Here is My Story
Choosing the short story writer is like choosing architecture of one’s house
Life is a story or has to be lived as a work of art for getting meaning from it. All of us tell stories. The choice – a vital and fateful choice indeed – is what kind of stories we chose to tell ourselves and our children. Great short stories constitute the staple diet of great education.
We do spend a lot of time daily – six hours on average – day dreaming or what amounts to the same – telling ourselves stories with oneself as a hero. Jataka tales, tales in Rumi’s Masnavi and Saadi’s Gulistan, Panchtantra and fables of Aesop have been so central to education across cultures.
Even scriptures have to make use of tales and the Quran asserts that the greatest tale – an odyssey of soul searching in fact – is that of Joseph (this tale is retold in many volumes by Thomas Mann in modern times- in fact our challenge is to retell great archetypal stories in a language postmodern man can relate to). In the modern world, we have somewhat different kinds of tales we call short stories.
Choosing the short story writer is like choosing architecture of one’s house or ambience in which we choose to live. There are short story writers who don’t merely delight but teach wisdom as well. For instance, Tolstoy.
I immediately recall his three short stories “The Three Questions”, “God sees the truth but waits,” “How much land does a man require” that teach us the key lessons in ethics. Let us not forget such masters as Russian Chekov, German Kafka and French Maupassant and Indian Tagore. Urdu language has its great and well known names we all know but must not forget Intizar Hussain as an indispensable source who connects us to the Tradition. The genre of short story, as worthy inheritor of dastaan goi, has to go a long way if it is of great educational value for generations.
We have many short story writers and thousands of short stories in Kashmiri and it is only few that qualify on the exacting standards that deep consciousness of the Tradition (what connects man to Heaven, everything to First Principles, eternal verities of Ad-Deen, constitute Tradition and all great writers assimilate it and what appears anti-tarditional but great is really a different flowering of The Tradition. We need to read at least a few anthologies of great short stories of the world and of Kashmir. Thanks to Dr Tasleem Ahmed War’s Vignettes: Short Stories from Kashmir we have English translation of some of the most important short stories and an attempt at representative anthology of more important short story writers.
The only barrier for enjoying Kashmiri stories till now has been language that has been Greek to most Kashmiris (if any proof of our occupation and imposed alienation from language and culture is needed, this is one, and disappearance of Persian is another). Some remarks on some short stories follow:
The book begins with Samina Ashraf’s “Bear Dance” that satirizes modern job market where souls are auctioned and forced to play roles that are revolting and dehumanizing.
None of the academic degrees matter for the protagonist and he gets the job of entertaining people by performing bear dance with a mask. Almost all of us wear masks. Our souls, our aspirations and our training are not taken into account while careers or jobs are imposed on us. There are four stories of Akhatar Mohi-ud-din including “Home Fires,” “Fortune,” “The Roasted Fish” and “Trauma.”
The virtue of a writer is that he gives you eyes or removes habitual veils on our sight. Trauma reminds me of devastating lecture (considered to be the most influential in history of YouTube lectures) by Gary Yourofsky. A chick, rescued from predator with great difficulty by the protagonist, has been killed mercilessly and the protagonist can’t tolerate and the one of us who watches trauma in him fails to understand why it should matter.
Nothing matters to us, not the deaths of humans, what to speak of a chicks. 60 billion animals are killed annually in the world and they are grown under brutal conditions and fed food at the expanse of humans and environment and for the select few. “Cock Fight” – perhaps his most memorable story – and “Poundage” from Amin Kamil, another short writer who can’t be ignored by any anthology and who is also arguably our greatest modern ghazal writer, have also been included.
There are to stories of Gulshan Majeed, one of our most gifted writers who has of late chosen silence. One is “Short Story” that tells story of a lost shoe in such a hilarious manner that one can hardly enjoy it in translation. Gulshan has argued in his well crafted and insightful critical essays regarding the key importance of form or attention to language and he himself uses it so dexterously to create magic. Another story “He” portrays, in his characteristic manner, a character that is specifically Kashmiri and now missing. Majeed is a philosopher of the ordinary and the last thing he would allow is judging character in terms of this or that ideology.
This last named virtue is noted in Shankar Raina’ s stories also including the one “Whose Turn is Next” that figures in the anthology. Sufi Ghulam Muhammad’s story “The Pilferer” documents machinations of modern slave owners called owners of shops. Today in Kashmir salesmen or labourers are treated in a way that ancient slave owners look like angels as they never discounted humanity of their slaves.
