An Epic Unwritten


Book Description

A Collection Of Some Of The Most Memorable Urdu Stories About The Partition And Its Aftermath In This Valuable Addition To The Growing Body Of Literature On The Partition, Muhammad Umar Memon Brings Together Works By The Finest Urdu Writers Of This Century . Manto'S Haunting Story Sahae Is About A Pimp Who Meets With A Tragic End While Trying To Save The Belongings Of One Of His Girls During The Communal Riots In Bombay. Rajinder Singh Bedi S Lajwanti Poignantly Describes The Anguish Of Sundar Lal, Whose Wife Has Been Abducted By The Other Side . Ismat Chughtai S Roots Is A Heart-Rending Tale Of An Old Matriarch, Abandoned By Her Family, Who Prefers To Lose Her Life To Marauding Mobs Rather Than Migrate To An Alien Land. In Addition To These Are More Recent Stories, Such As Muhammad Ashraf'S The Rogue And Illyas Ahmad Gaddi S A Land Without Sky , That Powerfully Evoke The Atmosphere Of Distrust And Paranoia Among Hindus And Muslims Following The Resurgence Of Hindu Nationalism In Post-Independence India. This Volume Also Includes Works By, Among Others, Ashfaq Ahamad, Altaf Fatima, Intizar Hussain, Salam Bin Razzack And Upender Nath Ashk. Skilfully Translated, The Stories Portray With Great Realism And Sensitivity The Human Tragedy That Follows The Collapse Of Mutual Trust In Keeping A Multi-Religious Society Together.




Basti


Book Description

An NYRB Classics Original Basti is a beautifully written reckoning with the tragic history of Pakistan. Basti means settlement, a common place, and Intizar Husain’s extraordinary novel begins with a mythic, even mystic, vision of harmony between old and young, man and woman, Muslim and Hindu. Then Zakir, the hero, wakes to the modern world. Crowds gather. Slogans echo. Cities burn. Whether hunkered down with family or furtively meeting to exchange news with friends in cafés, Zakir is alone in a country lost to the politics of loneliness.




Writing Partition


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Circle and Other Stories


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The Use and Abuse of Nature


Book Description

This is an omnibus edition of two books that have radically altered our understanding of Indian history. This Fissured Land presents an interpretive ecological history of the sub-continent. Ecology and Equity is a spirited intervention into the environment-development debate.




Short Stories from Pakistan


Book Description

If Pakistan Were A Different Nation Then What Was Ts National & Cultural Identity? Where Could It Trace Its Beginning? The Short Stories- Written Originally In Urdu, Punjabi, Sindhi, Pushto And Suraiki And Now Translated Into English- Showcased In This Anthology Engage With The Above Questions In Their Own Ways, Articulating A Multiplicity Of Voices And Experiences. They Chronicle The Birth Of The Pakistani Nation In Traumatic Circumstances And Its Chequered History Over The Past Fifty Years, Through Depicting The ýDesires And Aspirations And Thousand Other Unnamed Feelingsý Of Their Protagonists. While Doing So, They Also Depict The Immensely Varies And Rich Tapestry Of The Cultural Life In Pakistan




The Postcolonial Short Story


Book Description

This book puts the short story at the heart of contemporary postcolonial studies and questions what postcolonial literary criticism may be. Focusing on short fiction between 1975 and today – the period in which critical theory came to determine postcolonial studies – it argues for a sophisticated critique exemplified by the ambiguity of the form.




The Death of Sheherzad


Book Description

'Intizar Husain's stories often tread that twilight zone between fable and parable. His narratives are spun on an oriental loom' - Keki N. Daruwalla A man scours the town he left fifty years ago for some little evidence of past joys. Javed, who's returned to Lahore from East Pakistan, won't speak of what he witnessed 'there'. An old woman boards a train full of dead ancestors in her dreams. A sage who cannot control his anger must seek out a butcher for redemption. Mahaban, home of the monkeys once, is now a city full of human beings. Sheherzad, who once told Emperor Shaharyar a thousand-and-one stories, is now an old woman who has forgotten her yarns of fantasy. The stories in The Death of Sheherzad ably represent Intizar Husain's oeuvre, defying narrative tradition and exploring the past, specifically Partition, as a means of unravelling the present. He imaginatively revisits a syncretic, tolerant pluralistic past to analyse why the tide turned so irreversibly. Questioning everything - faith, violence, society - Husain probes the horrors of Partition in a manner as oblique as it is trenchant. Imbued with dark wit and literary brilliance, these stories at once shock, agitate and entertain.




Once There Was a City Named Dilli


Book Description

The history of Delhi has been told and retold many times. Often the intent is to use history as an ideological tool for staking a claim to the present of the city. In Intizar Husain’s retelling, it is the tale itself that becomes delectable. A popular recital that highlights the forgotten nuances of the story, Once There was a City Named Dilli, is a celebration of the people and culture that made the city unforgettable. Forts, walled cities, bazaars, diwan khanas, durbars, and the Yamuna itself come alive in this ode to a capital serenaded and ravaged by powerful kings and chieftains over time.