KARACHI: Book lovers heard some impassioned speeches at the launch of a book titled Kab mehke gi fasl-i-gul by Anis Haroon at the 7th Karachi Literature Festival on Sunday afternoon. The book is Ms Haroon’s memoirs.

Mehtab Akbar Rashdi moderated the launch. She asked Dr Syed Jaffer Ahmed, whose department has published the book, about the disclaimer that the publisher did not necessarily reflect the author’s thoughts. In response Dr Ahmed said what’s important for him was Ms Haroon’s contribution to society. He said she was part of many social and political movements. He said history was not about the history of royal courts, but it was about the people, because people’s history told us what was happening in society. He said his department always wanted to publish memoirs of individuals who had made a significant contribution to society’s growth, and when Ms Haroon was approached for the purpose she was so cooperative that she did not ask for interviews to be conducted and wrote the first draft of the book. He said while disclaimers were important so that his publishing house was not shut down, and reasoned he wouldn’t have published the book if he hadn’t agreed to Ms Haroon’s thoughts.

Ms Rashdi then turned her attention to poetess Azra Abbas seeking her opinion on the book. Ms Abbas, in her typical candid way of expressing herself, said she usually put books aside when she received them. But when she started reading Ms Haroon’s book it amazed her, because the questions (such as the one in the title) that she’d raised in it were very important. She said the author had written in a very blunt and honest way, and said she (Ms Abbas) had the ability to recognise a kharra piece of writing.

The query that Ms Rashdi put to Amar Sindhu was about the role of non-governmental organisations. Before answering that Ms Sindhu said the book had made her go down memory lane which was why she didn’t know where to begin it. She said it was not a book written by a woman, but a book that entailed the history of a struggle, of a movement. She said it was people like Ms Haroon who showed her the path of struggle. She said she saluted her for doing so. She lauded the role of the Women’s Action Forum, which in the dark times of Gen Ziaul Haq’s rule resisted the powers that be.

Finally Ms Rashdi asked Ms Haroon to speak. Ms Haroon said she never felt despondent in her life because if one activism door was closed on you, there were others which could be opened. If you lost hope and resigned yourself to fate, you wouldn’t be able to see a path. Talking about the factors that contributed to her personality, she said they included family values, her own disposition and the environment she grew up in where she saw people like Hamza Alavi, Faiz, Karrar Husain etc.

Ms Haroon said she belonged to the 1960s generation. At the time, she said, there were all kinds of movements taking place in the world. That too contributed to her learning, she said. She said the one who saw dreams was the one who changed the world. She said it was the dreamers who took the world forward. She said even in very trying times, when her hero Z. A. Bhutto was executed, she had the hope that afterwards things would improve. She said to date her belief was alive. Referring to a review of her book by Zubeida Mustafa, she said new flowers would bloom in the garden.

Published in Dawn, February 8th, 2016