Devata

by Mohiuddin Nawab

Devta is a serialized fantasy novel written in the Urdu language by Mohiuddin Nawab. It was published monthly for 33 years in the Pakistani magazine Suspense Digest from 1977 to 2010. Devta is the fictional autobiography of Farhad Ali Taimoor, a man who gained amazing telepathic powers.

The author Mohiuddin Nawab, a well-known social story writer of Pakistan, has written more than 500 stories, both short stories and novel-length, mostly published in Suspense Digest, a monthly magazine published in Karachi and available in Pakistan, India, and various parts of the world where Urdu is spoken. He has also written screenplays for film and television.

Devta is one of the longest continuously-published stories on record. It was started in February, 1977 and appeared every month in Suspense Digest, with its concluding chapter published in January 2010.

180 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1977

Reviews

[W]

I marvel at the sheer longevity of this story.I was nine years old,when I read its first episode in Suspense Digest,a Pakistani magazine.It would continue for the little matter of another 33 years !

I had stopped reading it a long time ago,but decades later,I was stunned to discover that it was still going on.

As for the story,it is about a man with telepathic powers.(Devta is a Hindi word which means god).He can enter anyone's mind,read his thoughts and then plan his future course of action accordingly.

This would come in very handy when Farhad Ali Taimoor,the protagonist would come up against criminal masterminds from the underworld and international spies.

Certainly,when I was nine years old,I was thrilled beyond words and followed it for quite a while.But then,I started reading other things and lost interest.Doubt if I'll able to muster any interest at all now.

The idea would become stale and the writing very ordinary,but not for its loyal audience which kept it going,seemingly forever.

It was later published in book form,and contained 56 volumes.May well deserve an entry in the Guinness Book of World Records.

[Imran · Rating 5 out of 5]

It was some 32 years ago somewhere in 1987 (I was merely 8 years) that I came across a Suspense digest in my home. Being a reading buff even at that age I started reading it and after I had read all the complete stories and nothing left to read I started the episode-wise novels. It is there when I first came into interaction with Devta. It was already into it's 10th year and I had no idea of what has happened in the 100 or so episodes that have passed but I was instantly hooked to it. I read the entire episode some 30-40 times in the next 1-2 years. I was young at that stage and didn't have enough resources to buy and read other episodes. But still I was in love with Farhad Ali Taimoor and Soniya (Our main protagonists). In the next 4-5 years I hardly could find a suspense digest here and there and read a few more episodes only increasing my fondness of the novel. Finally when I was in my 8th grade I discovered a private library in our vicinity that lend books on per day basis. I was ecstatic to find Devta among the books that they had. At that time they had 25 novels of Devta in their library. I started reading them and then I came to realize that Devta is an absolutely epic novel of huge proportions. It had everything from romance to betrayal to suspense to fight to adventure and later a little bit of spiritualisation (although I hate it the most). After initially reading it the first time I have read it many many times over and over again. The novel start growing down the hill after a time jump in the series where the children of Farhad became young. The influence of spiritual leaders, the introduction of aliens and the urge of the author to continue on and on left the novel in downward spiral and I was really happy that the novel ended somewhere in 2010 or so. I would have been very happy had the novel ended some 10-15 years earlier.
So my recommendation will be to read the first 30 or so novels and then have a clean break. Also did I forget to mention that this is the longest written novel in urdu literature history. It is really epic and even the bits written in 1977 don't feel like dated at all....

