What do you think?
Rate this book
The Crooked Line
A young Indian woman searches for her own identity as her country fights for independence in this novel from the award-winning Urdu Indian author. The Crooked Line is the story of Shamman, a spirited young woman who rebels against the traditional Indian life of purdah, or female seclusion, that she and her sisters are raised in. Shipped off to boarding school by her family, Shamman grows into a woman of education and independence just as India itself is fighting to throw off the shackles of colonialism. Shamman’s search for her own path leads her into the fray of political unrest, where her passion for her country’s independence becomes entangled with her passion for an Irish journalist. In this semi-autobiographical novel, Ismat Chughtai explores the complex relationships between women caught in a changing culture, and exposes the intellectual and emotional conflicts at the heart of India’s battle for an uncertain future of independence from the British Raj and ultimately Partition.
393 pages, Paperback
First published May 1, 1944
52 people are currently reading
937 people want to read
About the author
Ismat Chughtai
98 books312 followersIsmat Chughtai (Urdu: عصمت چغتائی) (August 1915 – 24 October 1991) was an eminent Urdu writer, known for her indomitable spirit and a fierce feminist ideology. She was considered the grand dame of Urdu fiction, Along with Rashid Jahan, Wajeda Tabassum and Qurratulain Hyder, Ismat’s work stands for the birth of a revolutionary feminist politics and aesthetics in twentieth century Urdu literature. She explored feminine sexuality, middle-class gentility, and other evolving conflicts in the modern Muslim world. Her outspoken and controversial style of writing made her the passionate voice for the unheard, and she has become an inspiration for the younger generation of writers, readers and intellectuals.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 30 of 35 reviews
December 4, 2012
I had to write a review for this book to explain my rating.
After reading the afterword I had to upgrade. I have so much interest in Urdu writers and the time of partition and the fact that Ismat Chughtai was considered a feminist of her time.
The first part of the book is like a Pakistani Drama - very slow - but interesting - but lots and lots of details.
2nd part is a bit confusing and the 3rd is just way too fast.
However, the afterward explained more about the book and the talent Ismat had and the pacing and magnificence of the book. I do think that lots is lost in translation no matter how good the translation. Idioms and references and pacing can't all come through. I am not knocking the great translation (as I've read Tahira's translations of other Chughtai work) but the fact of always losing something as culture and thought cannot always be translated.
The other Chughtai stories I think I liked better because they were short stories and my western sensibility of going fast and at a pace that I could follow (whether slow, fast, etc). This is a very long book and thus my patience suffered. Again though, I wish I could read Urdu and get the real sense of the book because I can understand how great it was for the time and place.
After reading the afterword I had to upgrade. I have so much interest in Urdu writers and the time of partition and the fact that Ismat Chughtai was considered a feminist of her time.
The first part of the book is like a Pakistani Drama - very slow - but interesting - but lots and lots of details.
2nd part is a bit confusing and the 3rd is just way too fast.
However, the afterward explained more about the book and the talent Ismat had and the pacing and magnificence of the book. I do think that lots is lost in translation no matter how good the translation. Idioms and references and pacing can't all come through. I am not knocking the great translation (as I've read Tahira's translations of other Chughtai work) but the fact of always losing something as culture and thought cannot always be translated.
The other Chughtai stories I think I liked better because they were short stories and my western sensibility of going fast and at a pace that I could follow (whether slow, fast, etc). This is a very long book and thus my patience suffered. Again though, I wish I could read Urdu and get the real sense of the book because I can understand how great it was for the time and place.
July 19, 2010
This book is great, but the translation is so awful. Everytime Chughtai reached a breakthrough moment of feminist philosophy, the translation just killed it. I know this is a good book, but I want someone to translate it better from Urdu!
July 25, 2019
Masterwork.
