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Other Days
Sara, a Pakistani immigrant living in the UK, meets Daud, an old acquaintance, on New Year’s Eve of 2000. This chance meeting triggers the memories she had been trying to evade since she left her country more than two decades ago.
She remembers her days in Sheher in the 1970 basant, festival of lights, cultural discourse, reinterpretation of folklore, and an extremely charged political environment in university campuses. Daud left the country, after he was assaulted by a group of students. Later, a chain of events compelled Sara to move to the UK in 1977, along with her new-born daughter, Sammi.
Dreams. Kinships. Metanarratives. Their fears and vulnerabilities. Sheher was calling Daud and Sara again.
She remembers her days in Sheher in the 1970 basant, festival of lights, cultural discourse, reinterpretation of folklore, and an extremely charged political environment in university campuses. Daud left the country, after he was assaulted by a group of students. Later, a chain of events compelled Sara to move to the UK in 1977, along with her new-born daughter, Sammi.
Dreams. Kinships. Metanarratives. Their fears and vulnerabilities. Sheher was calling Daud and Sara again.
311 pages, Paperback
Published October 21, 2021
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
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February 6, 2022Other days is an eventful story from Pakistan, weaved around two woeful events in the lives of two persons, obviously of a man and a woman. It shows implicitly how apparently small events can change the course of one’s life… forever. The novel explores how identities change and how people get entangled in wrong places just because of their not so familiar and not so conformist ways of life. A story of desires, dreams, deceptions, oppression and nightmare. An absorbing tale of some other days, the days full of revolutionary zeal, and overshadowed by different perspectives. It tells how competing perspectives determined the direction of Pakistani society---ramifications of which we can still identify in our own time… the other days are still very much present… a must read.
Arshad Waheed has also written a novel titled “Guman” in Urdu and has translated works of Gabriel García Márquez and Milan Kundera in Urdu.
Arshad Waheed has also written a novel titled “Guman” in Urdu and has translated works of Gabriel García Márquez and Milan Kundera in Urdu.
January 31, 2022
What a fascinating novel by Arshad. It spans over about 3 decades . Story is told skill fully, and with a great deal of command on characters. Although technically it is fictional, but informed by actual historical events in South Asia. A must read for any true lover of literature. Highly recommended.
January 13, 2022
Other days is an enlightening journey through the decades that shaped an entire country. Woven into the political background is the fictional but all too real story of people that tried to steer the social narrative away from what it eventually grew into.
Moreover it is an education into what it took to stand for social liberty and freedom of thought in an otherwise exceedingly suffocating environment. Something we have only heard in stories but have sadly not witnessed in at least this century.
Besides the insights into history Other Days also tells a very human and apolitical tale of unfulfilled dreams, the compromises we make, the often futile desire to relive what we left behind and finding the purpose that keeps us going.
The text makes you reflect on the choices we make and gifts us with a unique appreciation of our countries history.
A must read, specially for anyone who can trace their roots to Pakistan and India.
Moreover it is an education into what it took to stand for social liberty and freedom of thought in an otherwise exceedingly suffocating environment. Something we have only heard in stories but have sadly not witnessed in at least this century.
Besides the insights into history Other Days also tells a very human and apolitical tale of unfulfilled dreams, the compromises we make, the often futile desire to relive what we left behind and finding the purpose that keeps us going.
The text makes you reflect on the choices we make and gifts us with a unique appreciation of our countries history.
A must read, specially for anyone who can trace their roots to Pakistan and India.
November 29, 2023
Other Days, a wonderful book, and historical novel takes you to the old days of the 70s and 80s when the youth in Pakistan was enthusiastic and ready to take risks for revolution to change an unjust and inequal society. How the collective dream and joyful process of bringing this dream into reality was shattered and made dreamers vulnerable in the hands of orthodox ideas is a sad but true story.
Other Days reminds all the political workers and idealists of that period and everyone who remained part of left politics can relate to the characters of this novel.
The story doesn't end here. It revolves around the identity crisis of immigrants in the UK, a second generation of those who struggled in Pakistan for revolution but their life crisis brought them to settle abroad.
The novel captures ideas, emotions and human behaviours beautifully and engages the reader sometimes with a big pause to feel the depth of words and emotions.
Other Days reminds all the political workers and idealists of that period and everyone who remained part of left politics can relate to the characters of this novel.
The story doesn't end here. It revolves around the identity crisis of immigrants in the UK, a second generation of those who struggled in Pakistan for revolution but their life crisis brought them to settle abroad.
The novel captures ideas, emotions and human behaviours beautifully and engages the reader sometimes with a big pause to feel the depth of words and emotions.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews