A word about letters
By Kazy Javed
The Pakhtun who loved Punjabi
Dr Syed Akhtar Hussain Akhtar devoted his life to the cause of promoting Punjabi language and literature. He emerged on the scene of Punjabi literature in the early years of the 1960s when he started the publication of the monthly literary journal Lehran. In those long-past days there were two other Punjabi language literary magazines published from Lahore. One of them was titled Punj Darya which was edited and published by Afzal Khan, the son of famous poet and scholar Maula Bakhsh Kushta, while the other magazine was Punjabi Adab of Muhammad Asif Khan. They soon disappeared from the scene but Luhran has succeeded in sustaining its publication in the face of many odds simply because of Hussain’s commitment to it. Having completed 47 years of its life, it is now the oldest surviving Punjabi literary magazine. Each month it brings to its readers literary articles, short stories and pieces of fresh poetry penned by writers living not only in Pakistan but also in India, Europe and North America.

See-saw effect

A civilization of Rumi and Firdausi and the poetic metaphor seen through a journalistic eye

By Qudsia Sajjad

The Ayatollah Begs to Differ
By Hooman Majd
Publisher: Penguin Books
Pages: 272
Price: Rs.750

In Hooman Majd’s  The Ayatollah Begs to Differ, Iran comes across as an amalgamation of old Persian civilization, an Islamic state ideological in nature and a land governed by a very strong theocracy, in which lives the common man who happens to be as common as anywhere else on the planet. Majd’s insight (an Iranian-American writer based in New York City) into the common man breaks down not only all the clichés attached to the Islamic revolution; it also brings into focus the fact that human life cannot be measured in terms of its attachment to the ideal of western democracy. The Ayatollah does beg to differ, with all due Persian grace, from the western democratic ideals which cannot be separated from the core values of western civilization. On the other hand, a land governed by Muslims, with a Muslim civilization, must generate its own idea of democracy. An Islamic democracy with the core values of an Islamic civilization does seem like an enchanting idea despite the fact that there is a lot of dissent attached to what can truly be constituted as Islam. So, according to Majd, maybe one can hope for a democratic acceptance of dissent and an Islamic practice of tolerance.

The book itself falls into a very interesting genre. In a travelogue cum journalistic insight into a civilization, Majd goes about asking taxi cab drivers their opinion regardingthe government. He records interviews with high ranking government officials.  He takes a peek into the lives lived by the rich and the elite; and he tries his best to open the eyes of the world to the essential Iranian character. He points out the need for Iran to be called Iran and not Persia. According to Majd, Persia is a sign of colonial times. On the other hand, to the Iranian people, their land has always been Iran. Iran is indeed proud of taking a stand for itself and refusing to take dictation from Uncle Sam. Despite US sanctions having a negative effect on economy, the average Iranian is proud of not bowing down to imperialism. Though if the economy escalates downhill, it is difficult to guess whether pride will prevail, or US sanctions.

Majd’s insight into the Iranian psyche does not become very analytical; indeed he shies away from making predictions or conclusions of any kind.

Majd’s refusal to analyse the data he presents would have shifted the focus from the book’s inherent humanity to something more didactic and scholarly. The human interest factor remains the strongest reason for reading this book. As a cab driver in the book proclaims, “freedom is not dressing as you please but is food on the table.” Typically, Majd himself offers no analysis of what he calls freedom but leaves it upon the reader to agree or disagree with the statement. 

At times the book reads like a literary essay with its description of Iranian gardens, private and public domains, religious processions and the inherent concept of grief embedded in the Iranian character. According to Majd, Iran’s religious zeal is an act of catharsis where the average Iranian can air his woes and if he wants, weep about them too. The poetry of the civilization provides a beautiful, though impractical, background to Iran’s dramatic chorus. This is the civilization of Rumi and Firdausi and the poetic metaphor. Indeed in a country like Pakistan, where once upon a time people actually carried on conversations in Urdu couplets, answering a practical question with an oblique and impractical verse will surely be appreciated.

Majd talks about an Iran where women put on the hijab but where teenagers still try their best to party. It might seem contradictory to the western reader but to someone used to modern Muslim civilizations things are not so black and white. To some, head scarves are indicators of an ideology but to some others, they are an effective way of blocking unwanted attention. To the western reader this seems like paradox, to the South Asian reader it appears practical. Majd also gets to try his hands on the sorts of hookahs available and acceptable in Iranian society. Just like the very Arabic shishah, Iranians have their own blends for smoking and the author gets to smoke quite a lot, once even in company of a mullah who makes an appearance. Despite all the hookahs, some of them containing hard drugs, people still get up and say their prayers.  

