Daily Times

Dedicated to the questioning minds, the latest book by the Publishers Aks Publications, Lahore titled ‘Goonjati Sargoshian’ comprises short stories of seven female writers belonging to the present generation. This book is the selection and presentation of Farheen Khalid and Safia Shahid. These girls are like-minded writers in their own right. Generally speaking the word ‘sargoshi’ is referred to as whispers in the backdrop of romance or keeping secrets. In the purview of the book, it relates to the soft renditions getting stronger each day passing and starts reverberating. So echoing whispers means revolting against one’s whispers that turn into strong voices when injustice maltreatment and bias is seen in the society at large.

The book comprises short stories of seven female writers of the present generation namely Absar Fatima, Sarwet Najeeb, Sameera Naaz, Safia Shahid, Fatima Usman, Farheen Khalid, and Muafia Sheikh. These stories do not discuss the wailing of womenfolk but touch the issues faced by women in their everyday life, observations, and way of living, customs and thoughtfulness. These experiences are different for each writer as they hail from different communities but converge into similar end results. The first lady writer Absar Fatima belongs to Sukher, interior Sindh, Pakistan. This area hosts sizeable non-Muslim community even after the partition of India

Absar Fatima protests against the prevalent culture of red colour and the race to grab a status. Her short story ‘Lachi Ki Kursi’ is of a girl with pen name ”Lachi’. Nobody cares for her where she lives and many do not even know that her real name was Lakshami Kumari. She recalls vividly that her mother used to tell her not to sit on the bed where her two younger brothers sat next to her father. Her father’s only direct conversation with her in twenty four hours used to be asking for a glass of water when he returned from doing labourer work. She hated the preference given to her brothers and often wished as to why she was deprived of the ‘things’ her brothers had in between their legs. At least it would have elevated her status if she sat on the bed. As she grew she starting pressing her mother to get her admission in school. There she confronted two other fellow students who would come with fancy coloured pencils, flowered copies and a servant who used to sit at their feet as the girls were provided with chairs to sit. Lachi sat on the floor at the hind side with poor light conditions. Then one day two more chairs came in the class room where a landlord’s daughters came and sat. In the final examination, the result which should have been in Lachi’s favour went in favour of these two girts getting first two positions and Lachi, the third position. The following year, Teerath Ram’s daughter vanished and after many months was found to have converted as a Muslim and got married as per TV report. Then one night when Lachi got up to drink water she was kidnapped and for a week became victim of rape by a person who used heavy scent. Then one day the opposition party to the landlord asked her to become minority candidate in the coming elections, an offer she accepted. In the function where she had to make this announcement she was stopped in the middle of her speech to make way for the landlord who was a late arrival. She smelt the same odour which overpowered her senses when she was raped. Now she changed her mind and stated that now she would represent the minority, instead of speaking of the actual happening as he Bhagwan G was in her heart and her chair that she aspired to grab was in front of her – Page 96). Despite that Absar Fatima has taken bold step in opening up the rogues of our society in all her short stories, her story discussed in this review come out the dirty political scenario of minority issue in the subcontinent where Hindus are made to marry Muslims and vice versa.

Sarwat Najeeb hails from Afghanistan. She has contributed five short stories from Kabul. Since that country is under turmoil since many years, one finds her stories turned as fiction-based on actual happenings to make them interesting for the reader. Her short story ‘Khaak Aur Atish’ (dust and fire) ends up with a firing statement ‘Guzari Sadion Main Aag Daryaft Karne Walle Ka Zuroor Visaal Hua Tha Magar Aaag Ka Nahin’ (the last centuries must have seen demise of the persons who discovered the fire, but not the fire itself’. The reader is stunned by the crude but true wind up of her story. One wonders if the fire is not spreading towards the reader! Her story ‘Aimal Ka Almia’ revolves around the set-back of Aimal’s apprehensions in the city life when he returned from his village to the city. He hailed from a flourishing family where his father was looking forward to his taking up control of the school business that his father was running. Aimal however did not quite take up this challenge. In his depressing state of mind he used to wander in the streets. One day he came across two eyes who stuck in his eyes at a fabric seller shop. Hurriedly he scribbled his phone number and dropped it in the lap of the body with the eyes Aimal was hook up with. Days passed. He did not receive a call. While wandering in the streets, he came across the depressed humans in unlit streets. There was a bomb blast near the street. The girl Mahpara stated that she saw her brother’s eyes who were martyred in the blast. Sarwet Najeeb feels that in the era of war and upheaval keeping your pen intact and not making it as weapon of war is a very difficult task. It becomes more difficult when the writers try of present actual happenings in a fiction format such that the message reaches the readers.

This book comprises thirty five short stories. Apart from the two writers mentioned above the others are Sumaira Naz with her stories titled Bolte Dairey, Balla, Tanhai Kei Do Pal, Sode Ki Botal, Sang Berg, and Safia Shahid with stories titled Bechari Anarkali, Kahani Kei Kirdar Ka Haqiqi Janam, Tayyab, Munh Zori Markazi Kirdar, Ginti Kei Bojh Talle Dabi Lashain. Our next writer is Fatima Usman hailing from Islamabad. She says that a writer should be sensitive enough to feel the pulse of the society. Hence her pen would be free if her thoughts and soul are also totally free and on one page. Her story titled ‘Ujalon Ka Andhaira’ is a story of a struggling woman whose husband left her at the mercy of God with two kids and a child in her stomach for tableegh She suffers alone due to paucity of funds and meeting day to day expenses. She was left alone and is compelled by the circumstances to take help from a neighbour. She is indebted to the neighbor that she gives her chastity to him. He fed her children and did not let them go hungry. After few months when her husband returns who had seen a shadow leaving his house, is confronted by his wife with confidence. She said that the guy who left the house looked after her children who were well fed and did not make her pregnant. So her husband can go for tableegh again as far as his wife was concerned. This reviewer had to face a similar situation while managing a project in Riyadh when two senior members of his staff used to abandon their work and leave for Tableegh without proper leave and not realizing as to what damage their absence would do to the project. Fatima Usman is bold enough to knit her stories based on bitter truth.

Apart from including five short stories from two more writers; Farheen Khalid and Muafia Sheikh, this book contains essays titled Larkian Kahanian by Muhammad Hameed Shahid, Soorat-e-Harf by Zakia Mashhaedi, Jadeed Urdu Afsana by Dr. Amir Suhail, Andaz Badle Gaye by Ali Akbar Natiq and Kanwar by Absar Fatima. This reviewer was apprehensive like Ali Akbar Natiq to write an essay and this reviewer a review because the writers are mostly young and belonging to a city with much less history in literature. After reading the ‘Afsanaas’ we both changed our minds and were left with no choice but to appreciate the short stories because of change in themes, styles and sharp expression.

The writer is the recipient of the prestigious Pride of Performance award. He can be reached at doc_amjad@hotmail.com