Recently published Urdu novel Atish-e-Raftah ka Suragh (Clue of the Past fire) by Musharraf Alam Zauqi is different in several means. The main factor that makes the novel innovative, diverse and historic is he dared to zero in on those Muslim issues that born after the independence and the goriest event, the partition of the country. Definitely big changes took place in the country since it got freedom but whether the changes were really positive and constructive or negative and destructive, it is a matter of the point of view one has to look at. Zauqi, as Urdu Hindi fiction writer, the author of more than two dozen books in both the languages, takes the unfortunate events in the country including Babri Masjid demolition, Batla House encounter, and politics over these events with a different point of view. These kinds of events don’t only impact on the political situation but the social, economical, educational structures of the society also get affected.
One of the reasons, Zauqi stands out among the other contemporary fiction writers, is he does not involve himself in the story however; he creates the structure of the story with the strong characterization and the social perception of those characters.
When a myth is made in the society against a certain sect of the society it doesn’t mean that the way it appears they are real. How they are looked at, how media proliferate, how the political power desires to be looked at, they altogether makes the reality which reach to the masses and that creates ideological notion. Of course media is run by a certain power, political power is also based on certain ideology and they all work together to mess with the reality. The words change its meaning after the propaganda against the target sect. This is what happened against black people in the western countries, against the Jewish at the time of Hitler, against tribal communities in India, against sikh (turban wearing people) in many western countries and Muslims women in France. The thing that works behind all these discrimination is ‘hatred’ and prejudice against each other. The peaceful society is only possible with the propagating love and peace in the society.
The novel Atish-e-Raftah ka Suragh, is a story about a boy whose name is Osama and he was born and brought up in Batla House area. The time when he was named Osama, he was named after one of the Prophet Muhammad’s companion. At that time the name Osama bin Laden wasn’t as infamous as it is nowadays and the name was considered as a holy name. But the time Osama started going to school the word Osama lost its original dignity and took over another dress of meaning that became a symbol of international terrorism. The boy was so much tortured internally that whenever some peace-breaking events took place in India he felt insecure and closed himself in his room, even stopped talking or meeting with anyone in the society.
The novel also talks about fore-generation of Osama and the torture his fore-father received because of the partition, post partition riots and being a Muslim.
Muslims are sent to jail for no reason. Some of them have been thrown into jails for years and years only on the basis of suspicion and ten years, fifteen years or twenty years later the Honorable court says that he is not guilty he is an innocent. But the life the person passed in jail it pushes him and his generations hundred years backward in the society for no reason. Muslims have to prove their country-love to everybody still they are considered doubtful in the society. Of course all these are not happening randomly; certainly there is some force behind all these. The novel Atish-e-Raftah ka Suragh tells the story of these kinds of miss happenings and the power involved behind these incidents.
The fact is, we all know about these. Everyone, including the big powerful leaders of major political parties of India knows that Batla House encounter was fake, still what the factors are that let them be mum? Recently, news came on TV that an encounter. Government did not even let the trial of Batla House fake encounter go on in the court. The way media highlighted all these kind of matters it sounded like they are willing to say all the Muslims are terrorists.
The hi-tech young generation of Muslims does not like to be treated suspicious but the electronic Media, Police, and the communalized society is hardworking to make them infamous and doubtful in the society. But the novelist Zauqi does not think that the media or the police are responsible for these propaganda. According to him there is another power that is organized force to spread hatred in the Indian society and that is the same force who killed Gandhi and that is the same force who is busy in killing humanity endlessly. As per Zauqi RSS and it’s kind of organized terrorism is the force behind all these, be it Babri Masjid Demolition, Batla House encounter, Ishrat Jahan encounter or Gujrat bloodbath.
Art-wise, the novel is awesome. In the Urdu literature especially in the recent fiction the examples of hallucinatory realism is hardly found. When I read this novel a certain kind of dream like state welcomed me in the different world of reality, and dared to tell the truth in fiction way. The novel carries the unsaid story between the lines like cultural metamorphosis. The strong characterization is one of the qualities of this novel. When Zauqi creates a character he takes himself out of it at all and the reader feels the resemblance of the character in his real world. One of the qualities in the fiction considered by the critic is it should not contradict with the real world. In the other words a novelist creates a different parallel world that is fictitious. The success of a novel depends on how good and artistically it imitates the real world. At one place in this novel Zauqi described about the after-effects of the Dec 6 1992 in these words:
Fiza Kharaab ho gayee thi, Kashi Barood ke dher per khara tha----Anwar Pasha, Basmatia aur uss ke sharabi shohar ko le kar Ghusse mein thay---who chilla rahe thay----
‘Nikal bahar karo in hinduon ko---inn logon ne jina mushkil ker diya hai hamara----,
Rashdah sahmi hui thee---‘ye hindu kab se ho gaye--- yeh toh hamare ghar ke fard hain. (P. 469)
An amazing character Bi Amma is there as a symbol of the old feudal culture. His dialogues suit her personality exactly. In the novel she says in frustration:
Sab kia dhara Jinnah ka hai---nojj Qaid e Azam ban gaya---main kahti hoon Qaid e Azam gaya chulhe mein… Kya mila Pakistan le kar. Na wahan chain na yahan….yeh koi zindagi hai. Ye koi zindagi hai. Khassi bakri ki tarah har waqt jallad ka khauf khae rahta hai. Apna mulk to lagta hee nahi. Koi kaam admi azadi se nahi kar sakta. Har baat mein fasaad. Khatra….nojj jeena mushkil hai. Na hampakistan ja sakte hain na yahan chain…..yeh toh wahi missal hui Na khuda hi mila na wisal-e-sanam. …Jinnah ne sab chaupat kar dia….(P. 497)
Zauqi’s name stands tall in the Urdu literary world because of his novelty of style in fiction writing. Stream of consciousness is one of his kinds of style. His stories have layers of meanings, it seems like simple story telling is not his piece of cake.
One of the excellences in his novel is it has the shocking revealing after every chapters. It has the power to bring tears in any reader’s eyes. The final revealing that comes after 550 pages that is breathtaking and absolute shocking. A reader continues to read and thinks what’s coming after. These kinds of thrill give this novel a novelty. It is a good example of hallucinatory realism in contemporary Urdu fiction.
Zauqi writes about Muslim burning issues. After the grand success of his previous Muslim issue based novels Bayan, Zabah and Musalman he came up with this most relevant one. This one is the most recent of that series. Zauqi has penned out numerous outstanding novels, but Aatish-e-Raftah ka Suragh is one of the most talked novels among the Urdu literati circles.
This novel is not popular among the Urdu readers of India only but also the neighboring countries.
“I have just finished this novel and I am still lost in its magic and it’s hard to say that how long it will take me to come out of it. It wasn’t easy to write this novel. We cannot even imagine these types of novels in Pakistan. I have no idea that from where do you get the courage to write it.”
This was an instant reaction of a Pakistani scholar and critic Mr. Younus Khan after reading the novel.
The way the story has been developed, it was architected brain-fully. The story has been built up with the small pieces of puzzles. Each puzzle piece is equally important to make the plot of this novel. Each puzzle piece carries thoughtfulness, issues, artistic style, and cultural image of the society, contradiction of thought among characters, excellent story telling technique and over all readability. The novel is so tightly edited before printing that you won’t be able to find a single piece of puzzle that is not connected with the story line.
Educational Publishing House, one of the outstanding publishers of Urdu fiction has published Urdu classic fiction earlier, has chosen this novel to publish, and was a foolproof decision. In the Urdu language readership is a lot more than any other regional languages of India. Still if it will be translated into some other Indian languages and English too then the message will reach to different sects of readership.
If you don’t read this novel it means you are missing a big piece of entertainment and fun. It is a food for thought too.
