Daily Times

While reading the story ‘Lab-e-Gore’ (on the brink of the grave) in the short stories’ book titled Shah Moosh (Rat King – a myth) by Saima Iram, this reviewer was surprised at the detailing in which Saima Iram has gone to establish the characters of her story and knitted them in words.

It is a story of an old, sick man Sheeda who was left on a charpoy alive by his brother Jaida and his accomplices in a graveyard. In this and in her other stories, Iram has built blemished protagonists flawlessly. Here and there she uses the language, the diction of which relates to a particular character; Punjabi dialect and slang words. Perhaps that is one of the reasons of the strength given by her to her characters. It is a story of lower middle class families of a village. It is the story of Akbar who used to earn 100 bucks a day and could not bear the expenses of his mother’s treatment that led to her unfortunate death. When alive, his mother had tried to send him to school where his master asked him to come to his house to run errands including pressing his legs. He ran from there and started studying with a lady teacher. He could have continued with his studies but his father died in an accident, when he was run over by a car. His uncle took compensation from the motorist through police and nothing was left for the deceased’s kids except the expenditure of four months of his wife’s ‘iddat’ period. Iram has the art to express such happenings delicately. She stated that one could see a new motorbike in the courtyard of Akbar’s paternal uncle. One of the financially better persons Shaukat, through which this deal was made by the uncle, is instrumental in further incidences that lead to the unfortunate end of the story that becomes the talk of the town and is noticed by the media as well.

Instead of using English words, Iram prefers using Punjabi expressions especially when it comes to
matters pertaining to sexuality

The story ‘Shahmoosh’ is one of bribery, drug abuse and disaster. It is the story of middle class officers who take bribe as a routine in their work especially engineers who opt for a government job. A government officer affording eight air conditioners in his house can only be through bribery. To live beyond their means, they indulge in corruption. Iram tells the story of such an individual who speaks aloud in delirium about his sins and drug abuse.

Mehr Afshan Farooqi in her review on this book in a local daily observes that she is singling Iram out as a woman writer not because she is unique in a space dominated by men, but because she strikes as having a voice which stands out; she speaks for both men and women. About Iram’s story ‘Daghdar’ she says, “It is about a single working woman, moderately successful, who lives alone in a house in a middle-class neighbourhood. She has a car, which she drives and sometimes cleans, to the consternation of her neighbours; women are never seen washing cars. There is gossip about how she manages to rent the house, her quotidian activities are perceived as scandalous, and even her trash is scrutinised; empty cigarette packs are giveaways that she smokes. All of this can perhaps be expected in a story about a single woman. However, the events, which unfold as the story gains momentum, are uncanny. The story’s title ‘Daghdar’ (scarred) is understood in an unusual twist – a mark of Iram’s talent as a writer who gets under the skin of her characters.”

The six stories in the book under review cannot be termed as short stories as their length is considerably long. They can be termed as long-short stories. They revolve around the diseases in the social fabric of urban life. Mostly the narration of lives of urbanites does not leave a good taste in our mouths. The trend to get rich overnight not content living in their genuine means of living, deception and deceit have been dealt both with delicacy and boldness at places by the author. In no way Iram therefore makes one feel that she is a new entrant in the domain of story writing.

In the story titled ‘Choti Pehlwan’ (young wrestler), the central character Choti Pehlwan and Baba Gujjar are basically not homosexuals but were perceived as ‘queer’ because they were gentle, peace-loving souls. The story has mystical undercurrents. The disappearance of Choti Pehlwan and the passing of the baton to Baba Gujjar points in that direction as story retold to Qasim, one of his neighbours. In our society, gruesome acts of violence brutally committed in the name of religion are also an expression of instinctive human weaknesses. Iram’s prose is like everyday language, rather a mixture of traditional Urdu and spoken Urdu. Instead of using English words she prefers using Punjabi expression especially when some sexual narrative is being made.

The story ‘Sirf Aik Cigarette’ (just one cigarette) draws attention to the sensitive issue of various political cum religious parties using religion, especially ‘Namoos-e-Risaalat’ slogan to disrupt the discipline of the universities. The strikes and clashes between opposing groups, police reaching late to control violence and government’s intervention further disrupts the studies of already disinterested students are some of the issues highlighted in this story. Iram who is into education has touched upon this sore in our educational system delicately. The story is narrated by a professor who goes out to get a cigarette but ends up experiencing disturbances. The scandals of lady teachers making advances towards the professor, the disgraceful attitude of his seniors, the undue pressure of his wife etc had put extra pressure on his mind ending up in a desire to smoke a cigarette each time he is perturbed. The climax reaches when the ruffians cheat him and rob him of his mobile phone and wallet in a narrow lane where he had gone to purchase cigarettes. They flee taking his cigarette pack along with themselves – a bigger damage.

Through the stories in this book, Iram is a welcome addition to the fraternity of writers.

The writer is an award-winning musician and author. He tweets at @amjadparvez and can be reached at doc_amjad@hotmail.com

Published in Daily Times, August 9^th 2017.