Fiza Pathan's Blog - Posts Tagged "fiza-pathan"

The Goodreads team has approved my giveaway for ‘Treasury Of Bizarre Christmas Stories’. The giveaway has opened for entries and ends at midnight on Saturday, December 21. I have selected 3 copies of my book to give away to Goodreads members in United States, Canada, United Kingdom, and India. I invite all the Goodreads members from these member countries to take part in my Giveaway.

Fiza

The Goodreads Giveaway for 'Treasury Of Bizarre Christmas Stories' has ended.

811 people entered from four countries i.e. US, Canada, UK, India.

The winners announced by Goodreads Team are:

Kevin Donovan - US
Annie Litalien - Canada
Sakshi Sardana - Haryana, India

I congratulate the winners and wish to inform them that they will receive the book directly from Amazon.com in the coming days . The books have already been ordered.

I thank each and every participant who entered my Goodreads Giveaway and made it a huge success.

With warmest regards for the Holiday Season.

Wishing each and every one of you a very Merry Christmas

Fiza Pathan

Treasury Of Bizarre Christmas Stories

My Goodreads Giveaway for 'So This Is Love - Collected Poems' has ended.

689 people entered. 3 winners have been announced. The winners are:

1. Sezin Özkılıç, Turkey

2. Anja Bosnjak, Slovenia

3. Allegra Artis, US

I congratulate the winners. I thank each of the 689 Goodreads readers who entered my Giveaway. Thank you for your participation and overwhelming support.

As announced the Paperback copy of my book has already been arranged to
be despatched through Amazon USA.

Amazon has informed the expected delivery date for Turkey and Slovenia will be Apr. 15, 2014 - Apr. 24, 2014.

The expected delivery date for US is Apr. 3, 2014 - Apr. 4, 2014.

Warm regards

Fiza Pathan

My first novel which has just been released titled ‘Nirmala: The Mud Blossom’ was an accident. I had no intention of writing this story, let alone framing and formatting it into a novella. Yet when I pass the many filthy slums of Mumbai surrounding sky rise buildings and towers…I think to myself that maybe my character Nirmala and I both were accidents. Nirmala, was tossed into a dustbin because she was a girl…I was sent home to my mother’s family because I was a girl. Nirmala and I are two really different people and I can’t understand how I managed to write about her in the first place.

Do I empathize with Nirmala? Maybe…Do I sympathize with Nirmala? Maybe…but one thing is for sure. Nirmala got me thinking about reality, the reality that girls in India are not wanted…Nirmala and I both were not wanted.

Many people after reading the script of Nirmala before it was published thought that maybe I was venting out my feeling of my own personal social tragedy…maybe…maybe not, but isn’t that the forte of a writer, to put a part of herself into the work she is creating? Maybe Nirmala was a character my subconscious mind wanted to bring out in ink…a character which ran in my blood and I did not know it.

I realized that my father and his family did not wish to look after me because I was a girl was only when I was in high school. Everyone in my maternal home thought I would take it nicely which I did externally…but inside…it hurt, it still hurts. From that day on, I also came to the realization that it was because of me that my mother’s and father’s marriage broke…I had ruined my mother’s life and I feel the guilt…and that too hurts a lot. Nirmala never broke up things; she tried to bring about understanding and unity…by breaking every piece of her existence and thrusting down those pieces into a mad cauldron of gender inequality.

It was my Sociology professor in college who brought to my notice that I could do very well as a Sociology student. He felt I had the guts and the grit to tell things as they were──the naked truth of the matter. He saw this in my Sociology projects especially ones dealing with gender discrimination issues. I had no clue then that I would one day create Nirmala…the child of the slum…the slum which is the face of reality…the reality of the unwanted girl child…the nightmare of my broken family life.

It took me only a month to write the book ‘Nirmala: The Mud Blossom’ but it will take me a lifetime to understand why I wrote about her. Why could I have not written a fantasy novel…something popular…something that would require a sequel…but I wrote about Nirmala. Yes! I wrote about Nirmala. I wrote about the abuses meted out to her, her fears, her aspirations, her disappointments, her anger, and her lively spirit…all which is not me and yet…it is me…for Nirmala lives in me and yet I can’t really say that we have had a dialogue. We don’t talk about it, just the way I was told by my mother that my father’s chapter was closed; she did not want to talk about it anymore.

What effect has Nirmala had on me as her creator? Would it be scandalous if I said we both don’t see eye to eye? For the fact is that we don’t really like each other but we tolerate each other, just the way Nirmala in my novella tolerates the gutter stench in her slum and the reeking of dried blood over her wounds.

However, I’ll never be able to forget about Nirmala for she was one character that got me to think…to think about Mumbai’s future with the expansion of slums and the children of these slums who urinate and excrete on the streets of our city. Have I failed Nirmala or has Nirmala failed me as a writer…only time will tell. We both found our roots in rejection; I hope that one day we both find our happiness in the blossom of our hearts.

