Amar Bail Novel by Umera Ahmed read online

Summary: Amar Bail (English: Mistletoe) is a love story of Umar Jehangir and Aleezay Sikandar, set-up in the backdrop of Pakistani bureaucratic culture. It is a story of imbalanced relationships, broken families, lust for power, complexes, insecurities and amidst all problems of love, its intensity and sacrifices. It depicts the true face of our bureaucratic system, highlighting social evils like corruption, nepotism and injustice and how at times going against the law is the only way to punish the culprits. The novel touches your heart by its brilliant portrayal of human emotions and psychology. The book follows a story on Umar and Aleezay’s life with a touch of romance and a major ongoing issue in Pakistan – corruption. Most but not all are corrupted, especially those in politics. The story also covers about broken family, insecurities and some other things that may be considered sensitive to some readers. Amar Bail was intriguing to say the least, and it has made so emotional which I absolutely enjoy in books. If you like books that keeps you on edge and makes you want to finish in one sitting, this may be the right pick for you. Time for the characters: Umar, my favourite favourite favourite character in this book. The character whom I cried for so much (how sad, my tears wasted but worth it). Even though at first I thought he was chichora (foppish / cheap ) but I was wrong, very wrong. His character is written in a way that is disliked by most brown moms. A smoker, a drinker, and someone who would break rules. However, there is a hidden soft side somewhere that made me gravitate towards him. He is an imperfect perfect character. To sum up his personality, it would be: A flawless character with uncountable flaws. The flaws that has taught me so many important things. There are reasons behind his actions and why he does it which is low-key quite eye opening. At the same time, he is also sensible that he sacrifices something which has hurt not only himself but us readers too, which is why I think so many readers are attach to Umar. I may be biased here now, but I actually do not have much to say about Aleezay like Umar. Aleezay may be written as a typical Cinderella type of a character, where she is alone and living with her grandmother. She visits her father’s family with two boys where they talk like Cinderella’s step sisters. Aleezay is a quiet girl who lives in her own bubble of thoughts most of the time. She is a character that makes readers easily pity her. The both character meets upon Junaid’s request (Umar’s good friend) in a party. The both are different yet shares similar interest, talking about the love and joy it brings to paint landscapes which became the start of their friendship. The reason why Junaid set them up to meet is because he wants Umar to befriend Aleezay and take that friendship on another level – marriage. As usual like any other book, a character dies which was very painful for me. It was a pain because the character felt very real as if the person was right in front of me and the soul departed away. All the reason why I was not a fan of the ending. It felt unfinished and there were so many plot holes which in my opinion deserved to be answered. Basically, it ended with a huge cliff hanger. Cliff hanger is enjoyable only if there is a continuation of the series but sadly this is not the case for Amar Bail. Umera Ahmed has a way to create characters which we often see around on the streets and she creates them close to reality, which makes them very unique.