Writer Interview Nimra Ahmad's Words For Namal Finale

Assalamualaikum. Thankyou for your overwhelming response for Namal Finale. Please read this post only if you have read finale or else you will get undesired spoilers...

And so endeth Namal. Allah ka shukr hy. I am receiving countless queries about the ending. (As expected) Why I did what I did. Couldn't I just make Faris/Zumar adopt Sonia (so typical digest type) or couldn't Sonia just not become what she has become? (An apple doesn't fall far from its tree, dear readers) Couldn't Saadi just forgive Nosherwan ? (Did nosherwan deserve it?) And most importantly, a reader remarked as to why we writers show villains to have tragic endings and why villains do not reform themselves? Why there isn't any hope for a villain shown? What are we teaching humanity if we do not show a wicked person finding the right path and rectifying himself? (But isn't this what is being written these days? In dramas and in novels . A guy kidnaps a girl, they fall in love and wohooo in the end he is forgiven for every sin he has committed. Or a bad person after destroying a lot of people in the end gets as good an ending as the good ones.) No sorry. This is exactly why I was writing it and not you. It wasn't a story about forgiveness. If you don't punish the evils in the end, then it means you love your characters too much to perform poetic justice and I don't want to be such a naïve and hollow writer. Hashim was the tragic hero of the novel. He got way less than what he deserved. But then , it was your test too as a society. Can you forgive a person's all crimes against humanity just because they talk good and look good ? Is that why we vote for the same crooks every time? Is that why when a ruler retires and new ones take their place, we start saying how good that previous ruler was? We as a society seriously need to think about drawing moral lines. It's ironical that a person kills so many people and destroys many others, yet all we want for him is to rectify/repent and live in peace ? Isn't this the base of all corruption in our society that we want to forgive the villains who do not ask for forgiveness?
I Have included half a dozen question answers in the end of Namal book. Due to lack of time, I could not include more. But in a few weeks inshaAllah, my team will collect questions from you on a post and I'll write my usual "Namal as I see it" article here. Later this year we will include that article in the end of Namal book (second edition).
But for now, let me say a few things. The last scene was the basic ingredient of Namal. It may come to you as a shock, but if you re-read this novel , you would notice that Namal started with Sonia's birthday. All major events took place around her birthday. Or around Sonia and a cake. So in the end we came back to the pivotal point of the whole saga. There was no need to show what all characters had been doing in a post-16-years era because their story had ended already. The arguments that led to their story, their problems had found their conclusions and had ended. But the epilogue about Sonia was to show that the cycle of revenge never ends. You can't expect to destroy someone's family and don't get a payback. If you are justified in our revenge, then Allah will help you even if the survivors start the cycle again. There is an ayah in Quran that promises it. But I cannot show that even revenge has no consequences. Fighting for justice is different from fighting for revenge. I wrote a 30-episoded novel to explain the difference. And left the conclusion to the readers. It's not children's fiction where we write the moral of the story in the end in bold words. It's adult fiction where you have to draw your lesson yourself and I'm pretty sure you guys understand it. One of my favorite endings was The Good Wife's ending. I was hoping that the heroine will get a happy ending but all she gets is a slap on her face. That slap left me in shock for days until I realized that she deserved it. Actions have consequences.