April 1, 2024
ٹائپنگ کی غلطیاں بہت تھیں, پروف ریڈنگ نہیں کروائی کتابی دنیا والوں نے۔
October 28, 2024
I would rate this 3.5/5
"ٹیڑھا میڑھا ماحول انسان کو ٹیڑھی لکیر پر چلنے کیلئے مجبور کردیتا ہے"
تنہائی اور اکیلے پن میں کیا گزرتی ہے اور تقدیر کے کیا کیا داؤ پیچ ہوتے ہیں؟ یہ صرف وہی جانتا ہے جسے ان چیزوں کا مقابلہ کرنا پڑتا ہے۔ یہ احساس مجھے عصمت چغتائی کا ناول "ٹیڑھی لکیر" پڑھ کر ہوا۔
یہ ناول تحلیل نفسی کے لئے مشہورہے جس میں ایک لڑکی کی عورت بننے تک کی نفسیات کا مطالعہ کیا گیا ہے۔ ناول کا مرکزی کردار "ثمن" ہے جس کو بچپن سے ہی ایسا محبت سے عاری ماحول ملا جس نے اس کی شخصیت میں "ٹیڑھا پن" پروان چڑھایا جو تادمِ حیات اس کی جڑوں میں موجود رہا۔
ثمن کے ٹیڑھے پن میں ہر گزرتے دن کے ساتھ زیادتی ہی ہوئی۔ بچپن، لڑکپن اور پھر جوانی، اسے محبت و توجہ کے بغیر زندگی کے ایام بسر کرنے پڑے۔ محبت میں بار بار دھوکہ کھانے کے بعد وہ سخت دل بھی بن گئی۔
بقول غالب:
رنج سے خوگر ہوا انساں تو مٹ جاتا ہے رنج
مشکلیں مجھ پر پڑیں اتنی کہ آساں ہو گئیں
اس ناول میں عصمت چغتائی نے اس نفسیاتی اثر پر بھی روشنی ڈالی ہے جو بچے پر کسی نہ کسی طرح پڑتا ہی پڑتا ہے۔ گھر کے ماحول اور گھر کے افراد کا اثر بچہ غیر شعوری طور پر قبول کرلیتا ہے۔
میرے ذاتی خیال میں اسٹوری کا موضوع تو بہت کمال ہے البتہ تھوڑا سا زیادہ ہی ڈریگ کردیا گیا ہے، اگر اسکو تھوڑا مختصر رکھ کر ابتدائی حصہ کو کم کھینچا جاتا تو میرے لئے یہ کتاب 4.5/5 ہوتی۔
"ٹیڑھا میڑھا ماحول انسان کو ٹیڑھی لکیر پر چلنے کیلئے مجبور کردیتا ہے"
تنہائی اور اکیلے پن میں کیا گزرتی ہے اور تقدیر کے کیا کیا داؤ پیچ ہوتے ہیں؟ یہ صرف وہی جانتا ہے جسے ان چیزوں کا مقابلہ کرنا پڑتا ہے۔ یہ احساس مجھے عصمت چغتائی کا ناول "ٹیڑھی لکیر" پڑھ کر ہوا۔
یہ ناول تحلیل نفسی کے لئے مشہورہے جس میں ایک لڑکی کی عورت بننے تک کی نفسیات کا مطالعہ کیا گیا ہے۔ ناول کا مرکزی کردار "ثمن" ہے جس کو بچپن سے ہی ایسا محبت سے عاری ماحول ملا جس نے اس کی شخصیت میں "ٹیڑھا پن" پروان چڑھایا جو تادمِ حیات اس کی جڑوں میں موجود رہا۔
ثمن کے ٹیڑھے پن میں ہر گزرتے دن کے ساتھ زیادتی ہی ہوئی۔ بچپن، لڑکپن اور پھر جوانی، اسے محبت و توجہ کے بغیر زندگی کے ایام بسر کرنے پڑے۔ محبت میں بار بار دھوکہ کھانے کے بعد وہ سخت دل بھی بن گئی۔
بقول غالب:
رنج سے خوگر ہوا انساں تو مٹ جاتا ہے رنج
مشکلیں مجھ پر پڑیں اتنی کہ آساں ہو گئیں
اس ناول میں عصمت چغتائی نے اس نفسیاتی اثر پر بھی روشنی ڈالی ہے جو بچے پر کسی نہ کسی طرح پڑتا ہی پڑتا ہے۔ گھر کے ماحول اور گھر کے افراد کا اثر بچہ غیر شعوری طور پر قبول کرلیتا ہے۔
میرے ذاتی خیال میں اسٹوری کا موضوع تو بہت کمال ہے البتہ تھوڑا سا زیادہ ہی ڈریگ کردیا گیا ہے، اگر اسکو تھوڑا مختصر رکھ کر ابتدائی حصہ کو کم کھینچا جاتا تو میرے لئے یہ کتاب 4.5/5 ہوتی۔
December 26, 2025
Choices, and non choices, and how you make your way
“She looked behind her and saw in the distance a road that sound about like an undulating cobra pursuing her. She wanted to return, to wipe out this frightful mark and in its place draw a beat and clean line. But the curves had become too firm, like a steel wire. Her eyes closed, she began running on these crooked lines”
“Girls generally nurse a desire to get married, but of late Shamman had been experiencing the desire to hit people”
Shamman is a powerhouse; vulnerable but so strong, navigating the choppy waters of childhood to thrive. I get lost in the wider lens she brings and I agree with other reviewers that the pace as well as rhe change of tone is what loses me the most
