although the woman was in different getup kaisar recognized that woman as Shirley, wife of pressumely killed victim Shamsher Singh . Understanding her probable plan to kill him as well as his colleagues he plans to catch her and supporters red handed in the act. He sets up a plan by inviting all the colleagues from Secret service at hotel Air france at the set time of his date with the woman, and also changes his get up again and switches the place with a Violin player. 
Suspecting that the violin player is Kaisar, Shirley and her men kidnap him with other officers and take them to thier base where by help of his intelligence and work Kaisar a.k.a. Marshal Q succeeds in not only freeing his colleagues but ends a terrorist group in the country as well as solves the mystery of Shamsher singh's mystery.

By the way at the end writer throws up a twist that was not expected, but to find that twist you'll have to read this book.

I would say the book started quite well with the interesting plot of murder of a person by a small bomb taking away his head, when no clarity was available who came in his room, but during the writing or i would say book the writer went away from this plot in an attempt to give it some what James Bond feel and didn't concentrate much on the murder solving aspect. 
I guess when you have a target of giving 1-2 book each month to the publisher, gou tend to be repetitive and not develop the story to its full capacity. still a decent one. This novel came out in the series Jasoosi Fand and this is the 140th book of this series.


Still You can read it for a nostalgia feel.


My Rating: 2.5 /5

My Book Review: Ek Nadi Do Pat by Gulshan Nanda

So now after reading few detective novels I’ve decided to read a social novel to keep my mind diversified with the different type of writing styles, and for the same today I selected famous writer Gulshan Nanda’s Novel ‘Ek Nadi Do Pat’ and finished it at one go. The good thing about Gulhan Nanda is again concise writing which I like a lot. The novel contains 158 pages which is quite short  in comparison to some novels who go upto 700-800 pages. But even in these small number of pages the writer touches upon different aspects of life and society as well as human emotions.

The Story starts with the main character Vinod,an Engineer by profession Ready to come back to his home in Lahour after fighting war for 3 years at Myanmar during 2^nd Word war, as he gets up in the Plane a beautiful girl [Madhvi, as he comes to know her name lateron] sits next to him and was going to patna and gets attracter with her beauty and charm. As he sees her Vinod thinks of his past time when he was married to an un-attractive girl [Kamini] by cheating which has initially hurt him a lot but slowly due to her beautiful nature he has started to love her, and how when he was coming for the war she was pregnant with their child. While in these thoughs Vinod is still attracted to this girl who is sitting next to her. Slowly they start to talk and when the Airoplane suffers from some problem in the Engine and had to be land in Assam for 3 hours for maintenance they connect instantly. While waiting for the plane’s Engine to get shorted they plan to visit nearby places, and by luck couldn’t catch the plane on time at the time of returning. As luck would have it, the plane gets crash and these two get saved from that.

Still as they were in the plane as per the record at the time of plane’s initial boarding and as no passenger were recongnisable after accident, all the passenger were presumed dead. Although Madhvi who was from a rich family informed her father  and Uncle (With whom she was going to live in Patna), Vinod doesn’t do so and senses this opportunity to start this life afresh. He goes with Madhvi to her uncle’s house to drop here their and decides to stay with them for few days on their insistence. Both were falling for each other and during this Madhvi hears that her Father died in a Attach in Verma [Myanmar], and confesses her love to Vinod while he was going to her family in Lahour. Vinod goes to Lahour to meet his family, wife and child but being weaken by his desire and love of this beautiful girl Madhvi, he returns back to her without informing his family and wife about his well being. Madhvi was everything he wanted, she was beautiful, inteligents and smart and loved him unconditionally. He doesn’t tell her about his past life.

After Marriage Vinod and Madhvi decide to settle in Assam where Madhvi had a large land of Tea plants inherited from her father. As at the time India was still under British rule they oserve a really bad position of the people of the place who were working at the state and Vinod works for their revival, also fighting with English corporate. During this while fighting with English, they decide to take their land from English company and not renew the rental agreement with them. Vinod starts to run the operation of tea plantation and other activities with the help of nearby people. But as luck would have it during an unfortunate day ‘Brahmaputra’ Rivar gets flooded and distroyes nearby places as well as the area at which Vinod and his workers had done their Hard work. This gives a motivation to Vinod who starts to plan a model for dam which can be setup a low cost and would be helpful for the whole area saving them from Brahmaputra River’s anger at rainy season. His Ideas get struck down during the British Rule and life goes on like this.

