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Time Out: Stories from Punjab
edited by Jasjit Mansingh;
Srishti, New Delhi; Pages 268. Rs 195.
 The 18 stories
included in this collection represent some of the most widely
known names in modern Punjabi literature. The fact the all
storiesm, except one, have not so far been translated into
English will be of added interest to the English reading public.
The stories
have been divided into three groups, each representing a
different aspect of life of the people of Punjab who have gone
through various historical ups and downs, largely because of its
geographical position in the sub-continent. The writers who
belong to different political ideologies give a glimpse of the
character of Punjab’s hardy people as they face the
vicissitudes of troubled times.
The theme of
Shakti runs through the first section while the second section
portrays the wounds inflicted on the soul of Punjab, whether
during the Partition of 1947, or in the decade of terrorism.
Pakistani writer Tauriq Chugtai, in Who did they murder? talks
of sanity in a world gone mad with hate. Baldev Singh, in Her
last cries recalls the insanity of the Partition days and
the life of a Muslim girl who spends all her life as a Sikh,
raises a devout Sikh family, and yet is unable to forget her
roots. You see the power of a woman’s passionate love in K.S.
Duggal’s The Tantrik’s promise. Ajeet Cour’s November
1984 is an indictment of man turned beast in a society
ridden with corruption, but her second story, On vacation, carries
a message of hope.
The collection
gives to English readers a glimpse of the rich treasure of
Punjabi literature.
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I Still
Remember a Small Town in Punjab
by O.P. Narula; Srishti,
New Delhi;
Pages 140. Rs 125.
 Like thousands
of others, O.P. Narula became homeless in 1947 when the country
was partitioned. And like all those thousands of others, Narula
could not forget the place he had grown up in and its landscape.
The small town of Daska in Sialkot district and the village of
Kundan Sian remained permanently etched in his memory and always
rang a nostalgic bell in his mind.
In this book,
Narula, a product of the Punjab College of Engineering and
Technology (PCET), better known as McLlagan College, recounts
life in a small town of pre-Partition Punjab and the pangs of a
compact society torn asunder by a stroke of history. He records
their loves and hates, affections and rivalries and their way of
life, simple and ignorant of all modern sophistication.
Partition of the country altered the lifestyle of a whole
generation beyond recognition. Many of them crossed over to
India but there were many who not so lucky. Some rebuilt their
lives in the new environment while some were not able to break
away from the past. That generation of readers, which must have
by now been reduced to small group of senior citizens, will
relish reading Narula’s narrative. But even the post-Partition
generation will find the description of a lost culture
absorbing.
After recording
the impressions of his young days, the author describes a visit
to the old sites of Daska after 50 years and finds all the
mental images he had conjured up about the landmarks that
existed there in his childhood shattered. The march of time had
obliterated everything that he had hoped to see.
However, the author would have
done well by resorting to first person narration. The use of the
acronym ‘Opana’, made up of his initials, takes away some of
the beauty of the narration which is absorbing, and at the same
time, authentic.
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THE
mention of Urdu literature brings to mind Urdu poetry,
particularly the ghazal, and names like Mir, Ghalib, Zauk,
Jigar, Josh, Faiz and many others flash across the mind. Urdu
prose, particularly Urdu short story, developed mainly by the
turn of the 20th century. Munshi Prem Chand who started
writing in Urdu but later switched to Hindi (then his works
were published in both the languages) can easily be called the
pioneer of Urdu short story. This volume contains 12 stories,
starting with Munshi Prem Chand and reaching the modern times
of Manto, Ismat Chugtai, Qurratulain Haider and Mansha Yad,
and can be described as a fair sample of Urdu prose,
reflecting different aspects of life spanning the past
century. The collection covers more than 50 years of Urdu
literary effort and charts the journey of the Urdu short story
through the years that have greatly influenced its growth.