[sohail bhatti · Rating 1 out of 5]

صرف چند صفحات ہی پڑھے ہیں۔۔۔
معذرت کے ساتھ مجھے اسے ”پڑھ لیا“ میں شامل کرنا پڑا تاکہ اس کے بارے کچھ لکھ سکوں۔
یہ ناول سلسلہ وار کم وبیش تینتیس سال تک سسپنس ڈائجسٹ میں چھپتا رہا ہے اور اگر دنیا میں سب سے طویل ناول اگر نہیں ہے تو ان میں سے ایک ہے۔ اس ناول کی تعریف اور پزیرائی مختلف جگہوں پر پڑھ چکا ہوں لیکن باوجود اس کے اس کی طوالت کی وجہ سے کبھی اس کو پڑھنے کی کوشش نہیں کی۔ دو تین دن قبل کوئی اچھا سا ناول پڑھنے کے لئے کتابیں کو دیکھ رہا تھا تو طاہر جاوید مغل کی کتاب ”تاوان“ پر نظر ٹھہری، پیش لفظ میں اردو کے بہترین مصنفین کی تعریف کی گئی تھی جن میں انوار مجتبیٰ صدیقی، ایم اے راحت، اقلیم علیم، ایچ اقبال، شکیل عادل زادہ اور سب سے بڑھ کر کر محی الدین نواب، جن کے بارے میں فرمایا گیا کہ ”'دیوتا لکھ' لکھ کر داستان گوئی کے منبر کی امامت پر فائز ہو چکے ہیں۔
بس تو جناب یہ سب کچھ پڑھنے کے بعد دل مچل اٹھا اور میں نے ”تاوان“ چھوڑ کر ”دیوتا“ اٹھا لی۔ لیکن تقریباً ڈیڑھ سو صفحات پڑھنے کے بعد ہی روح کو ایک جھٹکا لگا کہ اتنے نامور مصنف کی نیکی اور بدی میں اتنا معمولی فرق۔ یعنی کہ اپنی سگی پھپھو کی بیٹی کے ساتھ رات بسر کی اور اس کے ساتھ یہ ”نیکی“ اس لئے کی کہ اس کی حوس کی آگ بجھ جائے اور وہ گلی محلے کے جمال کمال کو نہ دیکھے یا ان کو اپنے ”جسم کی سوغات“ نہ عطا کر دے۔ پھر اگلے دن اس کی شادی کسی اور سے کروانے کا بھی کہہ دیا۔ یعنی اپنے علم کے زور پر اگر کسی لڑکی کو اپنے بستر پر لے آیا تو وہ گناہ لیکن اگر کوئی اپنا آپ خود ہی عطا فرمائے تو اس کو انکار کفرانِ نعمت ہو گیا۔
جوئے کے ایک سین میں مکالمہ لکھتے ہیں ”بہرحال یہ تو پہلی بازی تھی، ان شاءاللہ دوسری بازی تم جیت لو گی۔“ اللّٰہ معاف فرمائے۔
اس کے علاؤہ ہپناٹزم، خیال خوانی اور کالے جادو جیسی خرافات، روح کا ایک جسم سے نکل کر دوسرے جسم میں چلے جانا، انسان کی بھینٹ، وغیرہ وغیرہ۔ بھئی امیر ہونے کے لئے اس طرح کے علوم پر توجہ کریں اور ”پری زاد“ کی طرح دوسروں کی کمائی ہوئی دولت پر امیر ہو جائیں۔
اس ناول کا صرف اور صرف ایک کمال ہے اور وہ ہے اس کی طوالت۔۔۔
پتہ نہیں لوگ کیسے تینتیس سال تک اس کو پڑھتے رہے ہیں۔

[Azeem · Rating 4 out of 5]

The longest story ever written in any language (in Urdu certainly) the magazine that published it called it the Arabian nights of our times. I totally endorse this view. It should have been translated to major world languages a long time ago, but nobody tried to lift this heavy boulder. Even if it is ever translated to English, it would need a good and discerning editor to truly make it a worthwhile read for the international audience. It was published in ints entirety in over fifty volumes. This is just the first one.

[Saad]

This is the lengthiest novel in the world, good read for time pass although story don't have any relationship with real life. But the most read books on Goodreads are also not real life stories, like: Game of thrones, Harry Potter, etc.

[Cyso]

cvnbmnm,. jnhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh fffffffffffff\

[Ebtihaj Obaidi · Rating 5 out of 5]

A novel that takes you into a fantasy world. Just amazing story-telling and building phantasy events sequences.

[Tanzeel Ahmed]

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