Daily Times

Exploring the horizons of a tale of idealistic living of both leads, writer Nimra Ahmed this time takes us on a ride to Karakoram, also known as Rakaposhi, situated in the northern areas of Pakistan, along with her old approach of giving in all the tad bits of details of almost every little scenario and then maintaining a touch of suspense in her another magnificent work of fiction, Karakoram Ka Taj Mahal, which, for all the astounding reasons is based on a true story!

The novel starts with Parishay who has beautiful features with her hair all tied up in a nice, neat ponytail. She gets irritated when a biker boy whistles at her as she is on her way to her cousin’s (Nisha) house who is also her only best friend. Initially she’s portrayed as an idealist, whose, dreams get crushed by her own family members, relatively at quite a younger age right after her mother passes away. Though, she sidelined all her dreams, she still has this desire to scale the mountains, or, to be more exact, be delighted by the scenic beauty of it and meet up with her dream prince she has been dreaming of her entire life, but she being another innocent soul agrees on marrying her aunt’s son, Saif just for the sake of her father and also struggles on becoming a doctor just so that she might make her father and in-laws happy.

Moving forward as the story progresses, she’s given permission by her father to visit the northern areas of Pakistan along with Nisha and a tour guide.

The best part for me is when Parishay does everything she can to save Arsalan, however, the part when they are rescued takes the reader’s breath away as it gets really devastating to see him endure obstacles, stress and physical torture

That said, while they both are wandering on the streets of Mall Road, Murree they cross paths with Uffaq Arsalan, off whom Parishay can’t take her eyes off from the minute she sees him.

The story takes a turn as they spend some time together, since, coincidentally, Uffaq Arsalan is also on his way with the same tour guide to visit the scenic north and scale the mountains. The highlight of the book is when Parishay fulfils her life-long dream of scaling the mountains and making her father and family proud.

Overall, the entire story revolves around dreams being shattered and still not giving up, sorrow, happiness, laughter and then the scenic beauty of the northern areas of Pakistan. The characters, dialogues and all the minute details keeps you glued to the book and the nights spent in Karakoram are written in such an impeccable manner that it gets nerve wrecking until you get to the end especially the part when their mutual friend (Irsa) dies and then later when another avalanche hits Arsalan.

The best part for me was when Parishay does everything she can to save Arsalan, however, the part when they are rescued takes my breath away as it gets really devastating to see him endure obstacles, stress and physical torture. It not only took my breath away, but also shattered me, considering the fact that it was based on a true story and that all the characters were real, things got even scarier for me!

Honestly, this one is absolutely a must read and after getting towards the end, your heart won’t hold back in screaming, “Nimra Ahmed, you really owe me my tears girl!”

Nevertheless, it’s definitely a masterpiece!

The writer can be reached at heeminariaz95@gmail.com

Published in Daily Times, March 8^th 2019.