Daily Times

It is a dilemma of female writers that they start writing short stories or in any other format of literature with enthusiasm in their early life, after which their marriages or jobs slow down their tempo. It happened to many poets and it has happened to Nilofer Iqbal whose short stories book titled Surkh Dhabbe (red spots) indicate that it would have done literature some good, had she not put a break in between her two phases of writing.

Her first short stories book Ghanti (bells) was acclaimed by Ahmad Nadeem Qasmi. He had commented that if a short story is indicative of struggle to achieve some new meanings of an era, then Nilofer Iqbal’s short stories did provide those meanings. Not that these stories were written on some imaginary themes but these relate to our everyday happenings.

The first short story ‘Masawaat’ (equality) in the book under review refers to an educated father who believes in equality among his sons and daughters. That is why he sends his daughter to the United States for PhD. Before her return from abroad, she requests for her parents’ permission to marry an American, her teacher. With a heavy heart the parents agree since her husband-to-be had converted into Islam, only getting a shock when they find the American teacher turns out to be a Negro. Nilofer’s short stories have a realistic approach for which one needs to be bold. Otherwise the safer way is to use themes based on inner self despite that one needs to be shown one’s face in the mirror.

One would have heard the elder ones often exclaim that if God were to give them death, then it should be while they are still moving around on their feet. Long diseases would be a burden not only on the patient but also would be cumbersome for the attendants. The story titled ‘Baqa’ (salvation) relates to such a character that leaves a young servant to attend to their bed ridden father. Once the servant takes leave to attend to his real father, attending father by daughter becomes a burden. They get a sigh of relief when the servant returns. The short story ‘Dhund’ (fog) is all about three sons dividing their time to look after their old mother. They keep nurse to look after her needs, but they meet their mother at least once a day. They patiently attend to her questions coming out of her hazy mind. Nilofer quotes Stephen Vincent who had defined a short story to be effective when read in an hour but leaves an impact on the reader’s whole life.

Those who opt to reside in the West do make a house in their cities back home and decorate it well. They often return in summers, hold parties much to the envy of the neighbours. One such couple decorates their house with expensive crystal. The husband is a retired foreign office bureaucrat. The couple had travelled the whole world due to their postings abroad and bought decoration pieces and souvenirs of exquisite taste. One fine day the husband dies and the crystal house is put up for sale and the buyer is a contractor sort of man with no taste except the art of buying cheap. This is the story of Nilofer’s short story ‘Crystal House’. The author has an art of observing the most difficult of situations but knitting them in simple narratives.

A little different theme from the usual domestic themes Nilofer writes on, is the theme of her story titled ‘Musalmaan’ (Muslim). It revolves around three poor, white collared habitants of a town who had given a loan to a Christian namely George. One of these persons is a school teacher. Whenever they demand their loan to be returned he says that he would return soon. Fed up with false promises they approach the Padri of a local church for help. He promises for help. The three men take George along with them to Church. The Padri takes a long time in talking to George who returns school teacher’s money after getting out of Church. Intrigued they insist Padri as to what did he say to George that he returned the money. Hesitantly he answered that he only posed a question to George whether he had converted as Musalmaan! Such is the credibility of Muslims nowadays.

This reviewer has just been able to refer to a few short stories out of sixteen by Nilofer in this book. Very few persons are writing ‘Afsana’ and novels nowadays. Merely for that fact alone Nilofer deserves encouragement and for the fact that she has touched the pulse of the society in her short stories!