KARACHI: Literary gatherings are usually composed of lengthy, sometimes, pedantic speeches. Not this one. London-based short story writer and novelist Aamer Hussein sat down with Dr Fatima Hassan, Dr Asif Farrukhi and Prof Sahar Ansari at the Arts Council on Tuesday to chit-chat about his life and work.

In her introduction to the author, Dr Hassan told the attendees, some of whom weren’t paying enough attention, that Aamer’s writings had a dream-like atmosphere.

Dr Farrukhi said his friendship with Aamer went back 20 years. “He’s not only a writer of high merit but keeps himself abreast of the literatures written in other languages (Italian, English and French etc).” He said one of the first stories of Aamer that he read was ‘Mirror to the sun’ in which he’d talked about Karachi in a poetic way. The author pleasantly surprised him when he started writing in Urdu. So far, four of his Urdu stories had been published and one, ‘37 pul’, would be out soon.

Aamer said he began reading Urdu short stories in the 1990s and particularly loved one by Khalida Hussain. At that point Prof Ansari reminded Aamer that it was Qurutulain Hyder who had asked him to write in Urdu. Aamer agreed but informed him that he, despite having known Qurutulain for a long time, hadn’t read her books. It’s after he had become acquainted with Urdu literature that he went through a couple of her stories and fell in love with them. He said people often disregarded her English writings, but they were of no less worth.

Speaking further on Qurutulain’s impact on him, Aamer said he was particularly influenced by her story ‘Aakhir-i-Shab Ke Humsafar’ and remarked that she had a vast knowledge of history.

Dr Hassan interjected at that juncture and said Aamer ended his Urdu stories with a poetic touch. To prove her argument, she read out a small piece from one of his stories.

Dr Farrukhi turned the discussion to Aamer’s novels The Cloud Messenger and Another Gulmohar Tree, especially the latter in which the characters came across as familiar to the Urdu reader. Aamer said he wouldn’t like to call it a novel; it’s a long story or novella. He agreed that the protagonist in the book had resemblance to Urdu short story writer Ghulam Abbas and his wife. He reckoned Abbas was one of the leading writers in Urdu fiction.

Dr Farrukhi then switched the conversation to the city of Karachi where the writer was born. Aamer went down memory lane and said he was born in Bath Island, Clifton, but remembered most his early years, when he was four or five years old, that he spent in PECHS. He, however, made it clear that he liked visiting today’s Karachi and was fond of its sea.

Aamer said since he had learnt English at an early age and he was more proficient in the language, but he had to work hard on his Urdu — being well-versed in Persian helped him a great deal with Urdu.

When the floor was opened for a question-answer session the first question that was put to the writer was ‘what inspires you to write’. Aamer said the answer was simple: dukh (pain or misery). Not just his own dukh, but other people’s as well, he clarified. In response to the question on his writings containing social messages, he said he didn’t consciously write on social issues. It was the job of a journalist or essayist.

Summing up the discussion, Prof Ansari said the programme helped the audience know Aamer better and recalled that once he asked iconic artist Sadequain that why his men weren’t properly clothed, to which he had replied “I create the universal man”. And Aamer’s stories had the same universal reach.

Published in Dawn, February 11th, 2015

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