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Shehr-e-afsoos
Urdu afsanay / short stories by Intizar Hussain.
232 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1972
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March 24, 2021
Shehr-e-Afsos is a 1977 collection of seventeenth short stories and one essay from Intizar Hussain. It offers the more abstract, symbolic and experimental forms that he explored in his career in comparison with more traditional modes steeped in memory, reminiscences, religious history, lore, legends and epic stories.
For me the standout story is 'Kata Hua Dabba' which is a subtle narrative about old men exchanging tales and one of them not being able to tell his; which is about an impression really of a girl glimpsed on a train journey long ago. An experience truncated by sudden parting of ways during the journey and hence a possibility never explored, a person never met with, and a road never taken. It is a wonderful and wistful exploration of aging, memory, nostalgia, the romance and adventure of old fashioned voyages, and regret about what could have been. I really liked this story and it appears that was important to the writer as well as in the last piece of the anthology called 'Kahani ki Kahani' Intizar Hussain engagingly discusses the inspiration and thought behind writing 'Kata Hua Dabba.'
Many of the stories are about loss of a sense of direction, a displaced people, civilizational decline, cultural subjugation, and a heightened sense of continuing injustice and persecution faced as a people with various references to contemporary Islamic history, colonialism, imperialism and zionism. The opening story 'Woh jo Khoyay' describing in an abstract manner the desperate wanderings of a group of disparate lamenting individuals is a primary example. As the story unfolds both the distinctness of their backgrounds as well as the commonality of their torment becomes clearer. They never have a clear idea even of their number and who joined when - evidencing the bewilderment that they face given the enormity of what they have encountered.
'Doosra Rasta' is also quite similar in some ways though here it describes a group of passengers in a double decker bus, mutually suspicious, and eventually waylaid by rioters and forces of chaos in an urban setting. The directionless, sinister anonymity and uncertainty of modern urban life in an unstable part of the world is poignantly captured here. Certain conversations such as those on things being far less dearer in past times as well as the piety and frugality of early Islamic luminaries are recur verbatim in some of these stories. ''Apni Aag ki Taraf' again underlines the anonymity, non-cohesiveness and absence of sense of community in modern urban existence against the backdrop of a fire in a residential building - a fire real as well as symbolically open to multiple interpretations. This narrative is again juxtaposed with miracles and myth of the past - of times when greater and remarkable things were possible. The fire here is also the larger fire of political and economic uncertainty.
As in 'Woh jo Khoyay,' Palestine and the persecution of Palestinians looms large in 'Sharm ul Haram.' And also in 'Kana Dajal' which is full of religious references, apocalyptic elements and descriptions of signs and the times of the Anti-Christ. In contestation are the devoutness and faith of the traditional and the skepticism and doubt of youth. The same contestation is also on evidence in 'Bigri Ghari; raising debates about whether fate determines our future or our own intent and volition and whether religion provides the big answers or science. 'Doosra Gunah' powerfully depicts the decline and fall of an earlier civilization whose leaders fall into the trap of luxurious existence which then leads to inequities, avarice, strife, wider emulation of ultimately degenerative practices, disintegration and adverse times. The diction here is particularly evocative with a scriptural fee to it and reminds one of Intizar Hussain's great story 'Aakhri Aadmi.' It has Intizar Hussain's characteristic strengths of mastery over a variety of traditional diction and historical and literary references.
The sense of alienation and doubt in sprawling urban centers is also depicted in 'Maskook Log." The characters in such stories, however, appear to be rather like placeholders and the entire emphasis is on a style of dialogue very similar to what one finds in the latter half of Intizar Hussain's novel Basti. Everyone doubts everyone, including themselves, as all reference points of authenticity get weaker. 'Woh our Mein' is a very similar story about a culture and milieu of faithlessness and mutual doubt that leads to deep self-doubt and lack of recognition of one's own self. 'Lamba Qissa' is also characterized by a melancholic purposelessness of modern times. 'Andhi Gali' again symbolizes loss of home and heritage, alienation, the challenges of developing new national and religious identities, going back, and the impossibility of recapturing the lost past. The titular story 'Shehr-e-Afsos' explores the same themes but here we also find a tremendous lament of the violence and victimization of societies that fragment and fall asunder; where old norms and relationships breakdown, innocence dies, and the most vulnerable - especially women - suffer the most at the hands of those that the crisis transforms from ordinary people into monsters. Such cruelty and degeneration turns cities into cities of lament or Shehar-e-afsos. Cities where the distinction between the living, the dead and the undead vanishes.
'Dehleez' is a symbolic story with an element of the sinister and mysterious. An unkempt storage room is inhabited by something which sounds reptilian but perhaps epitomizes a primeval fear or guilt and which the superstitious household elders are intent on avoiding but never consider exterminating, even as it exists amongst them. This is perhaps the most enigmatic story in the collection. The notion of living in the end days, miracles that refuse to happen any more, dark dreams and their interpretation, pain of migration from an ancestral land, and collective deeds leading to cataclysmic times figure prominently in 'Seerhian.' A half-mythical snake is present here as well as in 'Dehleez.' Shia rituals of mourning, devotional practices and religious symbolism is prominent here as well as in the story 'Murda Rakh' which mourns the decline of genuine religious zeal and avarice and how that leads to a death of the spirit and the soul and a time of misfortune. Both these stories are steeped in a deep sense of religious and cultural identity, heritage and a collective lived experience that faces challenges in modernity. They carry the mood of an impassioned devotional journey.
'Woh Jo Deewar Ko Na Chaat Sakay' is an interesting take on the story of Gog and Magog and the Wall of Alexander that they are licking to destroy in an endeavor which they always fall short of by sundown, in which they face inner turmoil.
