Category: Fiction
Rights: All rights available
In Arslaan aur Behzaad, Khalid Jawed brings us a deeply unsettling and beautiful tale that unfolds across India, Georgia, and Chechnya.
At its heart is Arslaan, a brooding experimental musician in a bustling Indian city, who receives a bewildering letter from a Georgian authority claiming he has fathered a child with a woman he has never met. As he grapples with this impossible truth, a strange and elusive figure named Tugral begins to guide him. Tugral is a detective of sorts, both real and unreal, who appears wherever the story needs him, offering paths forward but never pointing clearly to the truth. Arslaan’s search for answers becomes a descent into himself, revealing that a dream he once had on the day of his father’s burial may hold more weight than memory or logic can explain.
Parallel to Arslaan’s journey is that of Behzaad, a fragile man from Chechnya, born from the preserved sperm of a dead celebrity. Fatherless by design and haunted by his origins, Behzaad arrives in India for his studies and falls in love with the same teacher who once loved Arslaan. She marries Behzaad, but their union ends in a surreal tragedy when she gives birth to nothing but wind. Consumed by guilt and unable to escape the shadow of Arslaan, Behzaad returns to India, where his remorse drives him to a tragic end atop a hill of refuse and remains, a literal mound of life’s discarded material.
This novel is not concerned with magical realism in the traditional sense. Instead, Khalid Jawed reveals the strange and divine qualities hidden in everyday existence. His characters are dreamlike yet deeply human, burdened with guilt, longing, and an unrelenting need to understand themselves. Arslaan aur Behzaad is a lyrical and philosophical exploration of love, memory, and the quiet devastation of regret. It is a story that stirs the subconscious and leaves behind echoes long after the final page.
The author: Khalid Jawed
The translator: Baran Farooqi