Strangers In The Light

These are no borders or boundaries for this writer, he does not need the artifice of passports to paint his literary canvas, as he understands only too well the hurt and wounded pride beneath the skin of these two nations, carved from each other8217;s flesh.

In this remarkable collection of short stories, which smashes just about every stereotype we might have of the Pakistani mind, the most powerful is 8220;A Chronicle of the Peacocks8221; Morenama. A gently allegorical tale, it links the recent competitive testing of nuclear weapons to the Mahabharata, specifically the persistent shadow of Ashwatthama, who released the Brahmastra and then refused to recall it. In the epic, the savage destruction that followed almost wiped out the Pandavas. The last survivor, Parikshit, asks sorrowfully when he is king: 8220;Why did the Kauravas and Pandavas fight knowing that war destroys everything?8221; In Morenama, the narrator is haunted both by Ashwatthama, who has refused to fade away from either side of the border, and by Parikshit8217;s question on war.

Indeed, Husain belongs more to 8220;our8221; subcontinent than to a 8220;Pakistan8221; or 8220;Hindustan8221;. The sentiments he holds out to us are universal 8212; whether they reside in the surreal 8220;The City of Sorrows8221; Shahre-e Afsos or in the ironical 8220;An Unwritten Epic8221; Ek Bin Likhi Razmiya. Unlike Morenama these two stories are firmly moored in the tragic events of 1947, violent memories that Husain still is trying to understand. Shahr-e-Afsos is particularly eerie as dead men try to identify their own corpses and cannot recognise themselves.

The Jataka parables are also re-interpreted by Husain and contain his own search for the truth, and the contradictions within. So, we may find that the Bhikshu does not turn his face away from the temptation life offers. In fact, he may discover his salvation within that, or he may be left wondering which path to take.

One very welcome addition to this collection is a conversation between Intizar Husain and Alok Bhalla. Unfortunately, the other fine translator of the stories, Vishwamitter Adil, died just before the book was printed. Through this dialogue we learn that Husain has tried to combine eastern and western styles of storytelling. The eastern style in which stories flow from each other blends into the western style where the stories are discrete.

Interestingly, Husain also elaborates his theory of the similarities between the partition of India and the exile, migration and division of kingdoms depicted in the Ramayana and the Mahabharat. As he says, 8220;The frustration felt by the Pakistanis seemed to be like the frustration of the Pandavas. Indians should understand that what happened in 1947 was akin to what was often described in their traditions.8221;

For those among us who cannot access Husain in the original, this book definitely provides a rare glimpse of a writer who is bold enough to openly acknowledge his joint heritage8230; demonstrating yet again that when true freedom dwells in the mind, it cannot be partitioned.