Wednesday, June 12, 2013
Clue of the Past Fire (Atishe Rafta Ka Suragh) by Musharraf Alam Zauqi
Recently published Urdu novel Atish-e-Raftah ka Suragh (Clue of the Past fire) by Musharraf Alam Zauqi is different in several means. The main factor that makes the novel innovative, diverse and historic is he dared to zero in on those Muslim issues that born after the independence and the goriest event, the partition of the country. Definitely big changes took place in the country since it got freedom but whether the changes were really positive and constructive or negative and destructive, it is a matter of the point of view one has to look at. Zauqi, as Urdu Hindi fiction writer, the author of more than two dozen books in both the languages, takes the unfortunate events in the country including Babri Masjid demolition, Batla House encounter, and politics over these events with a different point of view. These kinds of events don’t only impact on the political situation but the social, economical, educational structures of the society also get affected.
One of the reasons, Zauqi stands out among the other contemporary fiction writers, is he does not involve himself in the story however; he creates the structure of the story with the strong characterization and the social perception of those characters.
When a myth is made in the society against a certain sect of the society it doesn’t mean that the way it appears they are real. How they are looked at, how media proliferate, how the political power desires to be looked at, they altogether makes the reality which reach to the masses and that creates ideological notion. Of course media is run by a certain power, political power is also based on certain ideology and they all work together to mess with the reality. The words change its meaning after the propaganda against the target sect. This is what happened against black people in the western countries, against the Jewish at the time of Hitler, against tribal communities in India, against sikh (turban wearing people) in many western countries and Muslims women in France. The thing that works behind all these discrimination is ‘hatred’ and prejudice against each other. The peaceful society is only possible with the propagating love and peace in the society.
The novel Atish-e-Raftah ka Suragh, is a story about a boy whose name is Osama and he was born and brought up in Batla House area. The time when he was named Osama, he was named after one of the Prophet Muhammad’s companion. At that time the name Osama bin Laden wasn’t as infamous as it is nowadays and the name was considered as a holy name. But the time Osama started going to school the word Osama lost its original dignity and took over another dress of meaning that became a symbol of international terrorism. The boy was so much tortured internally that whenever some peace-breaking events took place in India he felt insecure and closed himself in his room, even stopped talking or meeting with anyone in the society.
The novel also talks about fore-generation of Osama and the torture his fore-father received because of the partition, post partition riots and being a Muslim.
Muslims are sent to jail for no reason. Some of them have been thrown into jails for years and years only on the basis of suspicion and ten years, fifteen years or twenty years later the Honorable court says that he is not guilty he is an innocent. But the life the person passed in jail it pushes him and his generations hundred years backward in the society for no reason. Muslims have to prove their country-love to everybody still they are considered doubtful in the society. Of course all these are not happening randomly; certainly there is some force behind all these. The novel Atish-e-Raftah ka Suragh tells the story of these kinds of miss happenings and the power involved behind these incidents.
The fact is, we all know about these. Everyone, including the big powerful leaders of major political parties of India knows that Batla House encounter was fake, still what the factors are that let them be mum? Recently, news came on TV that an encounter. Government did not even let the trial of Batla House fake encounter go on in the court. The way media highlighted all these kind of matters it sounded like they are willing to say all the Muslims are terrorists.
The hi-tech young generation of Muslims does not like to be treated suspicious but the electronic Media, Police, and the communalized society is hardworking to make them infamous and doubtful in the society. But the novelist Zauqi does not think that the media or the police are responsible for these propaganda. According to him there is another power that is organized force to spread hatred in the Indian society and that is the same force who killed Gandhi and that is the same force who is busy in killing humanity endlessly. As per Zauqi RSS and it’s kind of organized terrorism is the force behind all these, be it Babri Masjid Demolition, Batla House encounter, Ishrat Jahan encounter or Gujrat bloodbath.
