Daily Times

Neelum Ahmad Basheer has seen both sides of the world. Born and raised in Pakistan, she has spent considerable time in the US. She says that she is a Pakistani but her children are American-Pakistanis. Already established as a short story writer, she has ventured into entering a larger canvass of novel writing and has knitted a story spread over both places of her abode. She observes that the stories of expatriate community in the US are so much entangled with each other’s lives that they are like silk threads intertwined with each other and it becomes difficult to separate them. That is what she has written in her novel ‘Taoos Faqat Rung” (Peacock just colours). Also, how the impact of airplanes hitting the World Trade Centre (nine eleven) affects the lives of her characters also forms one of the themes of her story. While looking at another novel on nine eleven theme, I came across a novel Home boy by HM Naqvi but that is in English language. It is narrated with great vitality by Chuck (real name Shehzad), a Pakistani immigrant and graduate of NYU. This novel unfolds in cosmopolitan New York and not in Pakistan.

In the wake of 9/11, three young friends; glitzy, confident, swaggering, embark on an innocent, high-spirited adventure till it goes disastrously wrong and they realise the folly of their optimistic assumptions about their adopted homeland. It is a deft exploration of ‘otherness’.

Neelum’s story starts in a small Pakistani immigrant family settled in Staten Island. Mother Sajeela and son Murad live there; the latter works in World Trade Centre. His sister Kanwal lives in New Brunswick. Sajeela was a working lady, a journalist. Her husband Aqil Beg needed a housewife instead

The other examples of great fiction are based on other backdrops like Saadat Hassan Manto’s short stories (translations) titled ‘Mottled Dawn’ on the backdrop of rape, plunder and bloodshed after partition of the subcontinent in 1947. On another theme of Afghan inferring tribal laws, Jamil Ahmad wrote ‘The Wandering Falcon’. In Urdu literature, Raja Gidh by Bano Qudsia is one of the most widely read and acclaimed novels. The name Raja anticipates the kingdom of vultures.

In fact, parallel to the main plot of the novel, an allegorical story of such a kingdom is narrated. The metaphor of the vulture as an animal feeding mostly on the carcasses of dead animals is employed to portray the trespassing of ethical limits imposed by the society or by the religion. Bano Qudsia has written this novel drawing on the religious concept of Haraam (forbidden) and Halaal (not allowed). Many other examples can be quoted before embarking upon Neelum Ahmad Basheer’s novel’s theme. It has been written with characters’ link with nine-eleven and 1979 Guyana debacle in American history. Traditionally, only those pieces of fiction have left a mark that were written in the backdrop of certain historical events like ‘Gone With the Wind’ in the American Civil War era.

Liana Brinded refers to a UN Survey in Independent that there were 17 countries where immigrants live happy. Ironically, these countries do not include the US or Pakistan. The reasons for happiness have nothing to do with affluence or having the best infrastructure there, but something else that keeps them happy.  If life in Portugal makes them happy to live with their children, Oman makes them happy for personal security, political stability and peacefulness.

Neelum’s story starts in a small Pakistani immigrant family settled in Staten Island. Mother Sajeela and son Murad live there; the latter works in World Trade Centre. His sister Kanwal lives in New Brunswick. Sajeela was a working lady, a journalist. Her husband Aqil Beg needed a housewife instead. Both started drifting apart with the passage of time. Murad was married to Shama who spent most of her time with her ailing mother. Sajeela keeps on wondering as to what sort of married life Murad was leading while his wife preferred to live with her parents!

Murad befriends Asfand who originally hailed from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP). Both come across Delilah who prefers to be called as D. She starts flirting with Murad. Meanwhile, while going for an evening out with her daughter and her female friend Ayesha, Sajeela witnesses her daughter in law Shama dancing with a white American. She does not disclose this to Murad. While in office, Asfand telephones her fiancé Nailla in Pakistan, a big airplane comes and tears apart the office apartment where he used to work. Asfand is under shock when he wakes up. He tries to limp towards the lift but smoke engulfs it and then he didn’t know where he was. That particular day, Murad who had not gone to office, by chance.

