Karakoram ka Taj Mahal: Love story in mountains (Book Review)
Karakoram ka Taj Mahal
Author: Nemrah Ahmed
Publishers: Ilm-o-Irfan Publishers
"Mountains have the power to call us into their realms and there, left over, are
our friends whose great souls were longing for the heights. Donot forget the
mountaineers who have not returned from the summits."
The story right in the heart of black gravel, "The Karakoram" gives you the goosebumps which compel you to read till the last: کوہ پیمائی بھی بھلا کوئی چھوڑنے والی چیز ہے
Pareeshey, Ufuq & Irsa takes you to the most epic journey making their way all the way on the slopes of Rakaposhi.
Honestly I fell in love with the story, the first time I read it. It makes me fall in love with the mountains and northern areas of Pakistan over and over again. I had never been into mountaineering before. Never did I know that what on earth are porters, avalanche, crevasse, crampons like seriously.(You would laugh at me.) I consider this novel (at least for me) an important milestone of my life. It gave me a wider panorama of mountains.
They are far from being those towering and colossal land masses from which we are supposed to be awed. There are stories of hope, aspiration & yearning, fellowship, amity & joviality, rift & melancholy all engraved in the white blankets of snow and they are still over there echoing in crevasses of karakoram. One may hope that these glaciers will melt one day and carry with them the stories of love and pain.
راکاپوشی خوبصورت ہے اور جو خوبصورت ہوتے ہیں ان سے زیادہ ظالم بھی کوئی نہیں ہوتا
I loved all those countless moments where I fell for the two beauties. Beside the lake of Mahodand, pari scolding ufaq like a doctor (although she was a doctor), in the White Palace, mistaking Guava for pear, hiding guava behind the fountain as a gesture of love, on white heights of Rakaposhi caring for each other, burying Turk flag in the snow.
It is the absolute delight for mountain lovers but unlike other writings of Nemrah Ahmed it is just a love story. A love story in the fantasy which gives you the sweet ache. Such love stories are hard to find in the real world. In my opinion, it can be a good escape from the realities of life.
Overall it is very different from the other writings of the writer and if you are reading it to find Nemrah's style of wisdom, diversity and Quranic teachings then you will end up in chaos and disappointment. But as far as I found it, it is simple, decent and ample to quench the thirst of book lovers.
Plot Summary:
Pareesha, a girl from Islamabad is a doctor by profession but climber by heart lives with her father and is engaged to his cousin Saif. She with her friend Nisha is all set for the tour of Northern areas of Pakistan. There she happens to meet Ufaq Arsalan, a young man from Turkey with the vision of holding his flag high on the impregnable heights of Rakaposhi. The two youngsters start falling for each other before there roads diverted.
Ufaq is all set to summit Rakaposhi and Pareeshey is back in her home but she somehow convinced her father to let her join the expedition team to Rakaposhi. She joined the team of Ufaq and Irsa in base camp. 3 climbers with several porters all set to summit the beautiful killer of Pakistan from North West ridge but the destiny was not kind to them. The cruel mountains took their friend Irsa from them and leave them in the most miserable conditions and they were forced to return. They were rescued by Pak-army search and rescue operation & once again their ways departed.( yes, the love story is not that simple)
Few months later on 8th of October 2005, an earthquake was felt centered near the city of Muzaffarabad. As a doctor Pareeshe was back in mountains to rescue deserted people & Ufaq being an archeological engineer also came from Turkey for the help of Pakistani people with his friends Ahmet & Jenk Yakin.
But once again mounatins were cruel to them and took their dear friends from them. Pareeshe's father also died and she broke up with Saif to marry Ufaq.
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#Karakoram ka Taj Mahal Book Review
