Story of Chann
Title: Samay
By Mudassar Bashir
Publishers: Suchet Kitab Ghar
Price: Rs150
An odd mix of magical realism and gothic ambience, past history and present happenings, and philosophical rumination
By Moazzam Sheikh
When the protagonist of Juan Rulfo's classic Pedro Paramo decides to visit his father's village, Comala, since he promised his dying mother to do so, what flows for the next hundred pages is sheer haunting beauty, which a critic once described as, "a multivoiced sojourn of hell." And when the protagonist of Mudassar Bashir's Punjabi novel Samay leaves for the village to see his sweetheart Naila after a gap of ten years, what follows is akin to torture. The sad part really is it didn't have to be this way, for the novel carried within it seeds of ideas and things which in the hand of a cautious writer could turn into something less torturous, more haunting and beautiful.

A word about letters  
By Kazy Javed
 
Alif Laila under a cloud
The rise of religious extremism has rendered the Muslims weary of their classical cultural heritage. The pristine religious society they dream of reconstructing has no room for literature, arts and culture. Some of these extremists go to the extent of pushing Sufism beyond the pale and throwing away sufi poetry and music, declaring them part of an unwelcome legacy that blocks the road to righteousness. Sometimes voices are also raised against the classical treasure of stories usually labeled as Alif Laila known in English as the Arabian Nights.

 

 

review

A path his own

Ahmad Salim captures the illustrious journey of Hamid Akhtar and comes up with a detailed and worthy biography which is a lively read as well

By Altaf Hussain Asad

 

Swaneh Umri Hamid Akhtar

By Ahmad Salim

Book Home Publishers, Mozang Road Lahore, 2010

Pages: 280;

Price: Rs480

Hamid Akhtar spent quite an eventful life. From his early days, he was lucky to have rubbed shoulders with eminent literary giants of his times. Needless to say, he heavily benefited from these experiences and wrote many books on his contemporaries as well as on his own life. This book, Swaneh Umri Hamid Akhtar, is an attempt by Ahmad Salim to present a complete biography of the esteemed writer. Ahmad Salim extensively read Hamid Akhtar's writings as well as whatever was written on him to come up with this detailed and worthy biography which is a lively read as well.

Hamid Akhtar and his legendary companions -- Faiz, Sajjad Zaheer, Sahir Ludhianvi, Manto, Sibte Hasan, Krishan Chandar and others -- dreamt of a classless society, free of any exploitation. They made great effort to meet their goal and faced many hurdles along the path. Hamid Akhtar always stood with them. Basically, he belonged to a family of 'Pirs' and he had to rebel against his family to choose a path of his own. Born in Ludhiana, life was not easy for Hamid Akhtar. Orphaned at the age of three, the onus of supporting the family fell on her mother. Akhtar is all praise for her mother who showed great courage and determination in the face of acute circumstances.

He had a nightmarish experience in a Madrassa where he was sent to learn the Holy Quran. Once there, the oppressive attitude of the cleric irked him, although he learnt the Holy Quran by heart when he was ten. Later, when he was sent to a school in Ludhiana, he made another bold decision. Instead of his family name Akhtar Ali, he enrolled himself as Hamid Akhtar, rejecting the fierce opposition of his family. It was at the high school where he made friends with Ibne Insha who egged him on to write. And write he did and sent it to a magazine Humayoun, which published his article. Thus started an illustrious journey in which Hamid Akhtar took on many roles.

If I say the journalist in Hamid Akhtar attracted more attention, it would not be far from the truth. Whenever the communist party launched a paper, he was there to play his role assigned by the party. The government was not soft on these papers and it clamped down cruel orders on all these papers -- be it Naya Zamana, Irtiqa, Siasat Nama and many others. Sibte Hasan, another giant intellectual of the Left, took him under his wings and polished his journalistic skills. Hamid Akhtar pays him rich tributes saying that Sibte Hasan did not like flowery prose as he believed in getting one's message across through simple prose.