Her first love being her teacher: and how brilliant the young Miss Charan is at managing her new pupil. Ignoring her mischief and then:”in a few days she found herself in the grip of a thousand responsibilities” - class monitor, in charge of chalk and pupils and books. From
Confusion to affection and then… left again.
“Three days after the incident Miss Charan left” and Shamman learns to be hard hearted
Chughtai writes heart ache, fluidity of love (friendships, family, romance) and break up really well. Love comes, love goes. She treasured when it was there; she learned to feel and grieve and grow when it leaves. And the way each different type of man leaves her unfulfilled
She feels deeply, and Chughtai gives her character the poetry these emotions deserve.
“Shamman snapped from fear and anguish. All night she heard the rustle of snakes hissing around her bed. The sounds leaving her spent and lifeless”
Her next love, Najma, her fellow pupil:
“‘Shami’ Najma whispered, her voice like the vibration of two gossamer - thin filaments rubbing together”
“Najma was like a flame with which one could warm one’s hands for a moment, while Sadat was a cool stream, a friend with whom she associated compassionate behaviour and wonderfully lively times”
“When Shamman returned to college she discovered that Rashid had gone to England.
Shamman felt as if a film reel had suddenly snapped while running and the lights in the hall had come on with an abrupt flash, blinding her eyes with their brutal, piercing ways”
When she enters rhe mission school: “for the first time Shamman realised how big and expansive the world was…
Despite security measures, the vast sea of romance surged and swelled and the matron with the coarse lips and chipped, yellow teeth had no control over these matters”
Her encounter with Rai: “when Rai Shahib picked her up and put her in the chair, she felt as though she had swung through the starry skies and come to a sudden halt. Everything teetered around her and a sacred fragrance numbed her brain. She quickly rose to her feet, and, lifting up a glass of chilled water with trembling hands, she carried it to her eternally parched lips”
Rai coming between her friendship with Preema - a hint of Tori Amos understanding:”the two loving friends suddenly found themselves in the parched landscape of alienation, distanced from each other.
Their feelings had become scattered, as if a desert had suddenly appeared between two friends and they couldn’t even call out to each other”
There’s a touch of the Jane Austen’s (or Taylor Swift?) in the middle section. The strengthening of women’s friendships and the backdrop of romance. When a child wounds a finger while she’s being mischievous, she conceals the bloodied finger with her shirt and hides in the corner. frightened by sorrow and shame, Shammans feelings also fell face down in some remote corner of her heart, perhaps to stay there forever”
Her journey to university and discovering men can be just as slutty as women:
“Despite all her efforts she couldn’t ignore Satil”
Satil v Iftikhar - contrasting men, contrasting wants
Her journey back home to see Noori, who is now. “Her dowry was like an ethereal quilt with thoughts of her husband woven into every stitch”
“That day she felt so many glances piercing her body and instead of thrusting them away she held them against her breast and caressed them.”
