Gadaria: Ujlay Phool / گڈریا: اجلے پھول

by Ashfaq Ahmed

اشفاق احمد کے افسانے۔

Genres: Fiction

152 pages, Hardcover

Published January 1, 2010

About the author

Ashfaq Ahmed (Urdu: اشفاق احمد‎) was a writer, playwright and broadcaster from Pakistan. He authored several books in Urdu. His works included novels, short stories and plays for television and radio. He was awarded President's Pride of Performance and Sitara-i-Imtiaz for meritorious services in the field of literature and broadcasting.

After Partition, when Ahmed arrived at the Walton refugee camp with millions of other migrants, he used to make announcements on a megaphone around the clock. Later, he got a job in Radio Azad Kashmir, which was established on a truck that used to drive around in various parts of Kashmir. He then got lectureship at Dayal Singh College, Lahore for two years. Whereafter, he went to Rome to join Radio Rome as an Urdu newscaster. He also used to teach Urdu at Rome university. During his stay in Europe, he received diplomas in the Italian and French languages from the University of Rome and University of Grenoble, France. He also earned a special training diploma in radio broadcasting from New York University.

He started writing stories in his childhood, which were published in Phool [Flower] magazine. After returning to Pakistan from Europe, he took out his own monthly literary magazine, Dastaango [Story Teller], and joined Radio Pakistan as a script writer. He was made editor of the popular Urdu weekly, Lail-o-Nahar [Day and Night], in place of famous poet Sufi Ghulam Mustafa Tabassum by the Government of Pakistan.

In 1962, Ahmed started his popular radio program, Talqeen Shah [The Preacher] which made him immensely popular among the people in towns and villages.[13] He was appointed director of the Markazi Urdu Board in 1966, which was later renamed as Urdu Science Board, a post he held for 29 years. He remained with the board until 1979.

Ahmed, in his later years of life, was greatly inclined towards Sufism. His close association with Qudrat Ullah Shahab and Mumtaz Mufti was also attributed to this tendency. He used to appear in a get together with his fans in PTV program Baittakh (The Guest Room) and Zaviya (The Dimension) where he gave swift but satisfying responses to each and every question posed by the youth audience.
On 7 September 2004, Ashfaq Ahmed died of pancreatic cancer. He was laid to rest in a Model Town, Lahore.

Reviews

[Zaki · Rating 4 out of 5]

I wasn't expecting this book is going to be this engrossing. All the stories have a theme of unreciprocated love with a tinge of the horrors of partition. And yes, a good addition to the literature on partition.

[Masooma Batool · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Ujlay Phool story always make me cry like hell and it leaves a very sad impression on me1 But I love this whole book and yes Gadarya is no doubt an uncallengable art piece

[Ayesha U · Rating 4 out of 5]

Gaduriya - The Shepherd, is said to be Ashfaq Ahmed's masterpiece and I can't deny this. Again, this is an anthology of his short stories which are totally entertaining, sad and tragic at times.

What I love most about this book is that those stories were written way back in 1950s and 60s and it feels good to read about things that don't exist in our lives anymore such as, telegram etc.

[Gohar Khokhar · Rating 4 out of 5]

Collection of short stories and all of them are captivating.

[Asma Qazi · Rating 5 out of 5]

ایک شاہکار افسانہ۔۔۔

[Muhammad Soomro · Rating 4 out of 5]