It was Imroz where all the towering intellectuals worked and made it a top newspaper of the country. He, too, joined it when Mian Iftikharuddin, owner of the newspaper, invited him to work in Imroz in a very friendly manner. Later, when Imroz was purged of all the left-wing intellectuals, he along with his friends was fired.

Azad was born when he and his friends -- I.A Rahman and Abdullah Malik -- invested all their earnings in the newspaper. With men like these at the helm of affairs, Azad soon became one of the most widely read Urdu newspaper of the country. When Bhutto came to power, he decided to teach them a lesson by launching a dirty campaign against them. Hamid Akhtar says Bhutto ordered the then governor to malign them. One day they saw few people on a hunger strike, sitting on the Lahore's Mall Road, with a banner titled Sahafat Kay Teen Shaitan, Hamid Akhtar, Abdullah Malik and I.A Rahman. Bhutto was behind this vilification campaign.

There are many interesting episodes too: Hamid Akhtar was in love and Abdullah Malik gave him a warning to mend his ways. When Sibte Hasan got knowledge of the affair, he said, "Communist party does not ban falling in love. Love is in man's nature. A man is incomplete without love'"

Hamid Akhtar wore many hats. He tried his hands at making films too but it proved to be another nightmare for him. The entire film industry joined hands to make his film Sukh Ka Sapna a failure as they did not like educated people entering the film industry. That film was an utter failure at the box office as it was not a formula film which average viewers love to watch. He made a second attempt and decided to make a formula film by compromising on many aspects. Its fate too was not different from the first film. Hamid Akhtar played many roles in his life: journalist, film maker, short story writer, sketch writer, a revolutionary worker and what not. Today he is nearly ninety, but he is still agile as he writes columns for an Urdu daily. This book is an important addition to the material on the politics of Left. Ahmad Salim's attempt at documenting Akhtar's life is praiseworthy.

 

 

Story of Chann

Title: Samay

By Mudassar Bashir

Publishers: Suchet Kitab Ghar

Price: Rs150

 

An odd mix of magical realism and gothic ambience, past history and present happenings, and philosophical rumination

 

By Moazzam Sheikh

When the protagonist of Juan Rulfo's classic Pedro Paramo decides to visit his father's village, Comala, since he promised his dying mother to do so, what flows for the next hundred pages is sheer haunting beauty, which a critic once described as, "a multivoiced sojourn of hell." And when the protagonist of Mudassar Bashir's Punjabi novel Samay leaves for the village to see his sweetheart Naila after a gap of ten years, what follows is akin to torture. The sad part really is it didn't have to be this way, for the novel carried within it seeds of ideas and things which in the hand of a cautious writer could turn into something less torturous, more haunting and beautiful.

Samay is the story of Chann, foreign-educated-recently-returned, who wants to visit Naila, a grown woman of thirty now, and decides to take along a close friend of his named Amir, all against his mother's advice, and without the knowledge and permission of her father who, currently on a trip to the USA, hasn't talked to his younger brother, Naila's father, for over a decade at least. Naila is the reason why Chann (Punjabi for moon) loves literature and philosophy and went to study those subjects abroad, and now he has returned to teach. Although Bashir informs the reader that Chann knows Naila's address by heart, he's never bothered to write to her all these years. There's a communication gap. There has been no exchange of love letters or letters expounding on the intricacies of literary theories and philosophical debates. One can only guess what stopped the protagonist from doing that.

When Chann's father decided to leave the village for the urban lifestyle, the two brothers fell afoul of each other. But the reader also learns that Chann's uncle himself hasn't lived in the village, strictly speaking, as he -- being an employee with the Irrigation Department -- inherited a Bungalow at the time of Partition previously inhabited by an Englishman of good taste. The Bungalow has a library left behind by the Englishman and, to add to the reader's torture, we learn the voracious Naila read every single book in it when she was a little girl. The reviewer shudders to think how many books unfit for a child might have passed her eyes!

After some stilted dialogues between Chann and the mother reminiscent of Hindi cinema, and then between Chann and Amir (which are mercifully few), the two friends set out, and after a short drive leave the main road, turning onto an untarred path, which Amir notices to be wider than the main highway, and it is in this wideness that the novel loses any semblance of coherence.