When she becomes a headteacher after college; single womanhood and then Iftikhar returns - a dissident and now after prison a full we version of himself?
“Shamman clutched her unsteady heart”
“When the torrent of a stream falls upon the earth it creates gashes in the earth. The current of love fell upon Almas starving motherhood with such force it created a well”
It changes tone as the war comes and revolution comes - I hadn’t considered the parallel actions of world war 2 and independence and partition
She’s an active participant (reminding me of the lions of Grunwick) - but she’s clear sighted in her take down and critique as much as she is when considering relationships: “Shamman soon wearied of the non-revolutionary antics of the revolutionary organisations”
Iftikhar uncovered not just as a manipulator bit a man with many women, by the shock of his newly discovered (to Shamman) wife, who shared the letters - the same as between him and so many
“Watching the bundle of orphaned letters before her. So this was the harvest from her garden of love”
“Iftikhar had taught her a wonderful lesson. If you want to train a lion, keep him hungry. If you want to rule a people, keep them hungry. These few whites who are ruling over millions of blacks are doing so in accordance with the policy of hunger”
P262 After the professor, and more turbulence:
“She looked behind her and saw in the distance a road that sound about like an undulating cobra pursuing her. She wanted to return, to wipe out this frightful mark and in its place draw a beat and clean line. But the curves had become too firm, like a steel wire. Her eyes closed, she began running on these crooked lines”
When she marries after her journey of crooked lines, it’s at the end of a journey which doesnt find love to be real: “I’ve never been able to understand what love is and now I’ve stopped contemplating this question altogether”
The failure of the marriage, the brutal honesty, the lack of any kind of conclusion let alone a happy ending - it’s fitting for such a story, for such a character. We never know hot it ends. Just that she is tired; but resolutely herself; but tired
“She looked behind her and saw in the distance a road that sound about like an undulating cobra pursuing her. She wanted to return, to wipe out this frightful mark and in its place draw a beat and clean line. But the curves had become too firm, like a steel wire. Her eyes closed, she began running on these crooked lines”
“Girls generally nurse a desire to get married, but of late Shamman had been experiencing the desire to hit people”
Shamman is a powerhouse; vulnerable but so strong, navigating the choppy waters of childhood to thrive. I get lost in the wider lens she brings and I agree with other reviewers that the pace as well as rhe change of tone is what loses me the most
Her first love being her teacher: and how brilliant the young Miss Charan is at managing her new pupil. Ignoring her mischief and then:”in a few days she found herself in the grip of a thousand responsibilities” - class monitor, in charge of chalk and pupils and books. From
Confusion to affection and then… left again.
“Three days after the incident Miss Charan left” and Shamman learns to be hard hearted
Chughtai writes heart ache, fluidity of love (friendships, family, romance) and break up really well. Love comes, love goes. She treasured when it was there; she learned to feel and grieve and grow when it leaves. And the way each different type of man leaves her unfulfilled
She feels deeply, and Chughtai gives her character the poetry these emotions deserve.
“Shamman snapped from fear and anguish. All night she heard the rustle of snakes hissing around her bed. The sounds leaving her spent and lifeless”
Her next love, Najma, her fellow pupil:
“‘Shami’ Najma whispered, her voice like the vibration of two gossamer - thin filaments rubbing together”
“Najma was like a flame with which one could warm one’s hands for a moment, while Sadat was a cool stream, a friend with whom she associated compassionate behaviour and wonderfully lively times”
“When Shamman returned to college she discovered that Rashid had gone to England.
