Daily Times

Title: Saints and Charlatans

Author: Sarim Baig

Publishers: Mongrel Books, Karachi

Pages: 205, Price: Rs. 700/-

Stories and those too in English language written on the most burning issues in Punjab coming out of pen of a young man Sairum Baig surprised me. The author has written nine short stories in the book titled ‘Saints and Charlatans’ published by Mongrel Books, Karachi. The caption at the back of the book says ‘The series of interlinked stories set in contemporary Punjab explores how the increasing intolerance of society compels individuals to become either saints or charlatans and how it’s sometimes hard to tell the difference’. This is how lack of proper facilities of education to masses coupled with the menace of over-population forces poor families to at least put one child in the religious madrassa where he gets free religious education and food.

Good riddance, the poor parents feel; one mouths less to feed. If the institution is honest to its cause, good results are seen and if not, they become less tolerant and end up leaning towards extremism. The readers must be fully aware that many madrasas use the raw minds of the students and brain washes them towards militancy by the stooges of the banned organisations. At the time of writing these few lines on May 16, 2018, another senior military officer Col. Suhail Abid was martyred while saving his country from terrorists and the criticism of a section of people of criticising the armed forces hurt badly the spirit and sanctity of the patriotism.

The last story ‘Zakaullah’ in the book under review has been written in this backdrop. It is also a story of a hardworking school teacher Master Attaullah who is dropped from his school job due to dementia problems because of aging. Set in a village Suratwala during foggy season, the nights are quiet except for the dribble of water in the open drains and the squawks of ducks warming their bellies on fresh sewerage. Master Attaullah appears from the deep fog in the morning wearing his usual coat but with a more absorbing, rather absent minded look on his face. The shopkeepers notice something unusual in his gait. His present students complained that he is forgetful, cannot write straight. The students’ parents who had studied from him in the past remembered him as a fox of a man. He taught theorems of mathematics. He taught about angles. He taught them chemistry practicals and what not. Now Master Attaullah seemed a lonely figure. He walked into the premises of Hajveri Foundations run by his friend Nazir Ahmad. Based on Master Attaullah’s reputation that he could teach a blind man how to perform titrations and read the values of vernier calipers (Alas now taken over by calculators and computers) he was hired by this private institution after retirement from a government school. Now Nazeer Ahmad was left to carry out dirty job of firing Master Attaullah. When told, the first look of astonishment appeared with the slight parting of lips, the gentle rise of eyebrows and narrowing of pupils. All did not last long. The Master’s irresponsiveness sapped Nazeer.

The prayers call from the mosque by Maulvi Ijaz gave Nazeer a sigh of relief. This Maulvi used to go from door to door till with the patronage of the political figure of Suratwala he acquired hold of a bigger mosque and in the bigger room stock piles up of ammunition stared pouring in, expanding in the adjoining godown. In no time Maulvi Ijaz was receiving young boys for joining his teachings from all over the province. Some of the boys did not have even moustaches, so young they were with raw minds. He was started being called Rehmet Ullah Elleh (mercy of Allah upon him). All this was done to fight war with Russian to evacuate them from Afghanistan. He had turned from a Saint to a Charlatan. Master Attaullah tried his best to mingle with the students and change their thinking but to no avail. Even his son Zakaullah was a victim of Maulvi’s brainwashing. Perhaps that tension was enough for making him what he was now, with a final exit in the fog. Sairum Baig stated in one of his interviews to an English Daily ‘And then there is an old man at the end of the book who has suffered a great personal tragedy due to the hatred spread by the cleric. So that one character is an influence and a presence hovering around the other characters’.

Sairum Baig mentioned in one of his interviews that he spent his youth in seven different localities of Lahore where he came across many street boys and elderly figures, the lives of whom he observed with interest, whether they were poor or rich; sons of cobblers or of affluent ones. That is why his stories revolve around the way of living, problems of dwellers of small localities within big towns. His first story titled ‘Bougainvillea’ pertains to lives of small kids of ten-eleven who make certain seniors their ideal who excel in a trait. Rustam is one of such boys who are a wrestler and won trophy in street wrestling championship. The boys living in an orphanage consider him as their ideal till one day they discover that his health is deteriorating.Playing cricket one day, their cricket ball falls in a house which is covered with bougainvillea vine in abundance. One boy climbs the walls with a ladder and lands over a latrine where he finds Rustam in a bad shape. Saima Kazmi observes in her review that Bougainvillea tells the story of a village boy who risks everything to impress his hero, and ends up discovering secrets that could tear apart everything he idolizes.

