Stories are ubiquitous and take on many forms. Even the stories themselves have their own accounts — detailing how they came to be, sometimes shared in an instant and, in other instances, forgotten only to be revived later. Occasionally, the story of stories proves to be more captivating than the stories themselves.
Hafeez Khan, a distinguished author in Seraiki and Urdu, appears to hold the view that literature transcends mere witnessing the contemporary world; it serves as a realm where the grand narrative of the present, past and future is re-enacted, contested and restructured.
The title of this book, Towards the Pebbled Shore, is borrowed from a Shakespearean sonnet that explores the destructive nature of time and the fragility of human existence. The phrase provides a powerful metaphor for the swift and inevitable progression of life towards its final destination. Does the author, in selecting this title, suggest an intensified awareness of mortality? Possibly, he does. Yet the resonance of this image lies equally in its quiet alignment with the book’s thematic core.
THE URDU NOVEL
The term ‘Urdu novel’ refers to fictional works that have emerged over the past one and a half centuries. Research published in literary magazine Adbiyaat’s special issue on the Urdu novel indicates that, by 2021, over 3,000 Urdu novels had been released by around 1,100 authors.
Contemporary Urdu literature is fortunate to have genuine luminaries like Muhammad Saleem Ur Rahman, Asad Muhammad Khan, Ikram Ullah, Khursheed Rizvi, Iftikhar Arif, Zehra Nigah, Kishwar Naheed and Mustansar Hussain Tarar. Among these most senior, distinguished figures, Muhammad Saleem Ur Rahman is the most remarkable. Yet he prefers to remain away from the spotlights
The relationship between a city and literature is reciprocal. The city nourishes the imagination of writers while writers shape the cultural landscape of the city. The life, places, and spaces of a city provide writers with themes and settings for their fiction and poetry. In turn, storytellers and poets transform the city’s cultural landscape.
He chose a different, challenging path for himself. The era he belonged to is known mostly for being concerned with colonialism, modernism and progressivism. Yet, he embraced classicism and cultivated a taste for literature that transcends the bounds of nationality, ethnicity, faith and historical periods. Paradoxically, however, he neither fostered a nostalgic longing for an idealised past nor harboured resentment towards the present, even as he sought to capture the trajectory of Muslim identity development in medieval and British India. It appears that believed in the timelessness of world classics. His commentaries on these works suggest that the poetics and aesthetics of world classics never cease to engage in dialogue with their audience.
Kishwar Naheed!
Everyone wants you to
stay silent,
Even those in their
graves.
But you speak up,
As listening to women
is forbidden here.
There was a time when I
feared my emotions,
But now others fear the
way I express myself.
Why did Don Quixote, a 17th-Century Spanish novel, gain such popularity in the 19th-Century Lucknow? Was its allure linked to its European origins—an object of desire at the time—or was there deeper cultural resonance between the 19th-Century Lucknow and the 17th-Century Spain?
The fact is that despite the vast differences in their cultures the late 19th-Century Lucknow and the world depicted in Don Quixote shared several traits, such as wit, humour, satire, ostentation and elegance.