Shamman felt as if a film reel had suddenly snapped while running and the lights in the hall had come on with an abrupt flash, blinding her eyes with their brutal, piercing ways”
When she enters rhe mission school: “for the first time Shamman realised how big and expansive the world was…
Despite security measures, the vast sea of romance surged and swelled and the matron with the coarse lips and chipped, yellow teeth had no control over these matters”
Her encounter with Rai: “when Rai Shahib picked her up and put her in the chair, she felt as though she had swung through the starry skies and come to a sudden halt. Everything teetered around her and a sacred fragrance numbed her brain. She quickly rose to her feet, and, lifting up a glass of chilled water with trembling hands, she carried it to her eternally parched lips”
Rai coming between her friendship with Preema - a hint of Tori Amos understanding:”the two loving friends suddenly found themselves in the parched landscape of alienation, distanced from each other.
Their feelings had become scattered, as if a desert had suddenly appeared between two friends and they couldn’t even call out to each other”
There’s a touch of the Jane Austen’s (or Taylor Swift?) in the middle section. The strengthening of women’s friendships and the backdrop of romance. When a child wounds a finger while she’s being mischievous, she conceals the bloodied finger with her shirt and hides in the corner. frightened by sorrow and shame, Shammans feelings also fell face down in some remote corner of her heart, perhaps to stay there forever”
Her journey to university and discovering men can be just as slutty as women:
“Despite all her efforts she couldn’t ignore Satil”
Satil v Iftikhar - contrasting men, contrasting wants
Her journey back home to see Noori, who is now. “Her dowry was like an ethereal quilt with thoughts of her husband woven into every stitch”
“That day she felt so many glances piercing her body and instead of thrusting them away she held them against her breast and caressed them.”
When she becomes a headteacher after college; single womanhood and then Iftikhar returns - a dissident and now after prison a full we version of himself?
“Shamman clutched her unsteady heart”
“When the torrent of a stream falls upon the earth it creates gashes in the earth. The current of love fell upon Almas starving motherhood with such force it created a well”
It changes tone as the war comes and revolution comes - I hadn’t considered the parallel actions of world war 2 and independence and partition
She’s an active participant (reminding me of the lions of Grunwick) - but she’s clear sighted in her take down and critique as much as she is when considering relationships: “Shamman soon wearied of the non-revolutionary antics of the revolutionary organisations”
Iftikhar uncovered not just as a manipulator bit a man with many women, by the shock of his newly discovered (to Shamman) wife, who shared the letters - the same as between him and so many
“Watching the bundle of orphaned letters before her. So this was the harvest from her garden of love”
“Iftikhar had taught her a wonderful lesson. If you want to train a lion, keep him hungry. If you want to rule a people, keep them hungry. These few whites who are ruling over millions of blacks are doing so in accordance with the policy of hunger”
P262 After the professor, and more turbulence:
“She looked behind her and saw in the distance a road that sound about like an undulating cobra pursuing her. She wanted to return, to wipe out this frightful mark and in its place draw a beat and clean line. But the curves had become too firm, like a steel wire. Her eyes closed, she began running on these crooked lines”
When she marries after her journey of crooked lines, it’s at the end of a journey which doesnt find love to be real: “I’ve never been able to understand what love is and now I’ve stopped contemplating this question altogether”
The failure of the marriage, the brutal honesty, the lack of any kind of conclusion let alone a happy ending - it’s fitting for such a story, for such a character. We never know hot it ends. Just that she is tired; but resolutely herself; but tired
June 20, 2020
The book follows the Thoughts of the protagonist from the day she is born to her day of reckoning , a lonely childhood in a home full of people and characters though with no space , no love and care to her days of revelations amidst the air of love and revolution to an uncanny marriage ( as she feels it and the society around her) she constantly feels she is doomed to be unloved and does happen with her.
Relatable #quarantineread
Relatable #quarantineread
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
August 29, 2007
its is soooooooooo crooked that you love it....a woman..what she wants, what she gets...