Upon entering the unmetalled road the two first encounter a group of people trying to build a little wall around a graveyard. But they tell the travellers that whenever they erect the wall or light an earthen lamp, something knocks it over.

"Why?" asks Chann wondering.

"Well, Bau ji, no one knows where a gust of wind comes from and extinguishes the lamp. People say spirits roam around here." Baba ji looks to the graveyard, then to the sky.

"Baba ji, what business do spirits have these days?" Amir asks jokingly.

"Bau ji, don't say such things. Spirits are spirits. They are in essence part of God. Otherwise man is nothing but mere soil," Baba responds. For a novel that attempts philosophical dialogues, this is a mediocre level and tragically the level barely rises.

It is hard to say if the author is attempting to experiment with magic realism while mixing it up with gothic and philosophical streams, but the effect is in parts raw and in parts comic. Chann notices as he introduces Amir to Baba Karam Din that the old servant hasn't aged. When Amir meets Sughran, the old maid, he feels as if her eyes are made of stone and her hand a slab of ice. Naila seems, to Amir's eyes, a nineteen year old, not a woman of thirty. Baba Karam Din knows most classical Punjabi literature by heart. Both Naila and the old lady become custodians of culture and lecture about history. There are (thankfully) short discussions about soul and love; Siddhartha, princess Yashodhara, and his parents make an appearance too; peacocks stage a dance; an ancient snake has to give the first milk after she's given birth to a calf. There's a low caste Anand who's mistaken for a Hindu but turns out to be Christian.

On the comic side, Amir keeps wandering into the Englishman's library but never finds anyone there; just books left open and ashtrays and pipes. Conveniently, Chann's uncle and auntie have been spared the embarrassment of being there. Amir not only revisits the old woman's stone eyes, her general iciness, the spooky library and the white man's photograph that smiles, he also hears the sounds and giggling of two young girls throughout their stay without ever seeing them. The macabre feeling throughout the whole nine yards of the narrative turns out to be sitting uncomfortably on the heads of these two girls.

As the two leave the mansion after a few days' stay, they notice on their way that a wall has been erected around the graveyard. There's another crowd there. Upon inquiring they learn men folk have arrived to repair Naila's grave and it turns out the two have visited a ghostland and ghosts of real people frozen in the past. A villager unravels the story: the two unseen girls were the old woman's daughters whom men from the neighboring village came to abduct; but the entire household fought and got killed some nine years ago. The two can't believe it and head back to the mansion only to witness this time that the real mansion is but a specter of desolation.

There is no rule within the realm of literary fiction that says the storyline couldn't have worked. It could've if done right and carefully. The narrative lacks an element of believability due to banal dialogues that sound as if children are conversing. Take this for example: At one point Amir asks a legitimate question regarding Naila's having gotten married within the time. But Chann quips that despite the elders' lack of communication, his uncle would've sent the invitation. How come his family never found out about the gruesome murder? Given that Naila is so central to Chann, it is not believable that he never wrote her a letter while away but wrote one three days prior to his visit with Amir.

One weakness in the novel seems the whole mix up of magical realism and gothic ambience, past history and present happenings, and philosophical rumination is experienced by both characters, and while Naila's existence is central to Chann, she is meaningless to Amir. If the intention was to use Amir as a representative of city dwellers who know very little of our rural cultural, literary and political history, there has to be a better way of doing it. Mudassar Bashir's relationship and contribution to Punjabi language is praiseworthy, but he has to pay greater if not equal attention to its demands.

 

A word about letters

By Kazy Javed

Alif Laila under a cloud

The rise of religious extremism has rendered the Muslims weary of their classical cultural heritage. The pristine religious society they dream of reconstructing has no room for literature, arts and culture. Some of these extremists go to the extent of pushing Sufism beyond the pale and throwing away sufi poetry and music, declaring them part of an unwelcome legacy that blocks the road to righteousness. Sometimes voices are also raised against the classical treasure of stories usually labeled as Alif Laila known in English as the Arabian Nights.

