Journey through Urdu Literature

I've been reading Urdu short stories for sometime now and have been impressed by both their versatility, content and wonderfully modernist themes. Starting with Manto, my favorite, other writers I've recently read include Rajinder Singh Bedi, Munshi Premchand, Ismat Chughtai and Ahmed Nadeem Qasmi. In the process I was also encouraged to try out Urdu novels. I recently finished two: Khuda kee bastee and Raja Gidh.

Review: Khuda ke bastee [The adobe of god]

When I began this book, the opening line’s mention of the ‘municipality kee laaltain’ was immediately captivating. I was hoping to see the lamp in the courtyard used with some dramatic effect. It rarely was.

Written by Shaukat Siddiqui, the book catalogues the life of Nosha and his family who never emerge out of poverty, each individually suffering the consequences of their scarcity. Perhaps due to the consistently pessimistic plots of the characters the book is rendered rather mundane. However, there are strong parallel tales of Raja, of Salman, and of course the socialist organization of the Skylarks Salman is a member of. These stories and characters give the book a semblance of literary value as otherwise the book refuses to rise above its crude and rather obviously stated punches of poverty renditions.

The writer showcases potentials of brilliance and nowhere is it more delightfully rendered than through the description of Salman’s family, each of whose characters are fantastically described. From a mother who enjoys reveling in emotional blackmail to a sister eager to reach western shores by any means to a brother who wants to be modern at all costs. Unfortunately the book only gives them a few paragraphs. The resistance that Raja offered, revealing his multidimensional personality is sapped once he becomes a leper. Otherwise, the book is loaded with uni-dimensional characters. Most of it is dedicated to showcasing the lives of Nosha, his sister Razia, his brother Annu and mother and how each of their lives go from bad to worse to terrible.

Review: Raja Gidh [The Vulture]

Banu Qudsia’s novel has sufficient literary merit – particularly with the title theme of vultures becoming the mainstay of symbolism in the book. Unable to acquire Seemi’s love, Qayyum suffers and suffers and suffers. Don’t mean to negate the value of the book, but despite amply more metaphors and a lively switch from Qayyum’s tale to the conference of the birds lead by the Phoenix who are holding the vultures to task, the book seemed to stutter along without really much ambition other than twisting and turning to rephrase the obvious again and again.

Qayyum’s father came out in a hauntingly beautiful manner. Qayyum’s subsequent love interests in Abida, the barren housewife and Ismat, the ageing courtesan living off scrummy roles available on radio shows exhales life into the pages. Brief sparks of appreciation of modern thought and modern ideas by the author pique interest. Particularly since her characters are revolving around a traditional theme.

The desire for dramatics and beating a theme till it murders and mutilates potentially valuable metaphors is how this book commits suicide. I had heard unending praise of ‘Raja Gidh’ as a masterpiece and find it ends up little more than a B-rate romance novel. Urdu literature connoisseurs will lynch me for saying it, so I will be humble and state that my mind was incapable of understanding the ‘finer’ points of the novel.

Although a disappointing beginning, I am nevertheless persisting with Urdu literature though will be trying out 'different' stuff including Mushtaq Yusufi and perhaps, just to liven things up, something potentially heretical, such as Sibt-e-Hassan’s 'Mosa say Marx tak' (From Moses to Marx) :)