India gets independent, and the government plans to setup a Dam at the nearby place for the well being of the people at the place where Vinod and Madhvi living. When Vinod hears about this, he gets exited by this news only and being an Engineer goes to visit the place at which this plan is proposed to be done. There he meets various people listening to their ideas about the plan. There He also meets a young energetic Man named Raman who instantly impresses Vinod with his energy and intelligence. After some time they become close and Raman comes to know about the Vinod’s plan and likes them a lot. He also proposes to take vinod to Delhi to meet the concerned department as in his openion Vinod’s Plans were much better and achievable in much cheper cost, but Vidod decides against it and gives the plans to Raman to show the concerned people.

Raman informs Vinod about the success of his plans and how much everyone had liked it, he also calls him to Delhi. They get the plans sanctioned and required documentations were done. One day Raman who by then had become very close to Vinod and well as Madhvi, invites Vinod to His house at Delhi to meet his mother with whom he used to live and Vinod accepts the invitation. When He reaches Raman’s house Vinod comes to know that the house is of Kamini [Who was still living her life as widow] and Raman was his own son. Filled with guilt Vinod runs away from them without informing anyone. Kamini doesn’t tell this to Raman who continues to work with Vinod for building the bridge, but Vinod is not sure what he should do or what he is feeling, he was stuck in a fight within Himself with his conscience. Later Raman also brings Kamini with Him to Assam so that he can take good care of her, Kamini knowing that Vinod will be also there asked Raman that they live separately. Although thinking about her Son’s well being, his future, and his state of mind if he knows the truth Kamini tries to not express or say anything to Raman but she is troubled as well as disgusted that how can a person be so cruel who can hide that he is alive and leave his family on the mercy of others. On the third side is Kamini who is also not able to understand the strange behavior of Vinod since he came back from Delhi and specially since Madhvi has arrived Assam. One day  Kamini goes to Raman’s house to meet Madhvi as well as to know the well being, and on that specific time Madhvi unknowing of her presence tells the truth about Vinod to Raman.

This brings a havoc to all of their lives Raman stops interacting with Vinod and Madvi also confronts Vinod after some time to why he didn’t tell her about this. On the other hand the nature had some other plans and the heavy rain starts to pour making the water pressure and level quite dangerous to Dam to sustain. Seeing this Bothe Vinod and Raman decide that the Dam’s gate had to be opened manually which are stuck due to non-working of Automatic lever and Vinod goes to do this by himself stopping Raman, knowing that his could be his last meeting with his son and later on leaving his two widows [Do Pat] and a Bridge [Raman] to join them.

Ok! So first and farmost let me clarify once again this is a social novel and you won’t find any thriller or action content in the novel. The story revolves around the Human Emotions and believes and also how they behave under different circumstances.

As I’ve already said earlier the writer has touched a long period of time in the whole novel.

The characterization of the Main character Vinod is Complex, who is although a nice human being who tries to do good for people around him, but is still not untouched from Human Desire. It shows although he is living the life with the person he loves but still be is hurt thinking the position his wife and child might be and faces guilt by this, but again he decides to go again his duty and surrenders to his desire. We are attached with his character till the end feeling and experiencing his good as well as bad deeds.

The writer provides us two strong woman characters. One Kamini, a un-attractive but a strong willed woman who spends her whole life thinking that her husband is dead and does her every bit to make her son an engineer. Second is Madhvi, a beautiful strong willed women who also loves Vinod unconditionally and supports him through thick and thin.

A like Novels/stories like this, and as per my openion Gulshan Nanda is one of the best Socio-novel writer, although I might be a little biased towards him as my mother has been a good appreciator of his writing all her life and I have been brought up listing her praising his writing.