These long stories, compiled during the Abbasaid period (AD 750-1258), are reminiscent of the golden days of Muslim history when intellectual activities were greatly encouraged and, consequently, various arts, sciences and literature were making rapid advances. Rattan Nath Sarshar rendered some of these stories into Urdu in the latter half of the nineteenth century and published them from Lucknow in two volumes. Later on, a 7-volume Urdu version was brought out by Delhi's Anjman-e-Taraqi-e-Urdu. The translation was made by Mansoor Ahmad, a former editor of the Urdu literary journal Adabi Duniya. These volumes have been re-published from Karachi. Mirza Hayrat Delhvi also translated some pieces of the Arabian Nights.

The Arabian Nights has also been translated into many European languages. The best known among them is an English translation made by Richard Burton, a polyglot who is stated to be a master of thirty-five languages. In 1885-88 he published a literal translation of the book in ten volumes. His wife issued an expurgated edition of the book after his death.

Many literary critics believe that the Arabian Nights is the only Arabian literary book which deeply influenced foreign writers and poets and is read with interest in almost every part of the world.

The worldwide fame of the book notwithstanding, Islamic militants are not happy with it. They find it lewd, unclean and unchaste and want to get it removed from bookshelves.

A group of militant lawyers in Egypt recently filed a complaint to the public prosecutor against the publication of a new edition of the classical stories. They wanted it to be proscribed. However, the public prosecutor has thrown out the complaint saying the stories of the Arabian Nights have been circulating for centuries without problems and have inspired countless artists.

It was not the first attempt of the hard-headed militants against the best and brightest of the Arabic-language literary heritage nor is it going to be the last.

*******

 

Rehabilitation of a library

Hats off to the people of Jacobabad for the interest and enthusiasm they are showing for the rehabilitation of their town's main library. Established in the name of noted poet Abdul Karim Gadai in 1988, the library was vandalised by the vested interests during the December 2007 riots that erupted in various parts of Sindh after the murder of Benazir Bhutto.

The Jacobabad District Government has done little since then to restore the library. However, some local groups of land grabbers have not remained disinterested. One of the groups which is said to have the backing of a federal minister has now come up with a plan to build a marriage hall at the premises of the library.

People of the town have greatly resented the designs of land-grabbers. A newspaper report says that a multi-party conference was held recently at the library where representatives of various educational, social and political circles demanded the district administration to start the rehabilitation work without any further delay and also arrange more funds for books.

The more interesting part of the story is the threat the speakers gave: If the district administration fails to take appropriate steps, the people of the town would occupy the library and start its rehabilitation.

New books

A new book of old newspapers columns of late Abdullah Malik brings to light Lahore of the early 1950s with its vibrant socio-cultural life. Entitled Ye Lahore hai, it carries eighty pieces originally published in the now defunct daily Imroze, on literary, cultural and social events of the city.

The book carries quotable episodes about men of letters, culture and politics who were playing their role on the stage of life in those long-past days. Reading the book, one cannot fail to get the impression that life in Lahore has greatly lost its vigour, vibrancy and creativity that it inherited from the British Raj.

The 264-page book, compiled by a noted researcher and author M.R. Shahid, has been published by the Darool Shaoor publishing house of Lahore.

The preface to Abdullah Malik's first posthumous book has been penned by Hamid Akhtar. Meanwhile Ahmad Salim has come up with his new volume which is a biography of Hamid Akhtar. It narrates the interesting story of the octogenarian intellectual and fiery leftist's commitment to Marxism and tells how he spent his years running after his dreams about a peaceful, tolerant, and prosperous society where people enjoy equal rights and happily contribute to the betterment of society and environment.

Hamid Akhtar and his countless comrades have failed to accomplish their dreams but he has not lost hope. Ahmad Salim gives a readable account of the ups and downs of his courageous life.

The books, titled Swaneh Umri Hamid Akthar, has been published by the Book Home, Lahore.

 

 

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