November 1, 2014
I loved the first one third. And enjoyed the rest in parts.
June 19, 2022
I have recently read a book named "Tehri Lakeer". It was written by an Indian Urdu novelist, Ismat Chugtai. Originally the book was written in Urdu, which was translated by Tahira Naqvi naming it as "The Crooked Line"
"The Crooked Line" strongly depicts over the character of Shamshad Fatima(A.K.A. Shamman )
The novel begins with her birth mentioning her as : "ill-timed" ,"a thunderous howl" .The women in her family – from her mother to her sisters and cousins, to her time at a boarding school and experiences there and how she grows into a woman on the brink of India’s independence, at the same time fighting her inner battles.
From the first part of the book , we came to know about her Amma(Mother) who is apathetic enough to let Shamman being taken care of by her sisters. Her Bari Appa (oldest sister) who is a premature widow and uses this to her advantage time and again in the family. Her cousin Noori who very early on understands how to wield power over men.
In the second part, the world opens up to her as she grows up, and moves from her Muslim school to the American Missionary College. There are boys that flirt with her - the brother of a classmate; another one's unlikely father -as she moves from her childish navigation of the separation of the sexes to a more open if still cautious mixing and mingling. After getting her B.A. ,Shamman takes a position as a headmistress of a provincial national school.
Shamman's friend Alma is an illegitimate child, who has a wedlock and is unable to love it fully or abort it – or through Bilqees, the femme fatale who uses men and is always surrounded by them, without knowing if she loves them or is just using them.
Ismat Chughtai's powerful prose and unrelenting pushing on in this packed narrative make for a compelling story. Shamman is so well defined by her circumstances -- of family, religion, culture, society, and history -- and yet uncompromising focus on her protagonist means the novel doesn't seek to explain these. Shamman’s role as a headmistress and her relationship with the gossiping colleagues to her own sexuality as and when it blossoms, Chughtai’s feminism is not contained or a listicle of sorts.
I would rate 4.5/5
"The Crooked Line" strongly depicts over the character of Shamshad Fatima(A.K.A. Shamman )
The novel begins with her birth mentioning her as : "ill-timed" ,"a thunderous howl" .The women in her family – from her mother to her sisters and cousins, to her time at a boarding school and experiences there and how she grows into a woman on the brink of India’s independence, at the same time fighting her inner battles.
From the first part of the book , we came to know about her Amma(Mother) who is apathetic enough to let Shamman being taken care of by her sisters. Her Bari Appa (oldest sister) who is a premature widow and uses this to her advantage time and again in the family. Her cousin Noori who very early on understands how to wield power over men.
In the second part, the world opens up to her as she grows up, and moves from her Muslim school to the American Missionary College. There are boys that flirt with her - the brother of a classmate; another one's unlikely father -as she moves from her childish navigation of the separation of the sexes to a more open if still cautious mixing and mingling. After getting her B.A. ,Shamman takes a position as a headmistress of a provincial national school.
Shamman's friend Alma is an illegitimate child, who has a wedlock and is unable to love it fully or abort it – or through Bilqees, the femme fatale who uses men and is always surrounded by them, without knowing if she loves them or is just using them.
Ismat Chughtai's powerful prose and unrelenting pushing on in this packed narrative make for a compelling story. Shamman is so well defined by her circumstances -- of family, religion, culture, society, and history -- and yet uncompromising focus on her protagonist means the novel doesn't seek to explain these. Shamman’s role as a headmistress and her relationship with the gossiping colleagues to her own sexuality as and when it blossoms, Chughtai’s feminism is not contained or a listicle of sorts.