Still I am sure you all will also like this novel as much as I did.

My rating- 4/5

My Book Review: Smokewater [Jasoosi Dunya Book 61] by Ibne Safi

Hello Everyone,

One more Ibne Safi Book review which I had already posted at somewhere else...

I hope everyone is well and healthy. In place of giving the title of my post ‘My Book Review’ maybe I should title them ‘My Book Information’ as I am not really a book critic with fancy words and I only give you all a basic intro cum information about the book and try to state my opinion about it in some simple words. But lets leave it for later…

Today again I’ve finished one Ibne Safi Book. As you might already know few days ago I’ve read Poisoned Arrow by Ibne safi which was not only interesting but later also appeared as the first book in the series of Doctor Dread adventures. So after cooling off for few days I started the second book of this series titled Smokewater which is translated from original title ‘Pani ka dhuwan’.

The book starts with a beautiful young girl Shakila coming to Meet Colonel Faridi and asked his help as she was concerned for her Grandfather whose health  deteriorates mysteriously after seeing a boat near the doc. Faridi agrees to take up the case and goes with her to her house to see the Girl’s grandfather, a famous businessman Mr. Fayyaz Ahmed. He also visits the Island and Doc area where they had seen that mysterious boat. After going their Faridi sees an unusual Monkey and goes after him in a cave. Later-on after coming out of the cave he tells the girl that he won’t be able to take up her case and she should go to her house, and instruct Captain Hameed to drop the girl at her house.

Captain Hameed also was in a little doubt with the girl’s intension as her family was infamous for playing practical jokes on people and starts to investigate her. During this investigation he comes to know that the girl has one other house in a not so good area of the city and no one knows what she does there. He confronts her and visits that house with her thinking that she is hiding something from him and Colonel Faridi. At that time few people arrive at the house and kidnap the girl Shakila with Hameed, later on they find out that they had arrived with the plan to kidnap Faridi too but couldn’t execute that as he was not there.

On another place Faridi is conducting in his own Investigation. When he comes to know about the disappearance of Hameed and the girl he goes after various goons very hard and was able to find both Hameed and Shakila. There he gets an idea that all this case was not a simple one and he was mixed with something notoriously long game.

Faridi and Hameed continue with their quest and in this path Faridi sends Hameed and Inspector Rekha as undercover to the party of Mr. Ray Chandra Shekhar, another prominent business Man. The party was very exclusive and attended by very few prominent people. In this party Faridi and Hameed uncover many facts and also solve the mystery behind Mr. Fayyaz’s health.

Oh! And In the same party Dr. Dread makes an appearance for the first time [Although with another name and appearance].

What was the reason behind Mr. Fayyaz’s unusual health? Who was Shakila? Who was Dread and what was a notorious criminal like him doing here? Why was the Party of Mr. Ray Chandra Shekhar was so important in all this context and what really Faridi and Hameed discover there?

To know these all, read this book which I believe you won’t regret it. As I’ve already said I am a very big lover of Ibne Safi’s writing as not only his story telling is concise but he also winds up different stories and plot lines in a way they I never get bored and also each story keeps me interested. His character development is always interesting and mind-blowing as only in few words he creates an image of the character which you are forced to follow. And last but not the least what I’ve always loved about Ibne Safi’s book is him not using Sex in any of his book to sell. Yes he shows that Hameed is a big flirt and likes to Enjoy the company of women, but he never crosses the line giving some un-useful steamy sex in between the story to keep readers interested, he always throws some new mystery points in the book and sticks to his story idea which anyway keeps us glued to the book. This series is developing up quite good and I hope Mr. Safi takes the story and thrills one more notch up in the upcoming novels.

Ok! So I can’t wait to move to the third book. But I guess I should wait for few days to save myself getting addicted to Ibne Safi’s book, as they are very rarely available in Non-Urdu Language.

What do you think about this book? Share your thoughts and opinions with me.

Title- Smokewater [English title]

Original Title- Pani ka Dhuwan

Writer- Ibne Safi

Original Language- Urdu

Publisher- Blaft publication

My Rating- 4/5

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