Paris Mein Aik Din
By Mustansar Hussain Tarar
Sang-e-Meel Publications
ISBN: 978-969-35-3682-9
208pp.

Actor, novelist, playwright and host Mustansar Hussain Tarar is one of Pakistan’s most beloved travel writers. For more than six decades, he has possessed a rare gift: the ability to transform simple journeys into meditative explorations of place, memory and the self. Paris Mein Aik Din [A Day in Paris], is a testament to this talent.

Though he has wandered through a dozen European countries, Paris unfolds in his narrative — sometimes familiar, sometimes transformed — like a dream recalled differently with each glance. From the very first page, Tarar’s storytelling captivates the reader, carrying them along with nostalgia, insight and quiet emotion.

The title may seem modest at first, suggesting a single ordinary day in a famous city, yet the book soon reveals itself as deeply reflective, atmospheric and richly layered. Tarar does not merely describe Paris as the “city of love”, he uses it as a canvas to explore art, history, exile, ageing, nostalgia and the subtle ache of longing. Each street, bridge and café is more than a backdrop — it is a mirror through which the traveller’s inner world and memories reflect.

Tarar chronicles his journey from the Hague to Paris with his wife and granddaughter, Mishal. Though his son and daughter-in-law also accompany them, they appear only briefly and occasionally, enough to remain part of the narrative without overshadowing its central focus.

Mustansar Hussain Tarar returns to Paris after half a century and uses the city as a canvas to explore art, history, exile, ageing, nostalgia and the subtle ache of........

© Dawn (Magazines)