G.M Jatoi
Shams-ul-ulema Mirza Kalich Bag’s contribution in Sindhi literature is no doubt remarkable but one of his masterpieces is Zeenat Novel which is landmark of Sindhi literature. In this novel the novelist depicts traditional, religious and adventurous life of simple and beautiful girl Zeenat. The novel explicitly illustrates the early 20th century society of Sindh along with its merits and demerits. The author has focused certain issues like exchange marriages, various ceremonial activities in an analytical and argumentative way, along with traditional rituals. The novelist has talked about importance of education, language learning and multilingualism. The author has also depicted travels to remote areas and encouraged women to face situations boldly.
Zeenat belonged to a noble family consisting of four members. Her father Serai Fateh Mohammad wanted his children to acquire knowledge, and enrolled his son Hamid in an English medium school. However, his daughter Zeenat was learning at home. After some time Serai died, so his wife Shehr Bano was the only guardian of the children. Shehr Bano was skilled in stitching and Bakhtawar, who was a maid, helped her with household chores. After Serai’s death Shehr Bano was pensive about her daughter’s nuptials due to traditional system. She thought of getting her daughter married in relatives but there was not any match of Zeenat in their kins and she got Zeenat married to Ali Raza (Ali Nawaz’s son) who was a merchant by profession and died before Ali Raza got married. Ali Raza’s mother Bibi Jan got Ali Raza married to Zeenat. After a few months of marriage Ali Raza went to Mumbai to earn money because he taught Sindhi and Persian. After sometime Zeenat Bano departed for Mumbai to live with Ali Raza because they had been sharing their messages through letters. So, she started her journey towards Mumbai and boarded in a ship. Now she was on her way to destination. But, at night she woke up to drink water and came out of ship to have some water. She rested her hand back against the side of staircase.
Suddenly, the plank of the ship unhinged because of continuous shaking of the ship. Zeenat Bano fell into water along with her water pot. When she appeared again from water after a dive, the ship had gone very far and was moving away with the speed. As a drowning man catches at a straw was laying on it. The splashes of salty water made her senseless. Quickly, some fishermen saw her and rescued her to the shore. She was totally unconscious but after a few minutes she became conscious and narrated the story to fisherman named Siddique. The fisherman was very kind and he took Zeenat to his home to give her shelter. In Siddique’s home there were two ladies. One of them was his sister Safoora and other was his wife. Both women took great care of Zeenat and treated her as their own family member. She also started to understand them and regarded them her well-wishers. But Zeenat was pensive about her home and husband. Therefore, she left for the Bhuj city with Safoora where the latter lived with her husband Fazal Mohammad. Safoora had assured Zeenat that her husband will manage to send her to Mumbai from Bhuj city.
On the way to Bhuj city they were robbed by some dacoits. The dacoits robbed their possessions and also took Zeenat with them. Zeenat was given to one of the robbers as his share by his accomplices. He took Zeenat to his house where he had lived with his wife and mother in law. When he took Zeenat to his home his wife and mother in law got the issue that she had been robbed. So, they helped her to escape at night. Then Zeenat escaped and reached the city gate where she saw a guard and enquired him about Fazal Muhammad’s address. But misfortune never comes alone. The guard was wicked and wanted to present her before his master who was a magistrate. He then took her under the pretext of showing her the way to her right address; but what she saw there was a strange magistrate because she was deceived. The magistrate was cruel and wanted to marry her.But, she somehow managed to escape from there and met Safoora in the city. She was excited to see Safoora because she was the only person in her acquaintances. Zeenat spent much time in Safoora’s home and she also gave birth to a baby boy whom she named Mehboob Ali. Ali Raza’s Son because when she departed from Ali Raza she was pregnant. Now she had new person in life to see Ali Raza in his face. Zeenat then worked in peoples’ homes as maid and earned livelihood. She earned great respect because of her behavior and education. After a couple of months she decided to go to Mumbai to search for her hubby.
As many year lapsed and she faced a lot of troubles; that’s why she changed a lot and didn’t look like an old Zeenat. She left for Mumbai and when she was asking people for Ali Raza’s address in the market. She was blamed of stealing bananas and dates from a shop in the market. She shouted that she was innocent but her language was different and they couldn’t understand her. She was jailed for one month. Her life behind the bars was quite different because the police tortured her. After one month, she was released and went back to city to start her search for Ali Raza again. This time she succeeded in reaching the house where Ali Raza lived but unfortunately Ali Raza had left the house long ago. She felt sorry for her fate because it was difficult to find Ali Raza again. Even she was new in the city and didn’t have acquaintances. She met a lady there who had a perfume selling shop. She gave her shelter and treated her like her family member. But Zeenat was still longing for her husband. After a few days, she was asked to work as a maid in a house and she unanimously said yes, because she needed money to survive. When she entered a new house for work, she saw it was Ali Raza’s house. She started working there and changed her name because she didn’t want to tell her husband she thought. She thought her husband might not accept her therefore, she named herself Zainab. Ali Raza had married another lady whose name was Izzat Bibi and she had a daughter too. Zeenat hid her identity and kept working in her husband’s house whom she had been searching for a long time.
In every chapter of the book there is a new twist in the story and The courageous girl confronts frequent obstacles. She succeeds in getting rid of the troubles with her aptitudes. The book is full of courage and motivation. It also ignites reader’s interest more and more towards the story. It is very interesting and worth-reading book. He who is curious about reading books must go through this novel.
