Maine Khwabon Ka Shajar Dekha Hai/میں نے خوابوں کا شجر دیکھا ہے

by Umera Ahmed

Main Ne Khuwabon Ka Shajar Dekha Hai (English: I Have Seen the Tree of Dreams) portrays the conniving side of human psyche, which firmly believes that all is fair in love and war. Conceit, deceit, egoism and selfishness play a dominant part in the story as Shumaila, madly in love with her cousin Umar, conspires and creates misunderstandings between him and his wife Sana. What goes around, comes around and Shumaila eventually pays a heavy price for her deceptions. It was first published in Shuaa Digest.
It is a collection of 6 stories including this one; Shehr-e-Zaat, Koi Lamha Khuwab Nahi Hota, Koi Baat Hai Teri Baat Main, Muthi Bhar Mitti and Teri Yaad Khaar-e-Gulaab Hai.

184 pages, Hardcover

First published December 1, 1998

About the author

Umera Ahmed is one of the most widely-read and popular Urdu fiction novelist and screenplay writer of this era.
She completed her Masters in English Literature from Murray College, Sialkot. Later she became an English language lecturer for the students of O and A levels at Army Public College, Sialkot. However she left the job a few years back in order to devote her full attention to writing.
She began her writing career in 1998 at a quite young age. Her initial stories were published in monthly urdu digests and later came out in the form of books. She has written about 16 books , comprising of complete novels and compilations of short stories. However it was her novel "Peer-e-Kaamil (S.A.W.W)" which became her identity.

Reviews

[Shaharyar Amjad · Rating 3 out of 5]

Amazing, I must say.The stories 'Main ne khawabon ka shajar dekha hai', 'Muthi bhar khaak' and 'sheher-e-zaat' were just mind-blowing. I was stirred to read it and it left me with questions unanswerable.

[Khadija Adhia · Rating 4 out of 5]

All the stories in this book were really good, but Shehr-e-zaat, Har lamha khwab nahi hota and Teri yaad khaar-e-gulaab hai were my favorites! Some previously undiscovered topics were brought to the surface and beautiful lessons were successfully delivered. Good job!

[Shabana Mukhtar · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is an anthology and I have reviewed each of those separately. And just too lazy to copy it here, again.

4 stars rating says it all. Umera is a genious.

[~Riaa [Hiatus] · Rating 2 out of 5]

1.75⭐️

The "love" in this book wasn't actually love. It was just pure madness and jealousy. I'm not some expert on the topic, but I always thought if you really love someone, you'd want to make them happy. What Shumaila did was the total opposite, and I honestly hated her for it. And I still think Sana could've done way better than Umer Hasan. 💔

[Yusra Hussain · Rating 3 out of 5]

Well, Umera Ahmed! Very very Umera Ahmed.

This book has a collection of 6 different stories among which I personally liked Shehr-e-Zaat the most. A girl's journey to learn to love Allah. It was different and the story had so much power.

Liked reading the whole book, nonetheless. Such fictitious books keep you hanging until you finish reading the last page of them. This book did the same to me.

I'm giving it 3 stars because the stories had the same plot. Umera Ahmed is like the Judith McNaught of Pakistan. When you get a hold of her book, you just instantly get to know that it's written by her. You can tell the name of author even without knowing it beforehand, when you start reading it.

Still got one more unread book of Umera Ahmed in my bookshelf. I'll be reading it anytime soon.

[Nazish Islam · Rating 4 out of 5]

Well I really learned from this story. Sacrifice always a reward. Very well written Umera Ahmed.

[QB · Rating 2 out of 5]

Rather lame story of unfulfilled, jealous love.

[Omama. · Rating 2 out of 5]

This story is about those individuals who deems that everything in love is fair, even committing evil deeds by wrecking lives or separating two hearts. The lesson it taught by the life of Shumaila is that love never demands selfishness. All it wants is sacrifices, trust, honesty and being happy in the happiness of your beloved. Snatching the love of someone else's life and demolishing their lives in the name of love is just the sign of a weak person.