Those familiar with Samanabad area in Lahore would remember a ground called Doongi Ground (Deep ground) where boys played cricket or children take rides in good old days. This reviewer remembers this playfield for a show held for Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto’s election campaign. Making this place as basis to start his story ‘The Player’, Sairum establishes a character with harmonium by his side saying that he lost his boys and his house during floods and that he sang to earn his bread. This story relates to a fruit seller, a retired person, Malik Saheb (buyer) whom the family sends to the bazaar for doing groceries, and the poor musician. The story revolves around the old people trying their best to make two meals a day. The musician sings but Malik Saheb is too reluctant to pay as he has to justify the money spent to his daughter in law. The musician makes up to Data Darbar where he gets some food and takes it to his two sons in a muddy house; the sons he says are dead to sell his music. The problem with the talented singers and instrumentalists in our narrow-minded society is acutely cruel attitude of the people who call them ‘Miraasi’ and consider this profession lowly. The word ‘Miraas’ means inheritance; in this case, inheritance of art of playing an instrument, a term which is a misnomer. The retired servants who work hard all their lives to make both ends meet are mostly treated as servants of the house by their children because he has to be fed twice a day. This story therefore is bringing forward the ills of the society by Sairum Baig especially pertaining to the old age. The beauty in the expression of the writer is given in the lines borrowed from ‘The Player’, “The bathing boys abandoned their frolicking and gathered in a horde around the singing man. Nobody made a sound. Their heads swayed gently in tune. Even Malik Saheb and the fruit seller looked enchanted. The mysterious contours of his voice in the mellow, orange twilight were like the sound of nature, the call of beauty. And the road water, though the filthiest in Lahore, mimicked the red blush of Heer’s cheeks which, the player revealed, “were scented like a rare flower on a spring morning”.

The story ‘The third one from the left’, relates to the story of a young boy who is told by his father to pass his matriculation and intermediate examinations, get engineering degree from a reputable university, get a job and marry his cousin from an affluent family. Too much under pressure, he escapes in a third class compartment to Karachi and in an attempt to get smuggled abroad in a ship, die of suffocation in the bottom of the ship. This is the longest short story in the book. The story drags in pace at places.

The story ‘Our Uncle Zubie’ is a narration in first person singular by a young man Sunny who is to wed his cousin whose father had become affluent due to his extra work in a paints factory after teaching chemistry during the day. He ultimately ends up starting his own business. In comparison the narrator’s father did not put extra hours and watched TV in the evenings instead. Unfortunately Sunny’s parents are incapacitated and the burden of preparing for the marriage falls on his shoulders till one day Uncle Zubie walks in; a distant cousin of his father, a charmer in conversation. He befriends Sunny with his stories till his love for Yelena K. Ivanova, a foreigner is revealed. This is an interesting story where the personality of Uncle Zubie showed character as compared to his wealthy, so-called superior family.

The story of the same title as that of the book deals with quacks; doctors, hakeems, technicians, nurses, homeopaths and what not. Their shops are open to public in every busy street of the main cities. They get experience from qualified doctors or experts without degrees or acquiring certificates to practice from the certifying agencies. The story being referred to beabout a quack, who admits by saying, ‘I’m a quack, not a doctor, but when the disease is incurable, what’s the difference?’- (Page 151). The story ‘Band in the rain’ is about a boy Rehmatullah who gets lost as a child in the streets of Rampura emerging as a poet years later. His poetry starts getting quoted and he is given status of a saint (Page 171).

Ahmad Saleem observes in a comment on one of the reviews on this book “This book is not for everyone, but if you’re someone who enjoys reading realistic fiction or enjoys watching Italian neorealist cinema/Iranian neowave cinema, I couldn’t recommend this book enough. It might be right up your alley”. The stories are written on the soars of the society we live in and Sairum’s young mind has knitted them through characters close to reality!

Published in Daily Times, May 22^nd 2018.