Sajeela fears that Muslims would be blamed for this attack. Nobody had heard the names of Al-Qaida or Osama bin Laden before this incident, the latter was a friend of America and Mujahedeen with shares in oil companies and as friends of Bush family. This incidence turned New York into a city of the dead.

Shama came, collected her luggage and left Murad for good after a quarrel. Sajeela shifted with her daughter and Murad found a job with an old couple, and Chan as driver. Those were depressing days. The lady’s name was Qamar Unnisa Chan. This was a Guyanese couple. Their daughter Sherry suspected Murad of being an outsider who could be a terrorist. Murad kept on satisfying her queries till the day Chan died and Murad kept his old box with him. Sherry’s attitude started becoming mild towards Murad. One day Qamar Unnisha told Murad how her forefathers moved to Guyana from India. Meanwhile, Shama sought divorce from Murad. This incidence draws sympathy of mother and daughter where he is employed. Gradually, Sherry and Murad fall in love. One day Murad receives email of a job in IT Company for Programme Management. Both mother and daughter were happy that Murad found a decent job but were sad that Murad would have to leave their house. Sherry and Murad spend a day together and he promises Sherry that he would keep on visiting them as and when needed. Sajeela came from New Jersey to settle Murad in his new apartment in Neuroshell.

Title: Taoos Faqat Rung
Author: Neelum
Ahmad Basheer
Publishers: Neelum
Ahmad Basheer
Pages: 296, Price: Rs.795/

Chapter 15 and 16 have been reserved for Mrs Chan’s past life, the role of Tim Jones, a revolutionist giving speeches for freedom from CIA. He preaches to find a new island of peace and asks people to follow him to Guyana. He made different partners to go to bed with different partners. Mrs Chan and her friend Sue became victim too. Both bore daughters later on, out of this illicit wedlock. Americans came to rescue some people who had sent letters of complaints. Some left in helicopter, some died. Tim committed suicide. This 1978 Guyana debacle was a nine-eleven of that time.

Change of place makes a gradual change of mind. Murad drifts away and starts meeting D who happens to be girlfriend of a guy Sabeeh now. The couple visit Mrs Chen and Sherry. On return, D’s mother Julia advises her to stay away from Murad as he was already in a relationship. But one evening, D drugs Murad and they make love. Murad dreads this incidence after coming into senses. He detests his weakness in this regard. Meanwhile another issue crops up that of Julia confiding in her brother about D’s real father. D listens to the taped message and behaves oddly with Julia. D is out of her mind now. She put up an ad saying that an old lady needed a man to visit her in her apartment. When Sajeela gets obnoxious phone calls, she gets angry and suspects Sherry not knowing that it was D’s doing and that Sherry had left Murad. D also sent false messages to Kanwal’s in-laws-to-be that she was already married and had a kid. One day, police knocked Murad’s door and took him into custody for being a terrorist. D had used the old box of Mr. Chan to house some terrorists’ material showing it to be Murad’s. Finally, Murad had to tell Kanwal and Sajeela the truth about his alleged relationship with D. They approached his dad who comes and bails him out.

-Meanwhile, D started collecting cut hair for magic purposes. Sherry visited her parlour where she worked and found out the jus which she smashed on the floor. As the story develops, Qamar Unnisa was revealed as D’s real daughter from Tim. D had abducted her mother and taken to the old castle. Sherry and Murad reach there in a helicopter and save Mrs Chan after D slips into sea and is drowned.

Analysis

The story has so many characters that go through the backgrounds of their parents and heritage. The story though relates to the present day, but has been historically linked with the happenings of the past, especially the American history’s happenings in 1977 and 2006. Neelum had managed to keep the narrative as simple as possible with easy diction and vocabulary. Novel writing is not much in vogue and must be kept alive in Urdu literature. Neelum’s novel under review is one such good attempt. I have read Zafar Mahmud’s novel ‘Taees Din’ (1997) a mystery thriller and again a mystery thriller by Haseeb, a young KEMC student in the past among younger generation and hope that more writers enter into this domain of literature.

Published in Daily Times, March 18^th 2018.