I would rate 4.5/5
October 23, 2023
ایک لڑکی کی ہیجان انگیز زندگی جس میں وہ ہمیشہ دوسروں کی محبت کی متلاشی رہی اور وہ جسے دل سے چاہتی وہی اسے چھوڑ کر چلے جاتے، اس کے علاوہ دوسری جنگ عظیم کے وقت کی منظر کشی کی گئی ہے کہ اس وقت ایک عام جوان لڑکی پہ اس کے کیا اثرات پڑے ، جوانی میں بدلتی ہوئی محبتیں اور جسم کی بھوک کو فرائیڈ کے نظریہ جنس کے تحت بیان کیا گیا ہے۔
میری رائے میں اس ناول کو پڑھنے سے پہلے آسٹرین ڈاکٹر سگمنڈ فرائیڈ کے نظریہ جنس کا مطالعہ لازمی ہے تبھی آپ اس کی کہانی کو سمجھ سکیں گے وگرنہ یہ آپ کے لیے ایک فحش ناول سے زیادہ نہیں۔
تاثرات: سید محمد حمزہ
مورخہ 24 اکتوبر 2023
میری رائے میں اس ناول کو پڑھنے سے پہلے آسٹرین ڈاکٹر سگمنڈ فرائیڈ کے نظریہ جنس کا مطالعہ لازمی ہے تبھی آپ اس کی کہانی کو سمجھ سکیں گے وگرنہ یہ آپ کے لیے ایک فحش ناول سے زیادہ نہیں۔
تاثرات: سید محمد حمزہ
مورخہ 24 اکتوبر 2023
November 29, 2021
I started reading this for a class on decolonial feminism/queer theory and found it pretty intriguing. Though you can tell that a lot of the beauty of the writing has gotten lost in translation, this was a good read. Since I am not super familiar with Urdu literature and its tropes, the story and characters were fresh and interesting. Would have been a five star rating save for the ending which I did find trope-y and didn't like.
Read
March 20, 2024a magnificent book on the exploration of sexual desires, Ismat writes way ahead of her time.
each sentence is rooted in sexual desire and the fact that it is semi-autobiographical makes it all the more interesting, all her characters seem to be standing at a crossroad at almost all times, wanting to make firm decisions but still continue being confused, more than anything Shamman (the main character) is always looking for love.
each sentence is rooted in sexual desire and the fact that it is semi-autobiographical makes it all the more interesting, all her characters seem to be standing at a crossroad at almost all times, wanting to make firm decisions but still continue being confused, more than anything Shamman (the main character) is always looking for love.
August 14, 2024
It was a bit slow to start off but I absolutely loved this book! I loved the discussion of feminism and nationalism and the backdrop of the freedom struggle was so interesting. I feel like nothing like this has ever been written- it is so fearless and searing, and through it all, I felt seen. It was just so long, though, I feel like it could have been a little shorter and it would have been a 5 star in my mind.
April 6, 2024
4.5 for the story and character arc, 2.5 for the translation. If you can read and understand Urdu, I highly recommend that you read Tehri Lakeer instead.
Shaman’s character is the most delicious dissection of female psyche I have read so far. Pop feminism should redeem itself by taking a leaf out of Chugtai’s books.
Shaman’s character is the most delicious dissection of female psyche I have read so far. Pop feminism should redeem itself by taking a leaf out of Chugtai’s books.
May 8, 2020
I'm absolutely sure it's a good book...in Urdu. The English translation is so rote and literal that the book brought absolutely no joy while reading. I struggled through it and gave up twice.
Some day when I learn Urdu for Manto, I'll visit his friend Ismat again.
Some day when I learn Urdu for Manto, I'll visit his friend Ismat again.
May 27, 2017
I wish I could read Urdu. The translation felt strained in many places. Four stars for content minus one for how the translation made me want to skip whole paragraphs.
March 24, 2021
A good work that's lost in translation
June 30, 2025
Haunting and a beautifully breathtakingly daunting read. Very engaging and really shows why she was the most reknown authors and still is. The rawness in her expression is just something else!
July 17, 2025
I'd say a 3.5 rather because of Chugtai's effortless layering of characters. I can imagine some lost in translation but definitely deeply moving, complex and reflective.