محلے میں ایک نئی کتابوں کی دکان کھلی تو میں بسم اللہ پڑھ کر اس ارادے کے ساتھ اندر چل دیا کہ صرف دیکھ لوں کہ کیسی کتب ہیں. جب 
سارا کتب خانہ گھوم چکا تو اشفاق احمد صاحب کی کتاب گڈریا خریدنے کا فیصلہ ہوا. گڈریا اشفاق احمد صاحب کے پانچ افسانوں کا مجموعہ ہے. پہلا افسانہ گڈریا نام کا ہے. تقسیمِ ہندوستان سے پہلے کے دور کی دیہی زندگی کی عکاسی کرتا ہے. اور تقسیم ہندوستان کے سبب ہونے والے فسادات نے عام غیر سیاسی اور شریف لوگوں کی زندگیوں پر کیا اثرات مرتب کیے اسکو بخوبی قارئین کے لیے واضح کرتا ہے. یہ افسانہ مجھے اتنا پسند آیا کہ میں دنیا و ما فیہا سے لا تعلق ہوکر اسکے مطالعہ میں غرق ہو گیا. ہوش تب آیا جب افسانہ اپنے اختتام کو پہنچا اسی کتاب میں شامل دیگر افسانے بھی بہت پسند آئے لیکن وہ گڈریا کے معیار پر پورے نہیں اترتے. امید ہے کہ انکی دیگر کتابوں کے مطالعے کا موقع جلد از جلد حاصل ہو گا. ایک چیز جو میرے لئے پریشانی کا سبب بنی وہ ان کے مشکل الفاظ تھے لیکن اس کے علاوہ کوئی بات قابل اعتراض نہیں اس میں بھی مصنف کی کوئی غلطی نہیں بلکہ میری اپنی کوتاہی ہے

[Manalzu · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ashfaq ahmad’s gadriyaa is considered to one of his masterpieces and i must say it was a nice smooth read for me. Captivating short stories, the sublime endings and the rich urdu texture- this took me back to the times when we were hooked to the short stories jn magazines and books in our early teens.

[Farjad · Rating 4 out of 5]

The title of the book is actually the crown for this collection of short stories.
Gadaria is a pre partition story based on the relationship of teacher and student. The atmosphere it creates just engulf you immediately.
Other stories like tinka, ujle phool, barka are master pieces in their own genre.

[Ayesha Tahir · Rating 5 out of 5]

if there is something called as 'a literature fulfilled' or 'a complete literature' then here is gadaria... it is basically a compilation of short stories but most captivating one is this very "gadaria" (shepherd)... no reader would deny its beauty...

[Hameeda · Rating 4 out of 5]

I liked his Zavia books more than these short stories. I think I am more of a Baba Saheban person.

[Aayaz Khalil · Rating 4 out of 5]

Aweome book

[Huzaifa Riaz · Rating 5 out of 5]

It's just a masterpiece. A collection of superb short stories that reflect on many issues. Whenever I read the stories like ujlay phool(a story in this book) it made me cry. Such an accurate piece of writing 💯

[Wahhaj Zaheer · Rating 5 out of 5]

I felt the most pain for Ujlay phool and Ghadriya. For one moment, i had this feeling to somehow rewrite them but then i realized, i wanna do this in conformity to our film's so called "Happy Ending Culture" cause in reality endings are not used to be happy.

[Aiman Sabir · Rating 5 out of 5]

If I could go back in time, I'd dearly love to meet Ashfaq Ahmed and kiss his blessed hands, the magnificence of which produced such exuberant masterpieces.
Will always be Indebted to baba g's wisdom.⭐

[Sabby · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ashfaq Ahmed, such a joy

[Ahmed since 1998 · Rating 4 out of 5]

Should read billay toshay

[Zubaa Abdulkhaliq · Rating 2 out of 5]

It's a collection of somewhat short stories. In my opinion, some stories really needed an explanation for the endings weren't that much clear.

[Muhammad Tanzeel · Rating 2 out of 5]

m.tanzeelanjum@gmail.com

[Saad · Rating 4 out of 5]

Mystical short stories but also depressing. The end of the story name: 'Gadaria' was heart breaking. But was a lovelyreading.

[Faqir Hussain · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ashfaq Ahmed, a great man. He wrote, directed, and performed very well. May Allah bless him in the hereafter. Aameen.

[Amjad Hussain]

Good book with 9 short stories

[Rida Rehman · Rating 5 out of 5]

It has been a long while since I read a book in Urdu. This book has been an introduction for me to Ashfaq Ahmed. It was such a pleasure to read these short stories. I enjoyed all of them.

Some short stories has Rabindranath Tagore feels about them because they talked about things that you don't see anymore, such as travelling by ship to go overseas, telegrams, partition and so on.

Overall, these are amazing, with solid depiction of what happens in real life. They have elements of coming-of-age. But at the same time they show that tragedy strucks but life goes on.

Highly recommended to urdu literature lovers!

[Lisa]

Not available in English (yet?)

[Moazzam Shoukat]

Gold class writings.