The Shadows of the Clouds

“She had come in winter, a girl full of summer…” So begins the story, set in Nainital, a beautiful hill station tucked away in the Himalayas. The heroine, twenty-one year old Tahmina, is a shy, thoughtful girl. She is brought up by liberal parents who are settled in Dubai. Faisal, her father, owns a hotel. Though she does not have to observe the old customs and traditions, there are still limits to her freedom. So the only adventure she can look forward to is marriage. Tahmina’s world falls apart the day Faisal tells her he is not her real father. He was someone else who lived in Nainital, a beautiful hill-town away in India, and he had died there, leaving to Tahmina whatever little he had in the world- a small, run-down house and a desolate bookshop. He had also left a request that she should visit Nainital at least once – the place of her birth. Whatever little she comes to know about her real father, and about his relationship with her mother, compels her to come to Nainital. She resolves to stay there for some time, deciding to re-open her father’s bookshop. Here she falls in love with Sulaiman, who comes to work with her at the shop. The story traces her shy, hesitant love for him – a man she is compelled to love more and more with each passing day. Though Sulaiman seems as distant as the hills, she doesn’t care, for she is happy to be in love. In the flashback is the story of her father and his sad relationship with her mother.. Her dead father, a man she never knew existed and who had wanted her to discover the happiness freedom. Tahmina’s own conflicting emotions for Faisal bring her to soon learns that happiness is nothing but a shadow of the clouds that fly away, when her dreams are shattered by a shocking revelation from the past…….!!