For a debutant, a novel like Little Maryam is nothing lesser than a testimony to his writing abilities which are put on a trial and come as audience-winner. Hamid Baig, the author of Little Maryam, a novel which might be put in the Romance category as well as any other for that sake, is one of those authors whose very debut impresses the readers to a great extent that they expect other good titles too early. From Delhi and a successful entrepreneur, Hamid Baig has been writing short stories and poems for long. However, he did not venture into publishing a full-length novel before his plan to publish Little Maryam – the story of Saadiq and Maryam.
Hamid’s concept of romance and a romantic novel is nothing like the contemporary jargon which merely focuses on the physical aspects of love and offers the readers a momentary excitement. When even the authors like Chetan Bhagat have succumbed to the new low, detailing out the ‘exact process’ of love-making and making even their novels ‘A’ certified, Hamid has tried something different – his romance begins at the heart and remains at the heart. He does not endorse that ‘compulsion philosophy’ which says that readers want to read that; he has shown that readers aren’t offered good content, and if offered, they read it joyfully! The response that his debut book Little Maryam has generated among the readers says the story loudly.
Qualities other than vision and philosophy that a reader wants to see in the authors of his or her choice are the ability to create interesting plots with necessary surprises, a narrative capable enough to hold the readers’ attention until the end of the novel, and the language which could accommodate the things mentioned above. In his very first novel, Hamid has shown a clear glimpse of what he is capable of and we can safely say that he has got it. Yes, the plot would certainly improve only in the next novels because it certainly tends to become singleton on some scanty instances.
Authors like Hamid Baig need to ensure that they remain among the readers with other titles at regular intervals. Readers need to read good fiction because most of them are just dried because of the repetition again and again. Fresh narratives and fresh stories are must for the Indian literary scene because we need to keep the dice rolling before it stagnates and jams. There are many new authors who promise newness but they need to continue that as well. Hamid is busy working on his next scripts and he will be up with his new title in due course of time. We must hope he offers us something even better than the current one – Little Maryam! You can explore more about his fiction and his personal details on his official website:
