Excerpts from Novels

THE LONG ROAD TO FREEDOM

The Long Road to Freedom, framed as a historical novel set in India between 1939 and 1947 under British colonial rule, traces the life of Kamni – a young widow whose experiences are captivating, terrifying, and poignant. Following personal tragedy, Kamni steps into the unknown as she attempts to chart her own destiny. Her life suddenly changes after she is forced to make a difficult choice in the face of extreme hardship and danger. Kamni’s story of overcoming adversity, separation, and loss takes her to an unlikely place where she undergoes transformation and discovers meaning in her life despite the odds.

The spark for Ishrat's novel The Long Road to Freedom was the untimely death of a friend whose life had ended in tragedy. Ishrat re-imagines her friend’s existence as a woman who stands up against the cruel practices against widows in her culture. In this visual novel, the author exposes the harsh realities of the life a widow in India. The story will resonate with men and women who seek justice for our common humanity.

Ishrat’s parents came from India, and her deep personal knowledge about the multi-layered lives of women in South Asia makes her the best suited person to tell this story.

Excerpt:

Asha had refused to look in my direction while she was engaged with Kumar, but as she was leaving the verandah, she lightly brushed against me. I did not know what that meant, but her touch sent a river of strength through my body.

I strained to catch a last glimpse of the woman as she walked toward the gate with Kumar. The dogs would normally be unchained at this hour, but right now they were nowhere in sight. Kumar unlocked the gate and let Asha out. She climbed onto the front bar of his bicycle, and he pedaled away.

The glowing end of Kumar’s cigar seemed to float in a dark pool as he stood there watching them and he waited outside until the red light from the dynamo on the bicycle disappeared. He flung away the cigar, closed the gate, tested the chain and the padlock before he turned around and started to walk back to the house.

The ring of gates closing was the final cue to the play, which was about to change everything for all the players.

RANA’S CROSSING

Rana's Crossing is a contemporary novel about the life a Pakistani woman physician with settings in Karachi, Pakistan and Ann Arbor, Michigan. Motivated by their different needs, Rana and her physician husband Imran immigrate to the United States. Imran is driven by financial opportunities, whereas Rana seeks a life of freedom and expression denied to women in Pakistan. While they find affluence as successful physicians, Rana and Imran become strangers in their new country, unable to reconcile their growing differences. Rana overcomes personal tragedy and ultimately finds her voice in the land that becomes her home.

Ishrat brings the voice of authenticity and empathy having experienced many of the struggles as the protagonist in this novel. Having immigrated to the United States in the early 1970s, Ishrat belongs to a generation of women pioneers from Pakistan who balanced medicine, migration, motherhood, and identity – often at tremendous personal cost.

Excerpt:

On the coffee table, I found Complete Works by Ernest Hemingway.
Someone had earmarked a page from To Have and Have Not.

Some made the long drop from the apartment or the office window; some took it quietly in two-car garages with the motor running; some used the native tradition of the Colt or Smith and Wesson, those well-constructed implements that end insomnia, terminate remorse, cure cancer, avoid bankruptcy, and blast an exit from intolerable positions by the pressure of a finger; those admirable American instruments so easily carried, so sure of effect, so well-designed to end the American dream when it becomes a nightmare, their only drawback the mess they leave for relatives to clean up…

It was as if Hemingway was talking about us, our American Dream and the intolerable situations we had lived through...