Title: Little Maryam

Author: Hamid Baig

Publisher: Notion Press, 2018

Page: 296

Reviewed by: R. M, Ashvamegh Staff

Buy the book: Amazon

Hamid Baig’s debut novel, Little Maryam, is a book which can be termed an emotional journey for the readers. It starts with two kids meeting for the first time and they move steadily through their childhood and ultimately end up falling in love with each other before separating because of hostile circumstances. At the beginning of the novel, we meet characters who are central to the plot – Saadiq Haider and Maryam, the daughter of an army person in Dehradun. Saadiq is the son of Haji, a very popular gardener from the same place. The Colonel, Maryam’s father, likes Saadiq but does not approve of his marriage with Maryam and circumstance sends Saadiq to jail in a murder case of Ritesh, local politician Ashish’s son and Saadiq’s good friend as well. In the first straight part, we come to know this. And the story, all of it to the point where Anne Miller finds the letters by Saadiq, runs in a flashback. Yes, the reunion of Maryam and Saadiq is in present – the lovers unite after two decades almost.

Little Maryam is a novel which is too emotional at times because many readers could not hold their tears back… The sentimental melodrama bases itself on a true love story which keeps the teenager Maryam attached to 5 years or so elder person, Saadiq. They plan to get married but their plans are shattered by an uncalled for accident which claims the life of Saadiq’s friend Ritesh. Saadiq goes to prison and the tragedy takes place; Maryam is married to someone else and Haji, Saadiq’s father dies. When he gets out of the jail, there is nothing he could do in Dehradun and leaves for Mumbai where fortune showers grace on him and he reaches to John Hopkins School of Medicine with a full scholarship on his back… becomes a world-renowned gene specialist and receives the novel prize at a rather young age. And then suddenly, one day, he finds news about Maryam and flies back to India.

The curiosity in the novel Little Maryam is always maintained by the author Hamid Baig. A reader can never be distracted because of the clever art of plot-designing displayed by the author in his very debut work! I will not reveal much, but Salman and his daughter have very important roles to play and the ending has been very wonderfully proposed which will leave the readers in awe…

The language used in this contemporary Indian novel is simple and reader-friendly. Young readers will not have any problem with the narrative and the serious readers can also have a read because the novel is certainly about a passionate love story, it does not have any sexual-textual dose of the usual jargon we read in the name of romance novels. You can just enjoy reading Little Maryam with a sure mind that the thing you are going to read is new, very well-written and a standard novel which can certainly be discerned from the suspected lot. Have a happy read for yourself; get a copy of this book from the Amazon link below:

Little Maryam by Hamid on Amazon India

review by R. M