Coming to the sequel/Namal part two question : I'm getting advices from all over the world to write a part two and also suggestions to not write a part two. But trust me, if you have been reading me for years you must know that my novels always end at a turn where the story could restart in another era, in another time. It's my style. So rest assured, Namal will NOT have a sequel inshaAllah. The story is complete. I just always write the last page to make you wonder long after closing the book as to how a part two would look like....
Coming to digest editing, few of you asked, what have they edited? Well, they have omitted the lines about Hashim being taken in by the agencies for God knows what reasons. I was asked to make it look like terrorist organization kidnapped him (seriously??) But I refused because that killls the whole lesson of the story. Why should I not show an agency making an arrest? Do i show that no institution in Pakistan is working? Atleast some are working so let's be open about them. Digest thinks that I somehow wrote against the agencies, confirming the narrative by nationalist parties that agencies kidnap people. So if I don't write about it, no one knows that? I don't understand how that is a problem because all I showed is an agency bringing a terrorist to a justice that the legal system was denying. Agency shouldn't have a problem with that when they don't have problems with those writing against them!
Second and most drastic change they did in digest, to which I laughed out loud and told them I won't own it, is that in the last scenes , when Hashim asks the guard about his daughter's whereabouts, guard tells him that she has been found and Hashim sighs a sigh of relief. LOL. My editor is too good. She can't stand the pain of Hashim and kept insisting on a gun point that I take a little mercy on him. In the end she decided to include this line herself because I refused to do it. So this may or may not be included in digest version. But the original version, which you have read here and which goes in book too, tells the real story. That Hashim never found out about his daughter's safe retrieval. If he had, it would kill the idea of him being in pain. Unacceptable for me.
Lastly, Namal's ending was , for me , a happy ending. I believe in happy endings. Positive endings. As for the tragic hero (Hashim Kardar) of the novel, I loved writing his end, and sealing his fate, and even till the end, he didn't stop becoming who he was. Finally, his all guilty confusions diminished and after a long journey, he discovered his own true self. He found out who he was and he was proud to be that person. That's how villains in real lives are like. They have their own wicked explanations for their acts. No Bush or Obama or Moodi or terrorist leaders or our own corrupt rulers, if you ask them, will be guilty for their sins. They are proud of their wickedness and that's why I wrote Namal. To paint darker characters. There are a lot of writers out there who write about super good and super bad people. But I like writing more about grey people. We all are bad and good at the same time. My upcoming novel characters are way darker than this. Trust me !!!
Oh and Saadi's heroine fiasco was still there. Wow. I mean , when will we come out of hero heroines??? But khair I am glad that to some extent we are breaking the stereotypes . And setting new trends. Pre-Namal reader was different from post-Namal reader. I believe we can tell far better stories than love affairs. And gradually we have to change this trend to write more constructive books.
And for those asking about my upcoming novel, yes it's coming in Khawateen Digest inshaAllah. I cannot confirm the month Abhi because I haven even written a single word, but in a few months inshaAllah it will start.
Remember in dua'a
Nemrah
 
