The Second Floor or T2F has a penchant for bringing together creative minds, innovative individuals and all manner of intellectual jamborees. Last week saw a congregation of Pakistani women writers in English and it was not without a paradoxical questioning that the evening's theme was "Why we write in English?" The occasion coincided with the publication of a collection of short stories by 24 Pakistani women writers, published by Oxford University Press and titled And the World Changed – Contemporary Stories by Pakistani Women. The book has been edited by Muneeza Shamsie, who has also contributed a story to the compilation.

The panel of speakers consisted of six of the 24 writers whose works are included in the anthology, though each seemed to hold a different version of the book. That was explained when Ameena Saiyid, Managing Director OUP and moderator for the panel informed the audience that there are three versions of the work: the OUP one, another published by Women Unlimited in India and a third to be published in New York by the Feminist Press.

The writers present were not new to the Pakistani reader except for a young lady Nayyara Rahman who is a new writer. Nayyara's story previously published by the British Council Pakistan was selected through a nationwide essay writing competition entitled 'I Belong.' Her story is called 'Clay Fissures' and is a story of a man's search for identity and belonging. Kamila Shamsie is perhaps best known, as she has been credited with initiating the tradition of writing in English amongst her generation. Kamila read out an enigmatic story of a domestic servant working in a rich household and the superstitions that plague the uneducated. Bina Shah too has at least two novels, a collection of short stories and another of poetry to her credit. She read a story of Pakistani British girls married off to Pakistani men against their wishes, though in this instance she tells the tale from an angle not heard from before. Sehba Sarwar published a novel Black Wings in 2004 from which an excerpt has been included in the book. It spoke of the joys and tribulations of growing up. Muneeza Shamsie of course needs no introduction to the reading public, as she would be considered purveyor of imaginative storytellers, having edited two major anthologies of Pakistani English writing. Her story was a blast from the colonial past, called 'Jungle Jim.' The inclusion of Fehmida Riaz was a pleasant surprise for the audience since she is known more for her powerful poetry of human rights and feminism than English fiction. In a not-so-usual self-effacing manner, Fehmida Riaz claimed that she had only written the story because Muneeza Shamsie had asked her to, although she has infrequently written stories in English. The story Fehmida Riaz read out from the newly published book was a heart-rending tale of rural misfortune that had an inherent quality of raw authenticity.

The speakers were fortunate to have a thoroughly engrossed audience as each writer read out their stories or excerpts. When the floor was opened to questions to begin the debate on reasons for writing in English, there were other more pressing questions. A few aspiring writers in the audience wanted to know what it took to be published if they were not fortunate to have the right connections in literary circles. It was a question that Ameena Saiyid tackled gracefully pointing the young lady in the direction of Ferozesons or Al-Hamra publishing houses who would be willing to take on the task of putting fresh work into print if they thought the writing to be of merit. It was an artfully worded comment because OUP has an ambivalent policy towards publishing fiction.

As the debate turned to the question of language, Muneeza Shamsie explained the history of fiction writing in the subcontinent and spoke of the divide between Urdu and English writing that was associated with many factors like class and education and upbringing. Fehmida Riaz was of the opinion that fiction writing in Urdu has deteriorated and the vacuum has thus been filled by the men and women who are writing in English, and, writing well. A member of the audience suggested that exposure to English magazines and media encouraged writing in English and if the scarcity of quality Urdu literary magazines were not as dire as it is today, there would be more Urdu writers to fill those pages. Kamila Shamsie told the audience about how her books had been translated into many languages as well as Bosnian but no one had bothered to translate them into Urdu.

Perhaps, if the debate had continued, the speakers would have talked of the great educational divide that has fragmented our nation and given the English-speaking elite an advantage in terms of opportunity and exposure in so many areas, one of them being reading and writing. But the fact is there is a group of energetic writers in English and this numbers continue to grow.

Mallika-e-Tarannum Noor Jehan: The Melody Queen

By Aijaz Gul

Published by Vitasta

Publishing, New Delhi, 2008

Pages: 184

Price: Indian Rs395

The world of business is extremely competitive and the world of show business is truly cutthroat. Men find it difficult to go along with the kind of environment that extreme risk entails, and it is well nigh unimaginable to foresee what women have to go through to survive, and if lucky to make it to the top.

This struggle and the difficulty of the circumstances have been made quite clear in the biography of Noor Jehan in the recently published account of the diva penned by Aijaz Gul. Showbiz and sports have long been considered as two avenues which are open to all because it forms an unstructured part of a societal set up. In the more formal areas of society, the criteria to measure success and respectability are all laid down and the enterprise too is not tied up in high risk. But in sports and show business it is only the grit, patience and talent that can take you to the top.

The most fascinating part of any person's life, particularly of a successful person, is the first part when he or she is really struggling to make it to the top. The formative years are considered to be the most poignant where the character and the traits of the person become evident to earmark him/her for the journeys ahead.

Noor Jehan too had to struggle really hard in her early years and she was still lucky that she made it to the top unlike many others who have great talent but fall by the wayside in the cruel competitive world of show business. Somehow Noor Jehan had the grit and the determination to see her through this almost underworld of showbiz. During the course of her struggle, she developed the necessary social skills and mannerism which keeps a person afloat in such trying circumstances.

She was exposed to the travails of show business at a very young age. The producers/ directors had problems in changing her image from a girl to a woman but once that happened there was no holding her back and she rose like a meteor to the highest point in the firmament of show business.

