Book: Children of the North

Author: Niddal Bin Tahir

Genre: Travel’s log/ Adventure

Plot/Summary:
It is a first-person account narrated by a character named Nido. The story starts in one of Islamabad’s shady sheesha café. A couple of young friends make a plan to visit the northern areas. The problem is these young men want to do something so crazy that none of their friends have done it before.

So in a fit of madness, they decide to borrow a jeep and drive themselves not just to Naran but to Aansoo Lake. A lake that is even higher than Saif-ul-Malook Lake.

What follows is an emotional roller coaster ride, high octane adventure full of drama.

My Thoughts

Unique, invigorating, interesting, and well written

The book is based on true events. It is entertaining to read, it drives home the power of writing. I am sitting at home reading this but the author has transported me to a crazy misadventure in Naran.

Reminds me of Thor Heyerdahl’s Kon – Tiki – Expedition. In Kon Tiki Expedition, a bunch of hotheads make a bet to cross the Pacific Ocean on nothing but a Balsa raft just to prove a theory.

The same way our young heroes start from Islamabad looking for an adventure. And adventure is what they get although some might call it misadventure.

A borrowed jeep of questionable vitality, one junky, an egomaniac, an armature actor, a joker; money which can only see them through half the trip, what can go wrong?

The answer: a lot.

The book is hundred plus pages - hilarious at times, as we follow our adventurers committing blunder after blunder.
The money runs out in mid-trip – and the jeep breaks down.
How will our adventurers get back home?

This is your local version of ‘The Hangover and ‘Banged up Abroad’ rolled into one. And the best part is all of it is true.