Majd’s writing style is precise with a tendency to satirise some elements. In general he does not deviate from facts and the reader stays unaware of most of his personal opinions. At times though he comes across like a true Iranian with his soul rising from the Persian civilization. This is visible when Majd talks about the Iranian characteristic of ta’arouf, a conversational tactic in which each participant must proclaim to be the humbler one. Such a conversation might end in a repartee like “piss and I’ll dive in.” Such humility appears to be the spirit of Iranian culture. The private experiences and anecdotes that make the gist of the book throw light upon a civilization that according to the west is as unacceptable as the iron curtain countries. With the author’s unique background of an Iranian settled in the west, Majd can see the west’s biases as well as fears concerning Iran. He does not try to satisfy the western bias by painting a harrowing picture of Iran where human rights are trampled. Neither does he portray Iranian politics as soothing and acceptable to the west with Iran’s impressive array of theocracy. What the writer succeeds in doing is to show the humanity of Iranian civilization, which not only makes for an interesting read, but also shows that in order to be interesting one does not have to play to western biases.  

A word about letters
By Kazy Javed

The Pakhtun who loved Punjabi

Dr Syed Akhtar Hussain Akhtar devoted his life to the cause of promoting Punjabi language and literature. He emerged on the scene of Punjabi literature in the early years of the 1960s when he started the publication of the monthly literary journal Lehran. In those long-past days there were two other Punjabi language literary magazines published from Lahore. One of them was titled Punj Darya which was edited and published by Afzal Khan, the son of famous poet and scholar Maula Bakhsh Kushta, while the other magazine was Punjabi Adab of Muhammad Asif Khan. They soon disappeared from the scene but Luhran has succeeded in sustaining its publication in the face of many odds simply because of Hussain’s commitment to it. Having completed 47 years of its life, it is now the oldest surviving Punjabi literary magazine. Each month it brings to its readers literary articles, short stories and pieces of fresh poetry penned by writers living not only in Pakistan but also in India, Europe and North America.

Born in the former state of Dir in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa in the late 1930s, Akhtar was a Pakhtun and Pushto was his mother tongue. But he fell in love with Punjabi at a young age when he settled in Lahore. He worked on Punjabi Var poetry to earn his doctorate from the Punjab University. In his yet-to-be published book on Punjabi writers, Tanvir Zahoor says that Akhtar used to teach Punjabi literature at the Modern Punjabi College in Lahore at the time he launched Lehran.

He was also a poet and essayist. His first volume of poetry was titled Khilray Moti while another appeared under the title Dil Dian Peeran. His articles on sufi poets and saints were published in two volumes. He also wrote a book on the folk traditions of Punjab titled Punjab ki Lok Reet. Some thirty years ago he established Lehran Adabi Board to publish Punjabi books. The Board has so far brought out forty books. Many of them have been compiled and edited by Hussain.

He was a member of the board of governors of the Punjab Institute of Language, Art and Culture and Masood Khadarposh Trust. He was also a recipient of Saarc Literary Award, Bhai Veer Singh Award as well as Bulleh Shah Award.

 I got an opportunity to spend a week with Akhtar in 2005 in Delhi where we had gone to participate in an international conference and found him an extremely sincere and honest person committed to his cause with all his heart.

He had not been keeping good health for the past five years. He was last seen at a literary gathering held in Lahore on March 12 to mark the 25th death anniversary of Masood Khadarposh. He passed away two days later at the age of 74.

Two literary references were held in Lahore past week to condole the death of Hussain. The first meeting was organised by the Pakistan Academy of Letters. The meeting was chaired by the fictionist and secretary of the Punjabi Adabi Board Parveen Malik and speakers included Ashiq Raheel, Altaf Ahmad Qureshi, Mudassar Iqbal Butt, Dr Dilshad Tawana, Naila Sadaaf, Nazir Kahut, Saeed Irfan, Tanvir Zahoor, Dr Arshad Iqbal Arshad, Zahid Hasan and the deceased’s daughter Kalsoom Akhtar. The other meeting was arranged by the Punjab Institute of Language, Art and Culture. Chaired by Shafqat Tanvir Mirza, it was addressed by Hussain Shad, Professor Jamil Pal, Iqbal Qaiser and Dr Nahid Shahid.

Hamid Akhtar entered the world of literature as a short-story writer in 1942 when he was a young student at Ladhiana in East Punjab. The stories were published in literary magazines and attracted many readers. As a result, literary critics counted him among the noted fictionists of those days. But Hamid Akhtar was soon lured away by the charming world of cinema and journalism.

He is not pleased to know that less than 30 are the stories that he penned during the past seven decades.

Realising that not only literary critics and general readers, but even many of his friends had forgotten him as a fictionist, Akhtar recently published a collection of twenty-one short stories under the title La’mukaan. The collection has been brought out by the Book Home publishers of Lahore and is dedicated to “the future times that will probably provide a better world to the posterity.”

Samee Ahuja has won a place for himself in the history of modern Urdu fiction by presenting five collections of short stories. Yet he is not primarily noted for the quantity of his work. He is known and admired for his unique prose style and complicated linguistic formulations. His recently-published book of short stories Baghe Wahesh main Aquarium is another fine example of his style.

The 248-page book has been published by the Sanjh Publications of Lahore and is dedicated to “five great teachers” of the author who taught him to launch a “dialectical war against all types of exploitative knowledge and slavish mentality that it creates.” These great teachers are Karl Marx, Engles, Lenin, Stalin and Mao Tse-tung.New books