February 12, 2017
its great site
April 11, 2015
I just finished this one as part of my quest to read all the books I was supposed to read in high school/college but was too busy being self-involved.
The beginning of this book is truly gorgeous and unforgettable. Chughtai captures the longings and mischief of Shaman (the protagonist) as a child, and the confusions and feelings and outbursts she experiences in adolescence, in such a compelling way. I adored the story all the way through the point when Shaman heads for university. After that comes a great deal of contentious dialog among Shaman and her peers as adults. Everyone is perpetually frustrated and quarrelsome, and the antagonistic dialog lasts through the rest of the story. I did love the picture this book painted of the desperate longings of childhood and puberty prompting a kid who just wanted to be good to act out.
The beginning of this book is truly gorgeous and unforgettable. Chughtai captures the longings and mischief of Shaman (the protagonist) as a child, and the confusions and feelings and outbursts she experiences in adolescence, in such a compelling way. I adored the story all the way through the point when Shaman heads for university. After that comes a great deal of contentious dialog among Shaman and her peers as adults. Everyone is perpetually frustrated and quarrelsome, and the antagonistic dialog lasts through the rest of the story. I did love the picture this book painted of the desperate longings of childhood and puberty prompting a kid who just wanted to be good to act out.
January 5, 2022
Reading this one was so satisfying because all the books about young girls that I've ever read were written by foreign authors and as good as they might have been, there is a certain cultural aspect of it that I could never relate to but this book filled all those gaps. Ismat Chugtai writes about the lives and miseries of women of an older time but they are still very relevant. The protagonist Shaman was such a relatable character that I couldn't help but see myself in her and was curious to see how her life would turn out as if that would tell me the course of mine. I would recommend all women to read this book, I think they would appreciate it.
January 4, 2023
Tehri Lakeer is a master piece written by Ismat Chughtai who is famous for controversial short story 'Lihaf/Quilt'.
Tehri Lakeer is a story of a girl named Shamshad who grows up to be completely different from her family as she gets exposure through education, friendships and heartbreaks. The story is rich in content and is set up in the 80s era when hindu, Muslim and Christian girls used to study together. The religious and cultural diversity adds richness and depth to the story. The story also highlights the student movements and political turmoil of that time. Every urdu reader should definitely read this book.
Tehri Lakeer is a story of a girl named Shamshad who grows up to be completely different from her family as she gets exposure through education, friendships and heartbreaks. The story is rich in content and is set up in the 80s era when hindu, Muslim and Christian girls used to study together. The religious and cultural diversity adds richness and depth to the story. The story also highlights the student movements and political turmoil of that time. Every urdu reader should definitely read this book.
August 9, 2011
Some very poignant moments. You really feel what the heroine's family home was like. Other bits were harder to get into and I was caught off guard by her abrupt transitions... some parts of the dialogue, especially towards the end, looked more like rhetoric than what people would actually say. Still, worth reading, and there was a lesson or two in there for me.
December 9, 2021
بہت کم ایسے ناول ہوتے ہیں جن کو پڑھنے کے بعد آپ کے پاس الفاظ نہیں ہوتے کہ کیسے آپ بیان کریں کہ یہ کیسا ناول تھا۔ عصمت چغتائی نے بلکل صحیح کہا اس ناول کے کردار شمن کے ساتھ انسان ہنستا بھی ھے اور روتا بھی ھے۔ ہر عورت اس ناول کے کردار شمن کے اندر اپنا عکس دیکھ سکتی ھے یہ میں پورے یقین کے ساتھ کہہ سکتی ہوں۔
January 29, 2020
First Female coming of age in 20th-century Indian literature in English. Poignant, funny and sometimes thoughts provoking as Chughtai talks about female sexuality and feminine experience through the perspective of a female.
December 26, 2009
Translations. sighhh
Read
March 16, 2014i want to read this book
Currently reading
June 27, 2015nothing
Displaying 1 - 30 of 35 reviews