Paperback₹395

Deserted Flowers (Novel)

2020226 pages

About the book

The novel “Deserted Flowers” deals with the theme of Arab Nikhas which are taking place in the old city of Hyderabad. Old Arab Sheiks come to Hyderabad in search of young Muslim girls and after luring their poverty stricken parents with costly gifts and hefty Meher, they enter into Nikha with teenage girls. After spending few weeks in the hotels of Hyderabad, they give talaq to the girl and go back. Even if they take the bride to the Arab countries, the girl is forced to lead a pathetic life as a domestic servant and also has to satisfy the carnal desires of the Arab sheiks. Middlemen or brokers are mostly benefitted financially from arranging such marriages and in majorityof the cases the parents of the girl will get paltry sum in exchange of their beautiful and innocent daughters. In the novel Zubeda and Rehana, two young teenagers fall victims to their parents’ decision to marry them off to sheiks from Arab countries lured by false promises of the middleman. Zubeda, a fourteen year old gets married to an Arab sheik without a chance to look at him even during jalwa as the agent manages the nikha without jalwa! The nikha too is performed not as a celebration but as a stealthy act done in hurry. Zubeda sees him on suhaagraat for the first time. Much to her shock she shivers as if she saw a ghost; she’s married off to a man over sixty! He spends a month with her and after going back to Dubai, he divorces her by uttering Talaq thrice on phone. After ditched by her third husband who sells her off, she leads her life as a call girl. Rehanawho goes to Dubai with her shohar had to contend herself as the third wife of her husband only to be reduced to a maid subsequently… The circumstances prevailing in the house forces her to stab her husband with a knife and finally she lands in the jail. Who is responsible for the pathetic plight of these innocent Muslim girls? Deserted Flowers is a novel that gives expression to the deplorable lives of innocent young Muslim girls who fall victims to greedy middlemen who build their wealth on the lives of these teenagers. Deserted Flowers also documents how the impoverished living conditions prompt people to take up menial jobs in Arab countries manipulated in the hands of brokers who lure them with false hopes of coming into wealth. After reading the novel, the near-death living conditions of Zubeda, Rehana, Aktarbi, Babumiawill surely haunt the reader.

About the Translator
Indira Babbellapati is a widely published poet and translator. Her original poetry anthologies include affaire de coeur, Vignettes of the Sea, echo , From the Biography of an Unknown Woman , Nomadic Nights and A poem thatpainted the sky . She translated all genres of literature except drama. Night of Nectar (Tilak's Amritamkurisinaraatri ) for the SahityaAkademi, Asampoorna, the Incomplete, Into a Crowded Aloneness, (originally in Teluguby Raamaa Chandramouli) are some of her poetry anthologies in translation. Her Own Way , a book of Sahitya Akademi award winning short stories (by Abburi Chaya Devi in Telugu) is under publication with the Sahitya Akademi. Besides, she contributed to Gold Nuggets the Akademi's publication; Gender Game and Other Stories, The Dusk , a novel in translation besides two translations to an anthology of Raa Vi Sastry's stories in translation V alues and Other Stories have been published by the Translation Bureau of Dravidian University, Kuppam. Journal of literature and Aesthetics , special issue on translation carries her translation Prince Hemmingway of AllamSeshagirirao. Indira also translated short stories of "Sripati." Her recent publication is Shadow of the Sun , a novel in translation from Telugu. Some of her poems may be found in Postcolonial Discourse, an online literary journal from Canada. Indira's poetry can be accessed on many online poetry portals.
Her original poetry in English has been anthologized in Roots and Wings, Suvarnarekha, Persona, Heaven-2014, I'm a poet, Symphony of Peace andthree volumes of Amaravati Poetic Prism--Multilingual Anthologies, Wit, Women and Wisdom, a Multilingual Women's Poetry Anthology.
April-May 2018 issue of Muse India (Special feature on Indian Feminism) contains six of her poems under the head Body Business and other poems.
Bernards Township Public Schools Basking Ridge, New Jersey has prescribed her poems For Those with Low Self-Esteem for literary connections (Formerly known as English 8) Grade 8 REVISION:Summer 2008 Supervisor: Janet Ankiel, D Litt. Revision Committee: Jil Burt Donna Keenan Colin Simpson.
Indira Babbellapati's English poetry has been translated into Telugu, Hindi, Bangla, Spanish, and French. She made her presence felt at many national and international poetry meets like Asia-Pacific Writers and Translators, SAARC Literature Festival to name a few.