Rafina

I am seeing a lot of good literature coming out of Pakistan of late. Rafina by Shandana Minhas is definitely one of them.

When Pan Macmillan sent me a pic of the book, I accepted blindly just by how pretty the cover was. But by the time it came, I had started on other books, and this ended up languishing in a corner of my bookcase.

Recently, I picked it up, and finished it in a single setting. And am kicking myself for not embarking on it earlier.

What is Rafina about?

Rafina looks at the glamorous girl on the billboard outside her window in Karachi and thinks, It won’t be long before I’m up there. Too poor for college and dismissive of marriage, the clear-eyed young woman cajoles her mother’s friend and Radiance beauty parlour masseuse, Rosie Khala, into taking her on as an apprentice. Thus begin her brave misadventures – from clumsy parlour assistant, to mostly dependable tea girl, till in a stroke of serendipity, she is ‘discovered’. Poised to have everything she thought she wanted, the only thing standing between Rafina and that billboard are the people who think she should still be using the service entrance. 

~ Synopsis from goodreads

My Review

This is a very short novella (only about 150 pages or less). It’s a fairly simple and straightforward book. On the face of it, it seems like a cliched story of a young ambitious girl becoming a model. However, the treatment is what sets this book apart from others of its kind.

Rafina as a character is fearless. She’s a bold and ambitious teenager with big dreams. Unfortunately, her family situation does not support her dream. When finances run low, she starts work in a beauty parlour. These portions of the story are hilarious. Rafina is so obviously unfit for this kind of work. I loved all those portions of the book where she is waxing and massaging and failing so miserably at it.

Rafina is a very shallow and self-obsessed teenager always thinking about her beauty. And since most of the book deals with Rafina’s interior life – her thoughts and attitudes to life around her, the book is rather shallow too.

I read a lot of negative reviews on the web (one of the reasons why it went on the back-burner almost as soon as I received it). But these reviews deal with the character of Rafina. Every reviewer has written about how much they dislike Rafina. But the author does not intend for us to like her at all.

I thought it a very realistic portrait of what desperation can make a girl do. This is what happens to a lot of pretty girls without money or education, but a whole lot of ambition. Just go to Bollywood, the place is teeming with such types of girls.

That said, I did feel that the modelling portions are contrived. I wish the author had chosen some other channel for the girl’s ambitions. And the ending is abrupt, extremely abrupt.

But overall, I thought this was a well-written and entertaining book. I definitely passed a pleasant couple of hours with this book.