Mera Pakistani Safarnama

by Balraj Sahni

MERA PAKISTANI SAFARNAMA by Balraj Sahni

Genres: Pakistan, Nonfiction

224 pages, Unknown Binding

Reviews

[Rahul Khanna · Rating 4 out of 5]

Today I was watching an interview of Satinder Sartaj. He mentioned this book in it. So I became curious about it. I come to know about Punjab digital library. This book was available there. So I registered and started reading and read 90 pages on the very first sitting.
I am an ardent reader but my interest in reading is dissipating gradually. But this book gripped me. Mostly I read in English but the magic of reading in mother tongue is incredible.
This book is about the trip by Balraj Sahini to Pakistan in1962. The language and the reproduction of the dialogues of people with different patois is very catchy.
In Hindi Yashpal attracts me most among writers but I am feeling same after reading this book.

[Omair Mahmood · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read its Urdu translation published in Pakistan by Book Corner Jhelum. Reading it made me sad at several moments. I felt that pain of a person who belonged to Pakistani part of subcontinent, who had to leave his homeland because of partition, and he was visiting his own place like a guest.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vokQq...

[Amitt Behll · Rating 5 out of 5]

The book is reminiscence of time gone by. This review is reminiscence too of my reading the same. Here are few things which I liked:
1. You can read it online at Panjab Digital library. Also it is a very good initiative, please support it
2. I remember his description of a farmer sitting along with him. The sun laden skin, the convoluted and intimidating moustaches and .....
3. How the language of childhood comes back impromptu when someone speaks so in front of you, even when you think you have forgotten it. Same happens with Balraj Saini, the hero, who gets his childhood accent back , surprising even himself
4. It is actually a personal diary of the events he always kept with himself, although it is very evident from name of book
5. His ode to mausoleum of heer in Jhang and his admiration of Waris Shah's heer is worth noting.
6.The typical sub continental inspector who controls his movement in Jang
7. He talks about his appreciation of Ahmad Nagar in Maharashtra, that how it is well managed as compared to Punjab
8. He compares heer of war is shah and Damodar and thinks how real heer of Damodar is.
9. He talks about George borrow 's writings about gypsies and their links to northern Indians
10. How laughter of a person can give insights into a man's mind and thinking
11. His going to his ancestral house in Bhera and able to remember each and every street. The scene where he finally finds his home made me very emotional
12.He on and off compares Hindustan and Pakistan, democracy and theocracy and gives his opinions in a non intruding way
13. The last poem of his well wisher about helplessness of parities heart wrenching, made me cry
14. The highlight of the book though has to be last 30 pages, which have nothing to do with his journey to Pakistan, but where he appears as a philosopher, where he yearns to find who is the victim and who is oppressor. Jews or Arabs or Punjab or Vietnam or America Or India. He gives his views with full emotions.

Overall what works for me is that he is honest and that he wants to engage and that he has a view and that he presents it like a smell

[Harjinder Singh]

good book

[Sabahat · Rating 5 out of 5]

Have I ever read a book this good? Honestly, right now I feel like I never have. This man captures complexity better than most High Literature I have read all my life. He captures the essence of being human, of being torn between two poles, of the ideological uncertainties that plague every thinking person, of love, beauty, Romance in a way that one can scarcely expect from a book so humbly placed in the travelogue category.

[jzee · Rating 4 out of 5]

This books a wonderful glimpse to Balraj Sahni's travel to Pakistan in early 60s. Although the book was originally written in Punjabi, this Urdu translation has ensured to carry most of the essence from original Punjabi. A must read for anyone interested in 1947, the upheaval, migrations and the the sentiments of people for their ancestral places that they had to leave.
It was so fluent & interesting that I finished it in one go :)

[Ravijot Kaur · Rating 5 out of 5]

I meant to read this book since I read a chapter of it in school. But it seemed hard to obtain, and I finally laid hands on it in the National Book Fair. A wonderful insight in the workings of the mind of a person who has left a life and a heritage, and has had to rebuild a life, and the feeling of homeland, in another land. Some descriptions are heart wrenching. I read the original Punjabi version, and the charm lay in typical dialects the writer has captured.

[Monika Jain · Rating 4 out of 5]

How i can read this book i tried many times but not opening on the website. please help me.

Thanks and regards
Monika Jain

[Parteek Marok]

Can u give me its pdf??

[Sukh]

This book is a university of it's self. Love the use of punjabi language and pakistani punjabi and pondi juban.

[Nasreen Ghori · Rating 5 out of 5]

مہاجرت کے دکھ ہجرت کرنے والے ہی جانتے ہیں

[Harman Deep]

My favourite writer balraj sahni

[Satinder Deep]

Excited wanna read right now

[Sehgal]

osam