[Wania · Rating 2 out of 5]

Shumaila khatoon apne is be saropa zindagi guzarne k baad poocha hai ap ki jagah hum hote to kya karte. Again mein apki jagah hoti to us insaan ko kabhi haasil karne ka nahin sochti jo apka hai hi nahin. Jo ap ka nahin hai uss k peeche bhaagne ka kya faeda.
Khair, yeh khaasi disturbing story hai. Achi likhi bhi nahin hui or obviously mard hazrat ne jis aasani se daman bachaya hai khaasa ghussa aaya hai is pe mujhe

[Hoor · Rating 1 out of 5]

How regressive can one be? The husband was 200 times more responsible than the narrator for breaking up of his marriage. Then Sana bibi marries him again because it's hard to find an iota of self respect in Umera Ahmed's female leads. He doesn't want 'beta' from cousin because he'll share property. Their two daughters will not get their fair share ? Why , if may ask again. Outdated stuff and please remember. Talaaq aik daag hai.

[Fatema · Rating 3 out of 5]

Liked it. Read it after watching the drama though and imo the drama is far far superior, loved it, made me cry and feel so much for the characters.. Loved the character of Sana and the actor too. Very well written screenplay

[Adiba · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's a good read, actually the story was fast paced. There were many things annoying when Sana surprisingly changed her behaviour towards her mother in low, Umar Hassan just gave her divorce without any valid reason, secondly Sana remarried with Hassan. But yeah overall its a good.

[Faiza · Rating 5 out of 5]

I am biggest fan of Umera Ahmed.I recommendet it for everyone!

[Faiza · Rating 5 out of 5]

This story is very Nice.

[Asad Ahmed (MALIK) · Rating 4 out of 5]

Most favourite
1) Koi Lamha Khwab Nhi Hota
2) Me Na Khawabo Ka Shajar Dekha Hai
3) Koi Baat Hai Teri Baat Mein

[Dua · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved it
That plot twist just awesome

[Laiba · Rating 2 out of 5]

Idk what to think of this

[Humna Ali · Rating 3 out of 5]

The stories just seemed repetitive. Got really bored by the third one

[Kishwar Zubair · Rating 3 out of 5]

The story is about a young girl Shumaila who was in love with her cousin & next door neighbor Umar and she grew up fantasizing about being his wife. They both belonged to not so educated middle class famililies and even their parents want them to get married. But Umar was in love with his class fellow Sara who was from an educated & sound background and gets married to her despite his parents disagreements & resistance. This leaves Shumaila heartbroken but instead of moving on she gets more obsessed with Umar and starts manipulating her aunt & her family and lay the seeds of misunderstandings & discord, which leads to constant fights in their home. Umar gets fed up with these personal & other professional problems and ends it all by divorcing Sara & marries Shumaila after a while! She is over the moon on finally getting everything that she wanted but her marriage doesn't turn out to be as magical as she thought it would. Umar provides her everything- money, materials, etc. but it doesn't matter how much she tries, she never managed to get him to love her at all. And in the end she realizes that Umar was never hers and it comes back to where it was all started!

This story is honestly pretty vanilla. I've seen many Indian & Pakistani dramas with almost similar plot. So it wasn't something new or interesting to me but that doesn't mean it was bad. Yes it wasn't great but I wasn't bored!

This novella has been adapted into the 2008 released Pakistani television series "Doraha" 📺 and I've uploaded a "BOOK vs SERIES" video on my youtube channel so do watch it if you're interested! 🙂

https://youtu.be/jfSfEd5UWQI

[Sundus · Rating 3 out of 5]

So i read it again after some 6 or 7 years? Just to revise the lessons.

Thank you Umerah.

[Abiha T. · Rating 3 out of 5]

is everything really fair in love and war?