Goodbye to Urdu

About the Book

Dreams that come true hurt us most in future.
People are not afraid to go to hell because they’ve already been through a hell here. A preacher tries to put fear of graves in their hearts in graphic detail, but they mock him.
Nothing new, they are so used to it — visceral fear in real life.

The story of a boy who grapples with the death of his father. He tries to find the answers in the life passed in his village in the soft light of the night and the brutal sunlight of the day. It is not only the loss of childhood dreams but also the language spoken in them. Slowly and surely he watches a ghetto surreptitiously encroaching upon his family and community. There a bird refuses to recognize another bird. Exiled there with the same seasons, now ruthless and relentlessly painful, he confuses the cries of the birds with the cries of the children. It’s just not the fear for himself but the fear for generations to come. What will happen to them? People have a different criterion for buying homes there. They look for a place where they will not be attacked at night.

About the Author

Ali Daniel was born in UP, India. Postgraduate in history, he has been on and off a teacher on a hill station and the plains of India. He has no family of his own and lives on different campuses of schools and colleges. Now he lives in Lucknow.