The Perfect Mentorpbuh (2011) is set in Lahore and
Islamabad in Pakistan. The novel commences with Imama Mubeen in medical
university. She wants to be an eye specialist. Her parents have arranged for
her to marry her first cousin Asjad.
Salar Sikander, her neighbour, is 18 years old with an
IQ of 150+ and a photographic memory. He has long hair tied in a ponytail. He
imbibes alcohol, treats women disrespectfully and is generally a “weird chap”
and a rude, belligerent teenager. In the past three years he has tried to
commit suicide three times. He tries again. Imama and her brother, Waseem,
answer the servant’s call to help Salar. They stop the bleeding from his wrist
and save his life.
Imama and Asjad have been engaged for three years,
because she wants to finish her studies first. Imama is really delaying her
marriage to Asjad because she loves Jalal Ansar. She proposes to him and he
says yes. But he knows his parents won’t agree, nor will Imama’s parents.
That’s because she is from the Ahmadi community of Qadiani creed, and only
converted to “true Islam” a few months before her proposal.
Imama’s father wants to accelerate the wedding date to Asjad.
Imama is furious with her father, and her father is outraged that she had
changed her faith. Her father confines her to the parental home. Imama seeks
Salar’s help to act as a go-between with Jalal – even though she
finds Salar obnoxious. Jalal tells Salar that he will reject Imama because his
parents refuse permission to marry. It will complicate his life if he tries to
go against his parents’ wishes. She is distraught. Salar, now 21 years old, thinks that a
woman who is forced to marry a man she doesn’t love and is rejected by the man
she really loves will “probably think of suicide.” He perversely thinks her
predicament is “amusing” and an “adventure” so he deliberately lies to her. Her father lies to her, and everyone lies to her. But no, suicide is the last thing
on Imama’s mind. She has another idea.
Salar changes his ways, cleans up his act, goes to
university, and gets a job. But eight years later he is haunted by thoughts of
Imama: from contempt, mockery, regret, hatred, envy, and even love. Friends urge him to get on with his life, and to
marry, but he can’t get Imama out of his mind. He is wracked with guilt and
shame for the lies he has told, and his despicable past.
Umera Ahmed is an accomplished storyteller, weaving
social norms with the rebelliousness or collapse of teenagers against parental
pressure. It is about folly, angst, desires, despair, and dreams. The story takes twists
and turns as the characters mature over time – and people are not who they
seem. Interesting novel.
Great work
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