Bansi Nirdosh’s story “Till I burnt my own Fingers” shows how faith sustains people and skepticism is killing, at least for those who have chosen to believe with all their soul and mind. It brilliantly illustrates Kashmiri adage “peer ni boud, yaqeen boud” (It is faith rather than faith healer who does wonders). Hari Krishan Koul’s “Macabre Thoughts” is one of the most powerful short stories that explores human frailty or the reign of desire. A mother’s death has ceased to mean anything serious for many today – its most horrible illustration is Camus’ Mersault in The Stranger who is totally unmoved by his mother’s death and very soon forgets her to enjoy revelry with a woman.
The occasion of mother’s death and carrying a coffin is not able to erase for a moment at least, for the protagonist, the interest in following commentary on a match. Other stories that are included are Alter-Ego by Hriday Koul Bharati that explores alienation, “It is Night at the Moment” that explores unconvincing nature of all idealistic mayaistic absolutist thought currents that fail to engage with the concrete or the individual, “Some Poses, some Snaps” by Bashir Akhtar that also shows need to note the unpredictable action or behavior of humans that defies formulaic ideological frameworks and Shant’s “First Lesson” that along with Farooq Masudi’s “A Revelatory Moment” resists an easy engagement from the reader. Lastly a few words about Amin Kamil whose two stories “Poundage” and “Cock-fight” find a place in the book.
There is well written and highly useful introduction to the book that introduces the genre and its evolution in Kashmiri and this is followed by brief notes on the writers that figure in the anthology.
Stories that have been included have been only selectively, for reasons unknown, commented upon by the translator. Only occasionally can one spot minor errors in translation or in typing. Although the author has stated rationale of his selections – innovation in form and theme – he has not individually defended his choices.
Let us not forget extremely exacting standards set by such acknowledged masters of the task of anthology making as Raul Zurita in his Pinholes in the Night: Essential Poems from Latin America who selected a handful of poems, one only from each poet and then had the confidence to write that only the most important poem has been selected and that but for the selected poem, some important event that happened to language would have been missed. Zurita’s introduction is a classic introduction that may profitably be consulted by all those who attempt such a work.
Thank you and congratulations, Dr Tasleem, for attempting and largely succeeding in preparing a lucid and accessible anthology and translation of some of most important Kashmiri short stories and providing a sort of passport for Kashmiri writers for international travel. I hope it will be followed by another work of translation that is largely a virgin field.
http://www.greaterkashmir.com/news/opinion/story/191909.html
Life is a story or has to be lived as a work of art for getting meaning from it. All of us tell stories. The choice – a vital and fateful choice indeed – is what kind of stories we chose to tell ourselves and our children. Great short stories constitute the staple diet of great education.
We do spend a lot of time daily – six hours on average – day dreaming or what amounts to the same – telling ourselves stories with oneself as a hero. Jataka tales, tales in Rumi’s Masnavi and Saadi’s Gulistan, Panchtantra and fables of Aesop have been so central to education across cultures.
Even scriptures have to make use of tales and the Quran asserts that the greatest tale – an odyssey of soul searching in fact – is that of Joseph (this tale is retold in many volumes by Thomas Mann in modern times- in fact our challenge is to retell great archetypal stories in a language postmodern man can relate to). In the modern world, we have somewhat different kinds of tales we call short stories.
Choosing the short story writer is like choosing architecture of one’s house or ambience in which we choose to live. There are short story writers who don’t merely delight but teach wisdom as well. For instance, Tolstoy.
I immediately recall his three short stories “The Three Questions”, “God sees the truth but waits,” “How much land does a man require” that teach us the key lessons in ethics. Let us not forget such masters as Russian Chekov, German Kafka and French Maupassant and Indian Tagore. Urdu language has its great and well known names we all know but must not forget Intizar Hussain as an indispensable source who connects us to the Tradition. The genre of short story, as worthy inheritor of dastaan goi, has to go a long way if it is of great educational value for generations.
We have many short story writers and thousands of short stories in Kashmiri and it is only few that qualify on the exacting standards that deep consciousness of the Tradition (what connects man to Heaven, everything to First Principles, eternal verities of Ad-Deen, constitute Tradition and all great writers assimilate it and what appears anti-tarditional but great is really a different flowering of The Tradition. We need to read at least a few anthologies of great short stories of the world and of Kashmir. Thanks to Dr Tasleem Ahmed War’s Vignettes: Short Stories from Kashmir we have English translation of some of the most important short stories and an attempt at representative anthology of more important short story writers.
The only barrier for enjoying Kashmiri stories till now has been language that has been Greek to most Kashmiris (if any proof of our occupation and imposed alienation from language and culture is needed, this is one, and disappearance of Persian is another). Some remarks on some short stories follow:
The book begins with Samina Ashraf’s “Bear Dance” that satirizes modern job market where souls are auctioned and forced to play roles that are revolting and dehumanizing.
