We were joined by an internationally acclaimed scholar and content creator in May 2018, on Qissa. We have gotten the opportunity to cater to hundreds of intellectuals from all across Pakistan over the years, due to Qissa . A year into operations, we even started welcoming artists from abroad. It is always a moment of pride for us when well-known artists trust us with their life’s work by giving us the opportunity to supply them any services they might need.
“Inspired Discourses”– Words of An Artist
Such was the case ofMr. Aadil Farook, a non-commercial music artist celebrated worldwide for his work. The book titled “Inspired Discourses”, is an exceptional piece of writing that discusses the traditions and heritage of Islamic intellectuality. Mr. Aadil Farook’s writing brought forward the abundance of rich Islamic knowledge, in all schools of thoughts including but not limited to legality, theology, philosophy, as well as mysticism. His literary achievements are not limited to this book, rather he is also author of two other books of Islamic poetry. All of his books have received excellent reviews from all around the world.
Inspired discourses by Aadil Farook
The Author’s Journey:
His artistic abilities are not limited to writing. In fact, he is also known for 6 of his songs and 1 instrumental composition which have been aired on top FM stations across Pakistan. Mr. Aadil owns a website on his own name that he runs himself, and is eventually nominated for the British Muslim Awards, a highly prestigious award that honored the successes of Muslims residing in Britain. His list of achievements also include translations of two books authored by a mystic and Sufi, from Urdu to English making it widely available. Due to his exceptional accomplishments, he has been likened to Allama Muhammad Iqbal.
Daastan is proud to introduce this book in Pakistan. We are honored to play our part in spreading the love of literature. It has always been our aim to support and empower writers. Join us today and become a part of our struggle.
Our journey as one of the only reliable and quality assured self-publishing platforms in Pakistan has been an extraordinarily rewarding one. We have been the choice of writers of so many brilliant stories from all across the country. Authors from17 countries across the globe have chosen Qissa to publish their work till now. Our platform now features stories in more than two languages, and 13 genres. The way Qissa scaled and became global in the span of just a couple years stunned us, and heartened us even more, to keep pursuing our dream of providing publishing services that were easier, faster, cheaper, and helped us materialize the dreams of our writers.
The Stories That Built Our Story
During all this time, we have also had the opportunity to discover young potential. Qissa has published stories of writers as young as 19 years old from KPK, and 15 years old from Sindh. Both the writers received special marketing from the forum Daastan. By reading their stories, many others were inspired to write and publish themselves.
Fastest crowdfunded book, writthen by Ms. Laiba from KPK
Youngest author from Sindh, Ms. Lareb Soomro, publishes her first book through Daastan
Youngest Author from Punjab:
Another such whiz-kid was Ms. Sameen Irshad, who published her book “My Were-Story” at the age of 14, becoming the youngest author published through Daastan from Punjab. Her novel was 50,000 words long, and for a teenager it was extremely well written. The novel was based on the fantasy genre, featuring real life and legendary myths of werewolves. The team campaigned extensively for her crowdfunding, to bring her story to print.
A 14 year old, Ms. Sameen, authors a 50,000 words novel – My Were- Story
The Next Khalid Hosseini:
Next in line came the youngest author of Kashmir, a 22-year old lady named Ms. Ayesha Siddique, who wrote a story based in Afghanistan titled“The Freezing Point”. With accurate eerie imagery and use of Pashto language for someone who had neither visited the country, nor could speak the language. Her novel was remarkable in its writing style as it brought to mind the approach of the best-selling author Khalid Hosseini. It was a heart wrenching coming of age story, that highlighted the way terrorism and extremism had ravaged what was before a country that housed beauty. The author’s work was brought to print through crowdfunding. Her experience with Daastan was so amazing that she immediately decided to publish her second book on Qissa , when it was ready.
Ms. Ayesha becomes our youngest author from Kashmir
If you have a story that you wish the world to read, now is the time to begin your journey. Sign Up with us at Qissa and become a published author today!
Stories Untold made rounds over social media recently. Our story writing competition was based on the tragedy of Zainab. Writers poured their hearts out to express their feelings on the incident in order to spread awareness regarding the issue.
Following the horrific misfortune that befell the beautiful little six-year-old Zainab Ansari belonging to Kasur, Punjab, a wave of fright and panic went through all of Pakistan. Each person was recounting the report of that tragedy the family of the little girl had gone through. The trauma they must endure for the rest of their lives is unimaginable. The horrendous act of the perpetrator shattered the happiness of a sound family. It wasn’t one life we lost that day, rather a part of the whole nation seemed to have died along with her.
The Stories Untold Season 4, themed I am Zainab
The Stories Untold : I Am Zainab
At that time, many of the organizations stepped forward to improve the situation and all they could to help. Daastan, after careful consideration decided to launch the fourth season of its signature writing competition, The Stories Untold. The theme of “I am Zainab” was chosen to honor the life that was lost.
Through Stories Untold, we wanted our writers to address the grave issue of child abuse. Moreover, we encouraged them to write about any form of abuse – physical, sexual or emotional. We wanted storytellers to highlight effective ways in order to educate children and protect them from such experiences. Another purpose of this theme was to encourage our community to write stories which would serve as guidance and educational material for their children, helping them learn about this social evil and ways they could protect themselves against them.
