KARACHI: Rajinder Singh Bedi’s short stories were characterised by coarse language spoken in villages. The concerns of women belonging to the lower-middle class were the central theme in Ismat Chughtai’s stories. These views were expressed by academics and writers at the Rajinder Singh Bedi and Ismat Chughtai Centennial Conference organised by the Anjuman Taraqqi Pasand Musannifeen at the Arts Council on Sunday.

Prof Shahid Kamal and Dr Qazi Abid focused on Bedi’s works such as Lajwanti, Ek Chadar Maili Si, and Grehan. “Bedi beautifully depicts the psychological turmoil of his characters who are ordinary people with positive and negative aspects,” said Prof Kamal.

For Dr Abid, Bedi’s stories were remarkable for the multiplicity of themes and artistry of language. “The first collection of his short stories focuses on social evils but it is not written in a heavy-handed manner. For instance, Garam Coat is about sacrifice and written in a nuanced tone,” he said.

About the usage of unsophisticated language in his stories, Dr Abid said it was unfair of critics to say this since it seems the stories are being judged according to the ornate and sophisticated language of ghazals.

Rasheed Misbah compared Bedi’s and Manto’s approach to short stories through an exchange of letters between them. Manto wrote to Bedi: “You think before you pen a story, you think while you are writing it and you think after you have finished writing it.” And Bedi replied that Manto did the exact opposite.

‘Bombay, Barish aur Bedi’ was the topic of poet Ahmed Salim’s paper which was arguably the most engaging essay of the session. The poet met the writer one rainy evening at his home in Bombay. By then he was quite unwell and had not been writing but he was ready to discuss everything under the sun with his guest. Bedi was unhappy about the screenplay of the film Mirza Ghalib because he felt the producer had messed up the opening and ending. Regarding the survival of Urdu in India, he was dismissive of efforts to popularise it in the Devanagari script.

Another interesting essay on Bedi was read by Mazhar Jameel who provided insight into Bedi’s early life, career and literary influences.

Prof Sahar Ansari, who presided the session, said Bedi was well-versed in Russian and Western classics along with Eastern literature which inspired him to write such brilliant and creative stories.

The second session focused on Ismat Chughtai in which most of the papers focused on her feminism and her popular works such as Lihaf, Terhi Lakeer, Chauthi ka Jora and Chui Mui.

For Baloch writer Muneer Badini, Chughtai inspired him to become a short story writer. “I was quite impressed by Lihaf. I thought it was remarkable for an Indian Muslim woman to have written such a story.” Even though she came from a privileged background, her stories revolve around the problems of lower-middle class women, he added.

Others who read their papers on Chughtai included Zahida Hina, Zebunnisa Zaibi and Dr Jamal Naqvi.

Published in Dawn, November 30th, 2015