Copyright 2014 Fiza Pathan

NIRMALA: The Mud Blossom

The Goodreads team has approved my giveaway for NIRMALA: The Mud Blossom. It is scheduled to open for entries at midnight on Friday, August 15 and end at midnight on Monday, September 15. 3 copies of my book will be given away to Goodreads members in United States, Canada, United Kingdom, Australia, Afghanistan, Aland Islands, Albania, Algeria, American Samoa, Andorra, Angola, Anguilla, Antarctica, Antigua and Barbuda, Argentina, Armenia, Aruba, Austria, Azerbaijan, Bahamas, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Barbados, Belarus, Belgium, Belize, Benin, Bermuda, Bhutan, Bolivia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Botswana, Bouvet Island, Brazil, British Indian Ocean Territory, Brunei Darussalam, Bulgaria, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cambodia, Cameroon, Cape Verde, Cayman Islands, Central African Republic, Chad, Chile, China, Christmas Island, Cocos (keeling) Islands, Colombia, Comoros, Congo, Congo, the Democratic Republic of the, Cook Islands, Costa Rica, Cote D'ivoire, Croatia, Cuba, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Djibouti, Dominica, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Egypt, El Salvador, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Estonia, Ethiopia, Falkland Islands (malvinas), Faroe Islands, Fiji, Finland, France, French Guiana, French Polynesia, French Southern Territories, Gabon, Gambia, Georgia, Germany, Ghana, Gibraltar, Greece, Greenland, Grenada, Guadeloupe, Guam, Guatemala, Guernsey, Guinea, Guinea-bissau, Guyana, Haiti, Heard Island and Mcdonald Islands, Holy See (vatican City State), Honduras, Hong Kong, Hungary, Iceland, India, Indonesia, Iran, Iraq, Ireland, Isle of Man, Israel, Italy, Jamaica, Japan, Jersey, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Kenya, Kiribati, Korea, Democratic People's Republic of, Korea, Republic of, Kuwait, Kyrgyzstan, Lao People's Democratic Republic, Latvia, Lebanon, Lesotho, Liberia, Libya, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Macao, Macedonia, the Former Yugoslav Republic of, Madagascar, Malawi, Malaysia, Maldives, Mali, Malta, Marshall Islands, Martinique, Mauritania, Mauritius, Mayotte, Mexico, Micronesia, Federated States of, Moldova, Monaco, Mongolia, Montenegro, Montserrat, Morocco, Mozambique, Myanmar, Namibia, Nauru, Nepal, Netherlands, Netherlands Antilles, New Caledonia, New Zealand, Nicaragua, Niger, Nigeria, Niue, Norfolk Island, Northern Mariana Islands, Norway, Oman, Pakistan, Palau, Palestinian Territory, Occupied, Panama, Papua New Guinea, Paraguay, Peru, Philippines, Pitcairn, Poland, Portugal, Puerto Rico, Qatar, Réunion, Romania, Russian Federation, Rwanda, Saint Barthélemy, Saint Helena, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Martin, Saint Pierre and Miquelon, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Samoa, San Marino, Sao Tome and Principe, Saudi Arabia, Senegal, Serbia, Seychelles, Sierra Leone, Singapore, Slovakia, Slovenia, Solomon Islands, Somalia, South Africa, South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands, South Sudan, Spain, Sri Lanka, Sudan, Suriname, Svalbard and Jan Mayen, Swaziland, Sweden, Switzerland, Syrian Arab Republic, Taiwan, Tajikistan, Tanzania, United Republic of, Thailand, Timor-leste, Togo, Tokelau, Tonga, Trinidad and Tobago, Tunisia, Turkey, Turkmenistan, Turks and Caicos Islands, Tuvalu, Uganda, Ukraine, United Arab Emirates, United States Minor Outlying Islands, Uruguay, Uzbekistan, Vanuatu, Venezuela, Viet Nam, Virgin Islands, British, Virgin Islands, U.S., Wallis and Futuna, Western Sahara, Yemen, Zambia, and Zimbabwe.



A sample copy of my book is available for viewing and download at:
http://www.amazon.com/NIRMALA-Mud-Blossom-Fiza-Pathan-ebook/dp/B00M9ORT9K/

Do read the two ★★★★★ reviews

“It isn't often that I am moved to tears by a story. In this case I had to stop reading several times until I could see the words clearly once again.” Jack Eason

"This book in my eyes is both: a ‘tour de force’ of social reportage and a literary masterpiece."
ebooksinternational .

I count on your wholehearted support to make this Giveaway a success. Feel free to reblog my post throughout the Giveaway period and do click the Enter to win button midnight on Friday, August 15.

With warm regards

Fiza

Related posts:

http://insaneowl.com/2014/08/03/the-nirmala-effect-by-fiza-pathan/

http://insaneowl.com/2014/08/01/justreleased-nirmala-the-mud-blossom-by-fiza-pathan/

http://insaneowl.com/2014/07/27/cover-reveal-nirmala-the-mud-blossom-crying-out-to-your-heart/