Ah, high-school dramas, college dramas, uni dramas. Who doesn’t love those? They are the phases of our lives where young adults learn how to be a grown adult within controlled environments. Where we’re free from responsibilities of the real world, haven’t yet been knocked down by life, haven’t yet tasted the real struggles, yet at that time our problems feel like a mountain over our heads that we never seem to be able to conquer. Where we create memories worth a lifetime. Where we build friendships. Where we lose friendships too. Who doesn’t feel connected to their learning institutions and yearn to relive those days? Well, I did. Relived those days, that is. This book called Yaaram took me to a journey of university days and made me experience more emotions, both high and low, than any book in recent memory.
Yaaram by Sumaria Hameed. A story of love and friendship. A story of relationships in general. A story about uni life. I loved this book. I absolutely, totally loved this book. I dived into it with high expectations and it lived up to each one of them. Crazy, right? A book this hyped and not overrated either? A rare event indeed.
As the story begins, we’re introduced to the character of Amraha. She lives in Lahore with her family and is looked down upon by everyone. Or at least by anyone who knows her history. See, she’s considered manhoos in her family because of certain unfortunate events that transpired at the time of her birth. People think she’s bad luck. That she’s a living embodiment of evil eye. Imagine the trauma a person with such reputation must have gone through their entire life. Nobody cared about her. She had no friends. Her own family taunted her for what she was wasn’t. But, there was one person who did care for her. And looked after her. And groomed her. Her grandfather. Who loved her more than his own children, and more than her own father. He helped Amraha get away from this toxic environment and sent her to Manchester University in Manchester UK for higher education. Here is where Amraha discovered herself, made friends, found love, and then messed everything up!
Enter Aliyan, the love interest. Vera, the best friend. Carl, the troublemaker. Lady Meher, the savior of lost children. And other characters that show so many different forms and aspects of love that you just can’t help but melt at them. Amraha, a girl starved of love, confidence and self-esteem finds herself among these beautiful people and grows as a character. A lot. But in a very realistic way. She’s not fixed overnight. She’s not turned perfect either. She’s a flawed character and remains so throughout the novel. But her endurance grows with the story. She makes a lot of mistakes, but she also tries to fix them. “Tries” being the key word here. She doesn’t always succeed in fixing things. She does, however, have a special ability to royally screw things up. That’s what makes her character so realistic and relatable.
Aliyan, on the other hand, is an apple of everyone’s eye. He’s the popular kid in uni. Everyone loves him and for a good reason. He’s charming and decent. But he doesn’t have a lot of friends. His past is as shady as his name: Aliyan Margret. A Muslim first name with a non-Muslim last name. He fells in love with Amraha not long after she lands in his country. It’s very subtle and beautiful. He finds ways to spend time with her. He endures her snarky attitude. He laughs at her lame attempts at humor. Of course, Amraha’s feelings grow too. But, being a typical Pakistani girl chained with society’s traditions and customs, she rejects him. Things take a turn for the worse when Aliyan finds out the real reason for her rejection.
This is where this book that was making me laugh so much started to go glum. It became sad, so incredibly sad that I had to put it down on many occasions to take a hold on my emotions. I will not go into details of the story, but let me say how things get so much worse between Amraha and Aliyan in second and third act of the book before getting good. And what a cost Amraha had to pay to make things right again! And it had everything to do with Aliyan’s background and his past. Amraha crossed a few lines in this book. She broke too many hearts a long the way. She hurt her friends without intending to. Yet, her friends loved her unconditionally. It was so, so beautiful .
Apart from Amraha and Aliyan, there are two other characters that deserve admiration: Vera and Carl. Vera is a Russian girl who becomes Amraha’s best friend. She’s a strong girl; incredibly strong, skilled and resourceful. Carl is Aliyan’s childhood best friend/enemy. He’s like Fred and George from Harry Potter. He’s a prankster. I initially didn’t like him, especially after the role he played in Amraha and Aliyan’s love story, but he grew on me big time later on. Carl too, in a way, becomes Amraha’s friend despite her reluctance.
Throughout the novel I kept thinking how lucky would I be if I had a friend like Vera. There was so much to learn from her. She had so much to give to the world and people around her. She became Amraha’s knight in shining armor whenever she got in trouble. She lend her support to her whenever she needed it. In return, Amraha sacrificed something great to honor their friendship. I have many problems with that “something” and the way Vera’s character handled in the third act with that unnecessary plotline, but overall she was brilliant.
Yaaram has a diverse cast of characters. Each character has uniquely identifiable character trait. Sumaria Hameed deserves props for creating so many three dimensional and relatable characters that enhanced the experience of this simple story. She is such a smart writer. I have mad respect for her story telling abilities and writing skills. She reminded me a lot of Farhat Ishtiaq. Both of their writing styles are so familiar it’s uncanny. I have always cried like a baby whenever I’ve read Farhat Ishtiaq’s novels. I went through the exact same emotional roller coaster ride with Yaaram. It’s both amazing and scary the power writers can have on us readers. I don’t cry much in real life. But give me a sad story, or even couple of well written sad sentences and I’m KO’ed. And Yaaram knocked it out of the park.
That’s what Yaaram is: a well crafted, well written, brilliantly executed, full of humor, full of sadness, full of life, and a thrilling story that delivers in all aspects of story telling. I LOVED this book. I see why so many people are crazy about this book and I’ve now become one of those people.
Have you read Yaaram? If so, share your thoughts down below. And if you’ve any suggestions for more novels like this, please do mention them. Thank you for reading. Allah Hafiz