Assalamualaikum. Thankyou for your overwhelming response for Namal Finale. Please read this post only if you have read finale or else you will get undesired spoilers...

And so endeth Namal. Allah ka shukr hy. I am receiving countless queries about the ending. (As expected) Why I did what I did. Couldn't I just make Faris/Zumar adopt Sonia (so typical digest type) or couldn't Sonia just not become what she has become? (An apple doesn't fall far from its tree, dear readers) Couldn't Saadi just forgive Nosherwan ? (Did nosherwan deserve it?) And most importantly, a reader remarked as to why we writers show villains to have tragic endings and why villains do not reform themselves? Why there isn't any hope for a villain shown? What are we teaching humanity if we do not show a wicked person finding the right path and rectifying himself? (But isn't this what is being written these days? In dramas and in novels . A guy kidnaps a girl, they fall in love and wohooo in the end he is forgiven for every sin he has committed. Or a bad person after destroying a lot of people in the end gets as good an ending as the good ones.) No sorry. This is exactly why I was writing it and not you. It wasn't a story about forgiveness. If you don't punish the evils in the end, then it means you love your characters too much to perform poetic justice and I don't want to be such a naïve and hollow writer. Hashim was the tragic hero of the novel. He got way less than what he deserved. But then , it was your test too as a society. Can you forgive a person's all crimes against humanity just because they talk good and look good ? Is that why we vote for the same crooks every time? Is that why when a ruler retires and new ones take their place, we start saying how good that previous ruler was? We as a society seriously need to think about drawing moral lines. It's ironical that a person kills so many people and destroys many others, yet all we want for him is to rectify/repent and live in peace ? Isn't this the base of all corruption in our society that we want to forgive the villains who do not ask for forgiveness?
I Have included half a dozen question answers in the end of Namal book. Due to lack of time, I could not include more. But in a few weeks inshaAllah, my team will collect questions from you on a post and I'll write my usual "Namal as I see it" article here. Later this year we will include that article in the end of Namal book (second edition).
But for now, let me say a few things. The last scene was the basic ingredient of Namal. It may come to you as a shock, but if you re-read this novel , you would notice that Namal started with Sonia's birthday. All major events took place around her birthday. Or around Sonia and a cake. So in the end we came back to the pivotal point of the whole saga. There was no need to show what all characters had been doing in a post-16-years era because their story had ended already. The arguments that led to their story, their problems had found their conclusions and had ended. But the epilogue about Sonia was to show that the cycle of revenge never ends. You can't expect to destroy someone's family and don't get a payback. If you are justified in our revenge, then Allah will help you even if the survivors start the cycle again. There is an ayah in Quran that promises it. But I cannot show that even revenge has no consequences. Fighting for justice is different from fighting for revenge. I wrote a 30-episoded novel to explain the difference. And left the conclusion to the readers. It's not children's fiction where we write the moral of the story in the end in bold words. It's adult fiction where you have to draw your lesson yourself and I'm pretty sure you guys understand it. One of my favorite endings was The Good Wife's ending. I was hoping that the heroine will get a happy ending but all she gets is a slap on her face. That slap left me in shock for days until I realized that she deserved it. Actions have consequences.
Coming to the sequel/Namal part two question : I'm getting advices from all over the world to write a part two and also suggestions to not write a part two. But trust me, if you have been reading me for years you must know that my novels always end at a turn where the story could restart in another era, in another time. It's my style. So rest assured, Namal will NOT have a sequel inshaAllah. The story is complete. I just always write the last page to make you wonder long after closing the book as to how a part two would look like....
Coming to digest editing, few of you asked, what have they edited? Well, they have omitted the lines about Hashim being taken in by the agencies for God knows what reasons. I was asked to make it look like terrorist organization kidnapped him (seriously??) But I refused because that killls the whole lesson of the story. Why should I not show an agency making an arrest? Do i show that no institution in Pakistan is working? Atleast some are working so let's be open about them. Digest thinks that I somehow wrote against the agencies, confirming the narrative by nationalist parties that agencies kidnap people. So if I don't write about it, no one knows that? I don't understand how that is a problem because all I showed is an agency bringing a terrorist to a justice that the legal system was denying. Agency shouldn't have a problem with that when they don't have problems with those writing against them!
Second and most drastic change they did in digest, to which I laughed out loud and told them I won't own it, is that in the last scenes , when Hashim asks the guard about his daughter's whereabouts, guard tells him that she has been found and Hashim sighs a sigh of relief. LOL. My editor is too good. She can't stand the pain of Hashim and kept insisting on a gun point that I take a little mercy on him. In the end she decided to include this line herself because I refused to do it. So this may or may not be included in digest version. But the original version, which you have read here and which goes in book too, tells the real story. That Hashim never found out about his daughter's safe retrieval. If he had, it would kill the idea of him being in pain. Unacceptable for me.
Lastly, Namal's ending was , for me , a happy ending. I believe in happy endings. Positive endings. As for the tragic hero (Hashim Kardar) of the novel, I loved writing his end, and sealing his fate, and even till the end, he didn't stop becoming who he was. Finally, his all guilty confusions diminished and after a long journey, he discovered his own true self. He found out who he was and he was proud to be that person. That's how villains in real lives are like. They have their own wicked explanations for their acts. No Bush or Obama or Moodi or terrorist leaders or our own corrupt rulers, if you ask them, will be guilty for their sins. They are proud of their wickedness and that's why I wrote Namal. To paint darker characters. There are a lot of writers out there who write about super good and super bad people. But I like writing more about grey people. We all are bad and good at the same time. My upcoming novel characters are way darker than this. Trust me !!!
Oh and Saadi's heroine fiasco was still there. Wow. I mean , when will we come out of hero heroines??? But khair I am glad that to some extent we are breaking the stereotypes . And setting new trends. Pre-Namal reader was different from post-Namal reader. I believe we can tell far better stories than love affairs. And gradually we have to change this trend to write more constructive books.
And for those asking about my upcoming novel, yes it's coming in Khawateen Digest inshaAllah. I cannot confirm the month Abhi because I haven even written a single word, but in a few months inshaAllah it will start.
Remember in dua'a
Nemrah
 
Back
Top