Soul Stirring Fantasy- ‘Everything is Cursed’ by Zaveria Mohammadi
(Promila Arora)
Zaveria Mohammadi, from village Kotranka, Rajouri is a blessed soul to inscribe this mesmerizing 400 pages’ novel ‘Everything is Cursed’ merely at the age of 16. It is a piece of engrossing and captivating fiction not only for children but the ardent reader of my age even as it is full of fancy and fantasy, pranks and joy, suspense and curiosity. Above all, it is not merely entertaining but carries messages for ideal human being. The story is intertwined with supernatural situations and real human behaviour with feelings, emotions of bonding, concern, affection, anger, happiness, sorrow, fear, disappointment and excitement in such a way that it exhibits the juvenile’s dexterity in weaving the words to make the reader feel that he is visualizing the things and experiencing the situations.
Being a student herself, she secretly expressed disapproval of the transformation of teacher-taught relationship in the present scenario as Jay plays pranks with the Principal Lee and on the other hand Principal Lee doesn’t trust his students being frustrated out of divorce and gives inhuman punishment. Such references indicate the cause of deterioration in education and human understanding.
The author begins the novel with pranks showing bonding of two brothers and a sister. Eldest brother is serious and responsible but fantasy starts with the entry of mysterious black box and then the characters are lost and found after roaming different places full of mysterious beauty. The description by the author is so vivid that one can’t imagine it is merely fancy.
It was astonishing to read the description of palace and the kingdom of Edyn Burg, where all the three kids are guests. What a fancy that a kingdom is ruled by seven kings, not from one family but from different families and yet as one ruler. Just imagine the creativity of the author to introduce everyone with not only physical traits but their demeanour, philosophical and psychological outlook also. Perhaps the author wants to deliver a message of universalism in it to end the confrontation and live peacefully with understanding keeping the ego aside. The author, being juvenile needs applause at her dexterity of pen and words at such elaborate description. How she describes Jayon’s condition on seeing Jay is really marvelous:-
“It was the moment when she felt everything. She felt anger, happiness, sorrow, sadness, fear, disappointment, excitement and still couldn’t process anything. She was losing herself and pain rushed through her veins, her head about to explode, nothing was making sense at all.”
There are many more examples of such brilliant writing in the novel. I can’t help mentioning her understanding of human psychology: “Crying makes you feel better, crying helps you light your heart, crying removes heaviness in your heart and head.”… “I only suggest you to expect worse, then, it will hurt less, when something bad really happens.”
The author treats the plot philosophically and psychologically beside her fantasy. She advocates and believes if a man is guilty, confession can create mutual trust, peace and harmony and restore mutual understanding and moral values. She beautifully explains the gregarious instinct in human beings and even in animals when she mentions the pleasure of Cho at being close to Velvet.
While mentioning the beauty of paths and gardens, flora and fauna, she regrets at the pollution created by man and remembers Good old times: “The path was such a beautiful one, the air was fresh, the streams looked clean, the birds were happily chirping, a beautiful world like this only existed in paintings and portraits in 21St century.In 21st century, there is only traffic and deadly pollution, that people are too busy in life to care about .”
Herself being woman Zaveria is well aware of the importance of woman in the world as a daughter sister and above all mother .Mother is the central point of existence . The importance of woman is pointed out at various references. An analyst can point out innumerable references relating to different human values and tendencies in the novel.However the novel has ignorable grammatical mistakes at one place or two but those are almost forgotten when captured in the storyline.
In overall assesment this novel ‘Everything is Cursed’ being the maiden venture of the author is eloquent piece of child fantasy literature with subtle, articulate diction in fancy, plot, characterization, human mannerism and values and other components Once started it sways the reader from first word to last .
Zaveria has taken her first step strongly in the world of literature with this ‘Everything is Cursed’ that is going to be everything is blessed for her in the years to come .She has drawn attention whosoever has gone through this novel.I feel she will create niche for herself on the panorma of fiction writing and other fields in the years to come.
I wish her all the best to shine like star on the canvas of literature. My love and blessings to my literary granddaughter!
(The author is a Retd. Principal; trilingual writer; translator and a social worker at Kapurthala, Punjab.)
