A Place for Us
Author : Fatima Farheen Mirza
Publisher : Hogarth, Rs 599
A Place For Us is a readable and relatable novel about the highs and lows of an Indian Muslim family. It has cathartic moments and lessons for almost all families, writes APOORVAA NAVEEN JOSHI
Set in California, A Place For Us zooms into the lives of Rafiq and layla who have three kids — Hadia, Huda and Amar. This is 27-year-old Fatima Farheen Mirza’s first novel. The book has an Indian Muslim family at its heart. It portrays the unique bond that each member of a family shares with the other. In the story of this particular family, the readers are taken from the time when the characters create good memories and enjoy emotional intimacy to the time when they end up betraying each other and are ‘broken’.
The book opens with the family preparing for Hadia’s wedding. She is set to get married to a man she chose for herself. Readers soon find out that Hadia grew up being seen as the ideal child who would do everything to perfection. But on her wedding day, happiness is not the only emotion that the family is shown to be feeling. It’s not the idea of a ‘love marriage’ that they are upset about. Even Rafiq, a traditionalist, is shown to have accepted it. The cause of worry is Hadia’s brother Amar, who is the youngest in the family. Three years back, Amar had fled. He had left everything and everyone, in the middle. But now, on Hadia’s request, he is back for her wedding.
The wedding day seems to be unfolding wonderfully. All the guests arrive on time. Everything seems to be falling into place. But still, some questions keep nagging at them — Will Amar live up to his promise to HadiaIJ Why had he run awayIJ What had convinced him to flee, leaving everyone, even his childhood sweetheart AmiraIJ
Readers find out what had happened only in bits and pieces as the narrative keeps moving back and forth in time. Readers get to approach the same incidents from different points of view as well. For instance, in bits, the wedding day is also written from Amar’s perspective. He is in a hall full of the people he used to know very well. Even though he has come back for his elder sister and its her wedding day, the only person who has all of Amar’s attention is Amira, his forbidden love. He can’t get his eyes off her. And Amira, daughter of a prominent local family, can’t keep away from him.
The narrative is strung together by a more internal, emotional sense of time than a chronological one. From Hadia’s wedding day, the focus soon shifts to Rafiq and layla’s marriage. One learns more about Hadia’s younger days and gets a peek into her journey of becoming a doctor. One also finds out how Amar meets Amira and falls in love for the very first time. Huda, the middle child, does not get as much narrative space as Hadia and Amar do. She is not at the focus of any section in the novel. She finds mention mostly in the parts where Rafiq and layla’s methods as parents and their approach with the kids is discussed.
The parents are quite close to the idea of typical Indian parents. Even though they live in North America, they try to keep their children from getting exposed to the culture of the place which seems overly modern to them. Instead, they try to surround them with conservative ideas and want to instil traditional values in them. Children — particularly the girls in the family — are expected to have an arranged marriage and follow everything a ‘good Muslim girl’ should do. But, these children are determined to chart unique paths for themselves. The fact that they have access to a whole new world of ideas in America, only helps.
Amar, the youngest, is hands down the couple’s favourite. But eventually the very thought of him becomes almost like pricking a fresh wound to the family. He is the one whose actions change the dynamics of this family forever. Even as a teenager, Amar’s ideas would clash with his conservative Muslim parents’ beliefs. He would often voice his thoughts against their strict approach and their old-school ways. He would get stuck in the circle of guilt and aggression. But somewhere, the family is not prepared for the rebellion to turn as hurtful as it does. It’s important to note that the author does a commendable job at telling the story convincingly from the conflicting perspectives of the parents and the children.
Through the growing up years of the children, the parents are shown to be struggling to find the tough balance between disciplining their children and accepting their ‘new’ ideas. But for readers, the most relatable version in this account would be Hadia’s. She tries hard to be as perfect as her parents would like her to be, but unlike Amar’s case, there’s more expectation than support from parents in her share. Huda remains a silent presence through most of the novel.
The last 80 pages of the book are most rewarding. Here, Rafiq, the traditionalist and the father, pours his heart out. His portrayal in this last part is particularly heartwarming. He starts blaming himself for what Amar becomes and for why he loses confidence in himself and flees. “It is in these moments that the fabric of my life reveals itself to be an illusion: thinking that I am fine, we all are, that we could grow around your loss like a tree that bends around a barrier or wound,” the heartbroken father says.
A Place For Us might be the story of just one family, but it deals with issues that are relevant to almost all families. This book shows how the smallest of decisions can lead to the most devastating of betrayals in a family. This is a novel very relevant to parents as well as children today. One would almost certainly find a Hadia or a Rafiq or an Amar within themselves.