'Zimma' ; The story which introduced me to a profession and two important men

I wrote this novel, 'Zimma' in 1995, after I came across an article about the escalating incidence of drug abuse in the Maldives. The ideas in the novel were based on experiences I gathered from the drug abusing population in Bangalore, whom I met while I tried to make sense about the world of the addict.

The number of addicts I met would run to several hundreds prior to writing the novel. I spent hours attending NA and AA meetings as an observer to understand the life of addicts....and one day, I just found myself pouring my heart out onto ... pages .....which ultimately turned out to be this novel called 'Zimma'. In 1996 it won the National Award for fiction writing in Maldives.

Ever since I wrote that novel....many things happened to me which sort of shocks me and people often ask me whether this was my life story?? Well... after I wrote the novel I studied at the same place where the main character of this novel studied ( I never dreamt I could get admission at this institute at the time of writing the novel), I married a foreigner.......and well..that marriage was shattered and I lost a baby ....... and I too am lucky to have survived all that.

I never thought 'Zimma' would sort of be a parallel of my life story because it is fiction and whatever similarities one may see with my life happened many years after I wrote this novel.
So if anyone reads this and connects it with a period of my life ... I would say....well. it is pure coincidence.

However, this story has influenced my life in another very important way. I thought I was gathering information about substance abuse only for the purpose of writing a story. But now..I feel I have spent a great part of my life working in this area too. Was it my choice?
No. I would put the blame on two important men who directed me to this field.

I still remember the day I went with a friend's child to a SHE festival (late 1999) where I was introduced to the former President Maumoon Abdul Gayoom in the middle of a big hall. Five minutes after the introduction he was asking me about my academic background.and without wasting any time he made one request that decided what I had to do in the Maldives.
In the middle of that big hall, he brought two chairs, sat down and told me about the huge problem of addiction in the country and requested me to visit the drug rehabilitation centre and do whatever I could to help the people who were going through the drug rehabilitation program.

No matter what people may say, I have a deep respect for this man. He gave me a gold pen as an award for writing this novel. He is also indirectly responsible for exposing me to the reality of working in the feild of substance abuse management in the country.
I became a staff of NCB the next day.

Meanwhile... my life was going on. I was huge into pregancy when on a particular evening a young person walked into my home asking about a novel I wrote called 'Zimma'.
His heart and soul was on helping the nation's addicts, which was the theme of the story . He spent many evenings discussing and debating on this issue. Soon I realised that, here was another man who was looking for a way on how to address this problem, which is eating the very fabric of our society. His words were different but concerns were echoes of another man's too.
Where one failed, can the other succeed? One of them must.

After Mohamed Nasheed became the president of Maldives, in a communication we had he said to me, "I still have 'Zimma' with me".
I nodded. I know he has the zimma (responsibility) .

I have a zimma too.
And today I received a phone call from Maldives with some people requesting me for copies of 'Zimma' which are actually collecting dust in a locked room.
Perhaps that is why I remembered what Novelty Ali Hussain said when he sent the printed copies of this novel to me.
He said, 'You have a zimma to take this story to every Maldivian'

Perhaps there is something in this novel then ...perhaps its time for me to use my blog for this purpose?

So I have decided to post pages of this novel in this blog . I have not had the time to translate it to English...but anyway, happy reading to anyone who may wish to read it.