In writing very little documented material is available about arts and show business. This must have been the problem faced by the writer in putting this book together. There are very few references and information that have been quoted and these too have not truly been accredited to the source. If the author or a person's name is mentioned then it is not referred to, whether it is from a published/printed source or from an interview held on a particular date on television or radio. This has been the problem with all writers who attempt to document the lives and art of famous artists. Most of the evidence and information is in the oral tradition, people with whom it happened, or had been witness to before it becomes part of the lore, where it becomes difficult to sift it from rumour mongering. The lack of documentation also is an inhibiting factor in consolidating the growing body of information. If it is something more tangible than rumours or oral information then it can be built upon to form a bank of information about the person and his art. Even in India most of the information about showbiz personalities has stayed in the realm of the lore and has not really been narrowed down to the specificity of the written word.

Especially in the world of business and stars and those who have an enviable public following, this information is exaggerated and turned into salacious gossip. The man in the street and women at home love to gossip about public figures, and the spin put on any bit of information takes it far beyond the realm of either truth or credibility. Some stars or their advertising agents also think that gossip and scandal is necessary for the long shelf life of a star, the premise being that the more a person is gossiped about the more he or she gets promoted.

In a society like ours which is very repressed, the stars or public figures are particularly susceptible to slander, salacious information and gossip. People or fans paradoxically derive vicarious pleasure in offloading their frustrations on the public figure they admire and love the most. It is admirable that Aijaz Gul has stayed clear of the gossip and the slander to concentrate on Noor Jehan, the artist, the singer and concentrates on her total and reverential commitment to music. What is required in artists is unqualified devotion to their art -- the rest is of no consequence, and she could not have been faulted on this count. The details about the life and career of Noor Jehan are now part of public knowledge but what is required is a serious study and analysis of her music. She was extremely prolific and one of the pioneers of the new genre, the film song. Even in India no serious study has been made to analyse the structure, the embedded musicality of the limited three minute film song. At best there are a couple of books on the career and music of Lata Mangeshkar which can be called just a notch above the descriptive.

Aijaz Gul is a film critic and a prolific writer. His articles have been published in well known books. He also contributed a chapter on Pakistani films for a book published on films from the Asian countries from Delhi. He is a member of the Network for the Promotion of Asian Cinema and International film Critics Association.

Ernest Hemingway is no stranger to our readers. He was popular in the 50s and 60s in our part of the globe. His books were readily available here and translations of his writings were published in literary and social magazines. His books have also been translated into Urdu. A Farewell to Arms was the first to be made available in Urdu. It was translated by none other than Ashfaq Ahmad. Hemingway's best-known novella The Old Man and the Sea, a story of a man's struggle against hostile nature, was translated by Shahid Hamid who has also rendered into Urdu the masterpieces of Dostoevsky and Tolstoy.

Hemingway wrote many short stories which, according to most literary critics, of a better quality than his best novels. Zahid Dar told me that two collections of his short stories have also been made available in Urdu. One of the collections has been translated by Inayat Elahi Malik who wrote a detailed introductory article on Hemingway's life and fiction for his translation.

Hemingway was perhaps the most influential fiction writer of his generation who changed the way many of his contemporaries expressed themselves. It has been said that he came to embody his country, the United States, during, the middle decades of the past century. In 1935 when three of his novels, The Sun also Rises (1926) The Terrorists of Spring (1926) and A Farwell to Arms (1929), brought him worldwide fame, he veered publicly towards communism. He declared that anyone who took an anti-communist Party line was either a fool or a knave. On another occasion he wrote. "My sympathies are always for exploited working people against landlords even if I drink around with the landlords and shoot pigeons with them." At the beginning of World War II Hemingway left the US and settled in Cuba where he bought a home. For Whom the Bell Tolls and The Old Man and the Sea were written there. During his twenty-one years long stay there he won Pulitzer Prize for fiction and Nobel Prize for literature. He returned to America in 1960, less than a year before he killed himself.

Many of his documents including letters, draft writings, photographs and books had been lying in Finca Vigia for the past half a century endangered by heat and damp. A recent newspaper report however has revealed that a digital archive of his documents has now been setup. Giving the background, the report says that the work of the conservationists was hampered for years by the US embargo of Cuba which did not allow the exchange of expertise and resources. But a renovation project was launched in 2002. The US government was approached and a special permission was obtained after which Hemingway's precious documents have been rescued in the form of a digital archive.

Muhammad Ali Gardezi, the commissioner of Multan, recently declared that Multan's historical Town Hall building will soon be handed over to the archaeology department. The Multan Town Hall was built in 1884 for municipal offices still working in the imposing colonial structure, popularly known as Ghanta Ghar. The city traders are not happy with this Ghanta Ghar standing in the heart of their city. They want it turned into a commercial plaza. My friend Mazhar Arif is however hopeful that the plan to establish a museum in the town hall will be welcomed by the people of Multan who have been demanding a museum for the preservation and promotion of their history and culture.

The ancient city of Multan, counted by historian among the oldest settlements in South Asia, certainly needs a museum. It would be the best to build a modern purpose-built museum. But the conservation and renovation of the Multan Town Hall is necessary and if its conversion into a museum can save it, it must be done.

The services of Board for the Advancement of Literature regarding the preservation of our literary heritage have not been duly acknowledged. Established in 1950s it has published dozens of books on literature, history, religion and social studies under the guidance of Imtiaz Ali Taj, Prof Hamid Ahmad Khan and Ahmad Nadeem Qasmi.

Poet and intellectual Shahzad Ahmad who now manages the Board has brought it to new life. As a result, the board has published several books during the past two years. Its recent publications include Prof. Rafiud Din Hashmi's Iqbal Behasiat Shair, Dr Chand's Tamadan-e-Hind per Islami Asraat and Kenhiya Hindi's Tareekh-e-Punjab.