None of the academic degrees matter for the protagonist and he gets the job of entertaining people by performing bear dance with a mask. Almost all of us wear masks. Our souls, our aspirations and our training are not taken into account while careers or jobs are imposed on us. There are four stories of Akhatar Mohi-ud-din including “Home Fires,” “Fortune,” “The Roasted Fish” and “Trauma.”
The virtue of a writer is that he gives you eyes or removes habitual veils on our sight. Trauma reminds me of devastating lecture (considered to be the most influential in history of YouTube lectures) by Gary Yourofsky. A chick, rescued from predator with great difficulty by the protagonist, has been killed mercilessly and the protagonist can’t tolerate and the one of us who watches trauma in him fails to understand why it should matter.
Nothing matters to us, not the deaths of humans, what to speak of a chicks. 60 billion animals are killed annually in the world and they are grown under brutal conditions and fed food at the expanse of humans and environment and for the select few. “Cock Fight” – perhaps his most memorable story – and “Poundage” from Amin Kamil, another short writer who can’t be ignored by any anthology and who is also arguably our greatest modern ghazal writer, have also been included.
There are to stories of Gulshan Majeed, one of our most gifted writers who has of late chosen silence. One is “Short Story” that tells story of a lost shoe in such a hilarious manner that one can hardly enjoy it in translation. Gulshan has argued in his well crafted and insightful critical essays regarding the key importance of form or attention to language and he himself uses it so dexterously to create magic. Another story “He” portrays, in his characteristic manner, a character that is specifically Kashmiri and now missing. Majeed is a philosopher of the ordinary and the last thing he would allow is judging character in terms of this or that ideology.
This last named virtue is noted in Shankar Raina’ s stories also including the one “Whose Turn is Next” that figures in the anthology. Sufi Ghulam Muhammad’s story “The Pilferer” documents machinations of modern slave owners called owners of shops. Today in Kashmir salesmen or labourers are treated in a way that ancient slave owners look like angels as they never discounted humanity of their slaves.
Bansi Nirdosh’s story “Till I burnt my own Fingers” shows how faith sustains people and skepticism is killing, at least for those who have chosen to believe with all their soul and mind. It brilliantly illustrates Kashmiri adage “peer ni boud, yaqeen boud” (It is faith rather than faith healer who does wonders). Hari Krishan Koul’s “Macabre Thoughts” is one of the most powerful short stories that explores human frailty or the reign of desire. A mother’s death has ceased to mean anything serious for many today – its most horrible illustration is Camus’ Mersault in The Stranger who is totally unmoved by his mother’s death and very soon forgets her to enjoy revelry with a woman.
The occasion of mother’s death and carrying a coffin is not able to erase for a moment at least, for the protagonist, the interest in following commentary on a match. Other stories that are included are Alter-Ego by Hriday Koul Bharati that explores alienation, “It is Night at the Moment” that explores unconvincing nature of all idealistic mayaistic absolutist thought currents that fail to engage with the concrete or the individual, “Some Poses, some Snaps” by Bashir Akhtar that also shows need to note the unpredictable action or behavior of humans that defies formulaic ideological frameworks and Shant’s “First Lesson” that along with Farooq Masudi’s “A Revelatory Moment” resists an easy engagement from the reader. Lastly a few words about Amin Kamil whose two stories “Poundage” and “Cock-fight” find a place in the book.
There is well written and highly useful introduction to the book that introduces the genre and its evolution in Kashmiri and this is followed by brief notes on the writers that figure in the anthology.
Stories that have been included have been only selectively, for reasons unknown, commented upon by the translator. Only occasionally can one spot minor errors in translation or in typing. Although the author has stated rationale of his selections – innovation in form and theme – he has not individually defended his choices.
Let us not forget extremely exacting standards set by such acknowledged masters of the task of anthology making as Raul Zurita in his Pinholes in the Night: Essential Poems from Latin America who selected a handful of poems, one only from each poet and then had the confidence to write that only the most important poem has been selected and that but for the selected poem, some important event that happened to language would have been missed. Zurita’s introduction is a classic introduction that may profitably be consulted by all those who attempt such a work.
Thank you and congratulations, Dr Tasleem, for attempting and largely succeeding in preparing a lucid and accessible anthology and translation of some of most important Kashmiri short stories and providing a sort of passport for Kashmiri writers for international travel. I hope it will be followed by another work of translation that is largely a virgin field.
http://www.greaterkashmir.com/news/opinion/story/191909.html
Comments
Post a Comment