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Fiza Pathan is a teacher and an award winning author of eight books: S.O.S. Animals and Other Stories, Treasury of Bizarre Christmas Stories, CLASSICS: Why We Should Encourage Children to Read Them, So This Is Love-Collected Poems, NIRMALA: The Mud Blossom, CLASSICS: How We Can Encourage Children to Read Them, The Flame Will Always Burn-Selected Poems, Amina: The Silent One and “Flesh of Flesh” (Short Story).
Fiza Pathan is the recipient of the following awards:
The Mom's Choice Awards® has named Classics: Why we should encourage children to read them and Classics: How we can encourage children to read them, among the best in family-friendly media, products and services.
In the 2015 Beverly Hills International Book Award Classics: Why we should encourage children to read them was a Winner in the Education category.
Pinnacle Book Achievement Award has been awarded to the following books:
Classics: Why we should encourage children to read them-2014 Winner in the Category of Education.
NIRMALA: The Mud Blossom-2014 Winner in the Category of Novella.
So This Is Love-Collected Poems-2014 Winner in the Category of Poetry.
In the 2015 The Next Generation Indie Book Awards:
Classics: How we can encourage children to read them was named a Finalist in the Category of Education/Academic.
NIRMALA: The Mud Blossom was named a Finalist in the Category of Novella.
In the 2015 Eric Hoffer Book Awards:
Classics: How we can encourage children to read them received Honourable Mention in the E-book Non-fiction category.
Classics: Why we should encourage children to read them (Category Education) and Classics: How we can encourage children to read them (Category Reference) has been accepted into nomination for the Global Ebook Awards 2015.
In the 2015 Holiday Book Festival:
S.O.S. Animals And Other Stories received Honourable Mention in the Wild Card category.
Classics: How we can encourage children to read them was selected as a ‘Self Help / How to’ Finalist in the 2015 IAN Book of the Year Awards.
In the 2015 Readers’ Favorite International Book Awards:
Classics: How we can encourage children to read them was honored with the Bronze Medal in the Non-fiction education category.
Nirmala: The Mud Blossom received Honorable Mention in the Fiction Realistic category.
Fiza regularly blogs on www.insaneowl.com and has her own website www.fizapathan.com. She shares reviews of books which she has read and enjoyed. You may follow her on Twitter @FizaPathan or join her on Goodreads.
Reviewed by Jack Magnus for Readers' Favorite
Nirmala: The Mud Blossom is realistic fiction written by Fiza Pathan, set in the reclamation area of Mumbai, India. When the reader first meets Nirmala, she's being beaten with a belt by her mother for reading a library copy of a Dickens novel, when she should have been washing dishes. Nirmala is the oldest child in the family, and her parents had placed her in a dustbin when she was a baby. A group of NGO workers discovered the baby and returned her to her family, who thereupon bestowed on her the nickname of Mud Blossom. Nirmala cleans, cooks and tutors her younger brothers, and she dreams of the future when she'll become a doctor. She's a good student, especially in mathematics, even if her fellow students and teachers make it obvious that her dirty clothes and unwashed state are offensive.
Fiza Pathan's realistic novel, Nirmala: The Mud Blossom is a heart-wrenching and powerful indictment of the treatment of women in India. While I've read countless articles and reports about the wife-burning and other abusive practices, this novel brought it home to me as never before, and I was in tears as I finished Nirmala's story. Pathan's writing is starkly beautiful as we watch the young girl search for trinkets and treasures in the waste and share her finds with the poorer children. Any justifications for such a disparity in treatment based on gender sound hollow at best, and the reader cannot help but share Nirmala's dismay at the change in her placid and kind husband when she cannot produce a male heir. Nirmala: The Mud Blossom is painful to read, but it carries a stunning and a essential message. It's most highly recommended.