Art-wise, the novel is awesome. In the Urdu literature especially in the recent fiction the examples of hallucinatory realism is hardly found. When I read this novel a certain kind of dream like state welcomed me in the different world of reality, and dared to tell the truth in fiction way. The novel carries the unsaid story between the lines like cultural metamorphosis. The strong characterization is one of the qualities of this novel. When Zauqi creates a character he takes himself out of it at all and the reader feels the resemblance of the character in his real world. One of the qualities in the fiction considered by the critic is it should not contradict with the real world. In the other words a novelist creates a different parallel world that is fictitious. The success of a novel depends on how good and artistically it imitates the real world. At one place in this novel Zauqi described about the after-effects of the Dec 6 1992 in these words:
Fiza Kharaab ho gayee thi, Kashi Barood ke dher per khara tha----Anwar Pasha, Basmatia aur uss ke sharabi shohar ko le kar Ghusse mein thay---who chilla rahe thay----
‘Nikal bahar karo in hinduon ko---inn logon ne jina mushkil ker diya hai hamara----,
Rashdah sahmi hui thee---‘ye hindu kab se ho gaye--- yeh toh hamare ghar ke fard hain. (P. 469)
An amazing character Bi Amma is there as a symbol of the old feudal culture. His dialogues suit her personality exactly. In the novel she says in frustration:
Sab kia dhara Jinnah ka hai---nojj Qaid e Azam ban gaya---main kahti hoon Qaid e Azam gaya chulhe mein… Kya mila Pakistan le kar. Na wahan chain na yahan….yeh koi zindagi hai. Ye koi zindagi hai. Khassi bakri ki tarah har waqt jallad ka khauf khae rahta hai. Apna mulk to lagta hee nahi. Koi kaam admi azadi se nahi kar sakta. Har baat mein fasaad. Khatra….nojj jeena mushkil hai. Na hampakistan ja sakte hain na yahan chain…..yeh toh wahi missal hui Na khuda hi mila na wisal-e-sanam. …Jinnah ne sab chaupat kar dia….(P. 497)
Zauqi’s name stands tall in the Urdu literary world because of his novelty of style in fiction writing. Stream of consciousness is one of his kinds of style. His stories have layers of meanings, it seems like simple story telling is not his piece of cake.
One of the excellences in his novel is it has the shocking revealing after every chapters. It has the power to bring tears in any reader’s eyes. The final revealing that comes after 550 pages that is breathtaking and absolute shocking. A reader continues to read and thinks what’s coming after. These kinds of thrill give this novel a novelty. It is a good example of hallucinatory realism in contemporary Urdu fiction.
Zauqi writes about Muslim burning issues. After the grand success of his previous Muslim issue based novels Bayan, Zabah and Musalman he came up with this most relevant one. This one is the most recent of that series. Zauqi has penned out numerous outstanding novels, but Aatish-e-Raftah ka Suragh is one of the most talked novels among the Urdu literati circles.
This novel is not popular among the Urdu readers of India only but also the neighboring countries.
“I have just finished this novel and I am still lost in its magic and it’s hard to say that how long it will take me to come out of it. It wasn’t easy to write this novel. We cannot even imagine these types of novels in Pakistan. I have no idea that from where do you get the courage to write it.”
This was an instant reaction of a Pakistani scholar and critic Mr. Younus Khan after reading the novel.
The way the story has been developed, it was architected brain-fully. The story has been built up with the small pieces of puzzles. Each puzzle piece is equally important to make the plot of this novel. Each puzzle piece carries thoughtfulness, issues, artistic style, and cultural image of the society, contradiction of thought among characters, excellent story telling technique and over all readability. The novel is so tightly edited before printing that you won’t be able to find a single piece of puzzle that is not connected with the story line.
Educational Publishing House, one of the outstanding publishers of Urdu fiction has published Urdu classic fiction earlier, has chosen this novel to publish, and was a foolproof decision. In the Urdu language readership is a lot more than any other regional languages of India. Still if it will be translated into some other Indian languages and English too then the message will reach to different sects of readership.
If you don’t read this novel it means you are missing a big piece of entertainment and fun. It is a food for thought too.
Wednesday, April 03, 2013
Atishe Raftah Ka suragh an awesome novel by M.A. Zauqi
Right now I am reading an amazing story Atish-e-Raftah ka Suragh. This is the first novel I have ever read that brought tears in my eyes. Awesome Story I love Zauqi's novel. This novel talks about Batla House fake encounter, the Muslim issues after the independence of India and the various mischievous activities of RSS. great story! awesome style. fabulous way of developing story. Fantastic characterization and excellent revealing step by step. The novel is breathtaking. If you did not read it yet you are missing a big piece of literature
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