Top 5 Urdu entries, from Stories Untold season 4
Top 5 English entries, from Stories Untold season 4
The Response to our Competition:
Despite the social stigma surrounding the topic, we received a lot of entries, out of which we selected a dozen as finalists. The authors of these stories were put into contact with a professional psychologists. We made sure that the message of their stories would spread and be followed. Daastan went through various such screenings to make sure the stories would be child friendly and could serve as a genuine guide for both parents and children.
The finalists selected were all published digitally through Daastan. Top 5 stories are to be printed with Qissa so as to help spread this message as far and wide as possible.
We are proud to welcome Botanists to our list of authors. Qissa has seen and been an avenue which promoted a fair share of fiction writers over the years. We are very grateful for the way Qissa has grown. When we started Daastan, our dream was to propagate education and simplify the process of sharing knowledge with people. One thing which we really looked forward to on Qissa was academic writing because it helps readers explore whichever subject they wish to learn.
The book contains detailed morphological descriptions of the herbs and flora of the area of Lahore. It provides vital information about a plethora of herbal species. The book was specially aimed to help Botanists and ‘Hakims’(Homeopaths) of the region broaden their medicinal plant base and as a result, acquire thorough knowledge.
About The Authors
The authors include Ms. Mehwish Jaffer, a PhD Scholar author of Six International and national scientific papers. Her co-author is Ms. Shabnum Shaheen, who have alsopublished Six International monographs and books, 68 research publications, and has won a gold medal in an international conference of Botany.
Choose Qissa Today
To sum it up, Qissa is honored to be chosen as your platform for publishing. We hope that such intellectuals and distinguished individuals will keep making Daastan their first choice for any publishing related services they might require. Extend your knowledge forward to the community and join us today by signing up with Qissa!
Book cover, A Practical Guide To Herbaceous Flora of District Lahore, Punjab
Qissa has worked hard to bring together people from all walks of life. If there lives inside you a storyteller who has the ability and creativity you will find your way to art. Literature enables people to truly be themselves, and sometimes, even more– despite any prosecution or judgement from the world.
What is the purpose of Qissa
It was our ambition to empower the artist that lives within you. We wanted to give people the motivation to spin words into tales, without having to worry about any of the procedure that follows. And we knew we were on the right track when, despite rejection and demotivating factors we received an overwhelming response. From your support, love, and eagerness to be a part of our platform, we collected our strength to expand our operations.
About Qissa’s Author
Qissa gained popularity and as a result, we started receiving the attention of highly qualified people from many different fields. One of the authors who joined us, Ms. Hafsa, was a geneticist. She believed in finding a fix to problems no matter how deep she needed to dive in. Her book “Hossana”, is a collection of poems with illustrations, which was crowdfunded and brought to print. Different languages and genres are featured in it. The book is divided into 3 sections. The first one raises questions that go bone deep and rattle one’s perceptions about life. The second part provides answers, helping us reconcile with reality. The last is titled ‘messages’, connecting us irreversibly with the author who takes us along this journey of thoughts and knowledge.
We are proud to assist such talented writers who are struggling to contribute to the publishing industry of Pakistan. It gives us immense joy to see our literary society growing. Sign up with us at Daastan if you are that author who wishes to get published. Let us grow together!
Pakistani Lady Bloggers was a woman only platform that started its journey as a Facebook group, and went on to become a huge platform that launched its very own website and became known and celebrated by a lot of people across the country. The concept behind it was a fairly simple but still a profound one; the administrators wanted to develop a place where the ladies of Pakistan who wanted to join in the blogging world could take real time advice from veterans of the field who were also female. It provided a professional safe space for women to collaborate, seek advice, and learn the foundations of building and running your blog. The group also had a website of its own that shed light on how to build a proper platform online, to gain views and create content, and also ways to monetize their work.
Daastan’s Role in Women Empowerment:
Daastan has always been a huge believer in giving opportunities to the fifty percent of Pakistan that is usually left behind. From the core team that handles operations at Qissa and Daastan, to the writers who join us to get their work published, the founder and co-founders have always encouraged female presence in their workspace and have, at times, gone out of their way to ensure that the environment at Daastan is comfortable enough for anyone who might be willing to work there. Along with this, Daastan has always prided itself in the fact that multitudes of stay at home females have found Qissa to be the best forum to publicize their work and also generate revenue from it. To join our community, all you need to do is sign up and make a profile on Qissa.
Our friends at PLB hosted a spectacular event in Lahore, and was also joined by Ms. Qudsia Jamali who is our team member.
Daastan x Pakistan Lady Bloggers:
It was for reasons such as the ones mentioned that Daastan joined hand with PLB, as their community decided to shift their profiles to Qissa to further better their availability of opportunities, and enhance their visibility. It was an honor for Daastan to be chosen as the space that would enable hundreds of women to build their own empire.
The Pakistani Woman is proud to announce its collaboration with Daastan in empowering Pakistani female bloggers and writers of all ages and all backgrounds. TPW hosts a Facebook community dedicated to the cause of bringing together female writers of the country in way that helps them excel and learn from each other. If you are a Pakistani female blogger/writer, and looking to join our thriving community, send us a join request at https://www.facebook.com/groups/pakistaniladybloggers/Signing up for MeraQissa account is a MANDATORY step if you want to avail what PLB-Daastan has in store for you, some of which are:- better writing opportunities- better recognition of your skills on a larger scale- professional help in publishing your own book- fellowship programs to groom your literary skills- chance to attend literary events- freelance writing opportunities** strictly a women-only group
