Mahdi
Mahdi is an own voice author, whose sole purpose is to shed light on the quintessential aspects of duality and oneness in all that exists. That adds such an authentic touch to Khaak; a moving story, based on true events entailing the attack on the Army Public School in Peshawar, Pakistan that devoured the lives of more than 144 children and teachers by the alleged Terrorist organization called TTP(Tehrik-i-Taliban) on December 16, 2014. To pen this tale of sorrow and cruelty became more of a conscious decision for Mahdi; to re-create a story-world that didn't necessarily begin with screams and end in silence, but roared with the “love” of a mother and the earth shattering spirit of a valiant seven year old, declaring and honouring a growing presence, the presence of a message that has not been said, but which is very much there.
The message in Khaak does not intend to present things through the cold-eyed lens of factuality, rather it encourages the readers to listen to the voice, of unexpressed feelings and emotions and give a real wrought out design of Zufash’s and Janat Gul’s message; about the spirit of unconditional love, about rising again from the ashes, about the future, as it flourishes under the mantle of books and childhood galore.
“MAHDI is my conscious choice as it resonates with my soul purpose.
MAHDI means guidance, it means, voice against injustice, it means a higher consciousness that transcends the boundaries of limitations, pain, suffering and transforms all into growth, love and light!!
MAHDI is sheer alchemy of the soul.”
Indeed, Khaak’s message is the same just as the essence of the name Mahdi, to transcend the suffering and pain, to become one with the collective energy of love and healing, to make conscious choices for a better earth for us and our children, to simply exist in peace and harmony with all that is called “life!” Mahdi and Khaak resonate that Oneness, of purpose.
Khaak
Janat Gul transfuses her life into what is unreal by standing outside the school gates every day in hopes of finding her son. She borrows just enough reality from the breathing world to make her dead son insensibly seem alive. Within seconds, Zufash's life was torn away (along with those like him), in the hands of Bahadur alias Khaakzad; a Waziri terrorist who deemed this pursuit futile.
The readers will guess the actual culprit almost immediately. However, Bahadur's peculiar journey from the time-hallowed shrine of the past, of being an innocent seven-year-old shepherd boy to a heartless terrorist Khaakzad (Dust-clad) lay almost wholly in the narrative. It mirrors the struggles, the rapture and the gloom within his own heart; the sub plot is the crucible in which his thoughts and emotions are fused and molded into words. But will it be an ideal personage for him to powerfully drive the readers’ imagination into a conceivable awakening and hold them accountable for their immediate judgment without appealing to their primal sympathies for Zufash?
Khaak is inspired by the heinous attack on the Army Public School in Peshawar, Pakistan that devoured the lives of more than 144 children and teachers by the Terrorist organization called TTP (Tehrik-i-Taliban) on December 16, 2014: Wikipedia and Al-Jazeera articles.
The Timeless Eye of Eternity by 12-year-old Nuha