Contemporary alienation, modernity & tradition, power of faith & lore, civilizational sense of loss, apocalypse, miracles, primeval fears, violent fragmentation of societies, the realm of memory, and the irrecoverable past - a rich menu indeed.
For me the standout story is 'Kata Hua Dabba' which is a subtle narrative about old men exchanging tales and one of them not being able to tell his; which is about an impression really of a girl glimpsed on a train journey long ago. An experience truncated by sudden parting of ways during the journey and hence a possibility never explored, a person never met with, and a road never taken. It is a wonderful and wistful exploration of aging, memory, nostalgia, the romance and adventure of old fashioned voyages, and regret about what could have been. I really liked this story and it appears that was important to the writer as well as in the last piece of the anthology called 'Kahani ki Kahani' Intizar Hussain engagingly discusses the inspiration and thought behind writing 'Kata Hua Dabba.'
Many of the stories are about loss of a sense of direction, a displaced people, civilizational decline, cultural subjugation, and a heightened sense of continuing injustice and persecution faced as a people with various references to contemporary Islamic history, colonialism, imperialism and zionism. The opening story 'Woh jo Khoyay' describing in an abstract manner the desperate wanderings of a group of disparate lamenting individuals is a primary example. As the story unfolds both the distinctness of their backgrounds as well as the commonality of their torment becomes clearer. They never have a clear idea even of their number and who joined when - evidencing the bewilderment that they face given the enormity of what they have encountered.
'Doosra Rasta' is also quite similar in some ways though here it describes a group of passengers in a double decker bus, mutually suspicious, and eventually waylaid by rioters and forces of chaos in an urban setting. The directionless, sinister anonymity and uncertainty of modern urban life in an unstable part of the world is poignantly captured here. Certain conversations such as those on things being far less dearer in past times as well as the piety and frugality of early Islamic luminaries are recur verbatim in some of these stories. ''Apni Aag ki Taraf' again underlines the anonymity, non-cohesiveness and absence of sense of community in modern urban existence against the backdrop of a fire in a residential building - a fire real as well as symbolically open to multiple interpretations. This narrative is again juxtaposed with miracles and myth of the past - of times when greater and remarkable things were possible. The fire here is also the larger fire of political and economic uncertainty.
As in 'Woh jo Khoyay,' Palestine and the persecution of Palestinians looms large in 'Sharm ul Haram.' And also in 'Kana Dajal' which is full of religious references, apocalyptic elements and descriptions of signs and the times of the Anti-Christ. In contestation are the devoutness and faith of the traditional and the skepticism and doubt of youth. The same contestation is also on evidence in 'Bigri Ghari; raising debates about whether fate determines our future or our own intent and volition and whether religion provides the big answers or science. 'Doosra Gunah' powerfully depicts the decline and fall of an earlier civilization whose leaders fall into the trap of luxurious existence which then leads to inequities, avarice, strife, wider emulation of ultimately degenerative practices, disintegration and adverse times. The diction here is particularly evocative with a scriptural fee to it and reminds one of Intizar Hussain's great story 'Aakhri Aadmi.' It has Intizar Hussain's characteristic strengths of mastery over a variety of traditional diction and historical and literary references.
The sense of alienation and doubt in sprawling urban centers is also depicted in 'Maskook Log." The characters in such stories, however, appear to be rather like placeholders and the entire emphasis is on a style of dialogue very similar to what one finds in the latter half of Intizar Hussain's novel Basti. Everyone doubts everyone, including themselves, as all reference points of authenticity get weaker. 'Woh our Mein' is a very similar story about a culture and milieu of faithlessness and mutual doubt that leads to deep self-doubt and lack of recognition of one's own self. 'Lamba Qissa' is also characterized by a melancholic purposelessness of modern times. 'Andhi Gali' again symbolizes loss of home and heritage, alienation, the challenges of developing new national and religious identities, going back, and the impossibility of recapturing the lost past. The titular story 'Shehr-e-Afsos' explores the same themes but here we also find a tremendous lament of the violence and victimization of societies that fragment and fall asunder; where old norms and relationships breakdown, innocence dies, and the most vulnerable - especially women - suffer the most at the hands of those that the crisis transforms from ordinary people into monsters. Such cruelty and degeneration turns cities into cities of lament or Shehar-e-afsos. Cities where the distinction between the living, the dead and the undead vanishes.
'Dehleez' is a symbolic story with an element of the sinister and mysterious. An unkempt storage room is inhabited by something which sounds reptilian but perhaps epitomizes a primeval fear or guilt and which the superstitious household elders are intent on avoiding but never consider exterminating, even as it exists amongst them. This is perhaps the most enigmatic story in the collection. The notion of living in the end days, miracles that refuse to happen any more, dark dreams and their interpretation, pain of migration from an ancestral land, and collective deeds leading to cataclysmic times figure prominently in 'Seerhian.' A half-mythical snake is present here as well as in 'Dehleez.' Shia rituals of mourning, devotional practices and religious symbolism is prominent here as well as in the story 'Murda Rakh' which mourns the decline of genuine religious zeal and avarice and how that leads to a death of the spirit and the soul and a time of misfortune. Both these stories are steeped in a deep sense of religious and cultural identity, heritage and a collective lived experience that faces challenges in modernity. They carry the mood of an impassioned devotional journey.
'Woh Jo Deewar Ko Na Chaat Sakay' is an interesting take on the story of Gog and Magog and the Wall of Alexander that they are licking to destroy in an endeavor which they always fall short of by sundown, in which they face inner turmoil.
Contemporary alienation, modernity & tradition, power of faith & lore, civilizational sense of loss, apocalypse, miracles, primeval fears, violent fragmentation of societies, the realm of memory, and the irrecoverable past - a rich menu indeed.
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