Book Title: Pehli Jhalak Europe Ki
Writer: Hasnain Nazish
Genre: Travelogue/ Safarnama
The book ‘Pehli Jhalak Europe Ki’ is a beautifully written travelogue by a talented Urdu writer from Pakistan named Hasnain Nazish. The book is an account of Mr. Nazish’s travel experiences around the European continent. The six European countries he visits during his travel are the Netherlands, Switzerland, Germany, Austria, France, and Belgium.
This book was a gift from Sir Saqib Mahmood Butt who is the Editor of “Kitaab Nama”. Since I have never been to Europe nor have, I read any travelogues before, I was really excited to read this book. The writer shared a lot of details about these beautiful countries and painted such a vivid picture with his words that I felt like I was actually visiting these places rather than just reading about them.
The book is divided into six sections. In each section, Mr. Nazish shares an account of one of the countries he has visited. The first country that he talks about is the Netherlands. In this section he writes about his experience of visiting Amsterdam, the capital city of the Netherlands, and the beautiful villages of Gethorn and Zanse Schans. These were the places I enjoyed reading the most about in this section. I am more into nature, sceneries, landscapes, and old architecture with loads of history behind them. Hence, If I ever visit Amsterdam, I am going to visit Gethorn and Zanse Schans because I was truly mesmerized by the picturesque beauty of these villages described by the author. I further fell in love with these places when I googled their images. What I love the most about Amsterdam as I read this book is that their government and people have preserved the 18th and 19th-century architecture which adds more to its beauty.
Since traveling is quite an expensive hobby and I always wished to travel to Europe, this book kind of served as a travel guide to me and I have made a mental note about which countries and places to visit in the future if I ever get the chance to visit Europe.
One of the things that I enjoyed throughout this book was the snippets of history lessons the writer provided in his book about each country and its historical significance transforming it into an engaging guide to European history. It made this book all the more interesting to me.
I also enjoyed Mr. Nazish’s account of his travel to Germany. I specifically enjoyed the part where the writer talked about the life of Adolf Hitler. I came to know a lot of new information about Hitler which I was not previously aware of.
Despite the book being an engaging read, I didn’t enjoy the writer’s account of Belgium much especially the chapter about the “Coffee.” Sadly, I had to skim through that section. Moreover, there was a bit too information about the dress and clothes of the women in these countries. The reason I found them weird was because these descriptions, at a lot of points, seemed unnecessary and forced. Apart from that, it was a good read. The research that Mr. Nazish has done on the historical significance of these countries and cities he was describing is highly commendable and made this travelogue all the more interesting. I will highly recommend this book to those who enjoy reading travelogues.
