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November 14, 2004
REVIEWS: Writer personified
Nisar Aziz Butt is a unique writer who has made the Urdu novel her forte in an age where very few good novels are published. I remember reading Nai Chiraghe Nai Gulay at the recommendation of Dr Ahsan Farooqi who was always on the lookout for good novels. She remains one of the handful of serious novel writers, concerned with “the fiction of ideas”. Her latest book appearing after a gap of several years is not a novel but an autobiography.
She makes use of the same skills that she always has, of a powerful sweeping narrative and individualized characters, which make her novels noteworthy. Born in a Pathan family before partition, Nisar Aziz spent her early years in the towns of the Frontier. She evokes family life and the values of the clan through the eyes of a young sensitive girl, who has lost her mother. She churns out some fine writing in describing her childhood and early student days and has remarkably recaptured her past, with the inner feeling that being born a girl in that part of the world means being “one of the most deprived among the deprived”. I can recall no other book which conveys this sense with such dispassionate honesty as this book has managed to do.
Her book is a testament of her courage as she struggles against disease and a brooding sense of loneliness to study mathematics and realize her cherished dream of becoming a writer. This is perhaps the most detailed record that any other Urdu writer has left of their personal life and events.
The book, however, becomes a drag as it proceeds. A chilling life, W.H Auden once wrote, will give you all the facts. My real issue with this book is that it does the same. In a discourse of a daily diary, the author has stuffed in too many details, being in the form of a daily litany of things and events, people met and bits recorded. As the author does not necessarily have to fall back on the resource of his or her memory, she ends up by not being rigorous in her selection.
For instance she recalls the polka dot dress she wore and the dishes she had for dinner decades ago. She records the family drama, the search for suitable marriage partners for children, weddings, episodes of illness and journeys. The author does not leave room for readers to absorb and reflect. Human memory, unreliable and frail as it is, may highlight a detail printed in the inner eye while mercilessly leaves out the rest.
There are certain episodes which stand out. For instance, the author’s recollections of her father and grandfather. She has drawn upon their writings to describe the circumstances of their lives. In another episode, we see the author as a young woman at the start of her career when she meets the stalwart Aziz Ahmed. She is not intimidated by the senior writer’s position and confidently holds out on her own, which she has delightfully written about. Another memorable encounter is with Mumtaz Shirin and the book paints a memorable portrait of this writer, who was slowly withering and dying. Throughout the book, there are glimpses of her brother Sartaj Aziz, Majeed Nizami, Hajra Masroor and Qurratulain Hyder. The more focussed chapters, such as the one on Mumtaz Shirin, indicate that she is at her best when she is actually recounting rather than recording. One wishes that there was more of this in her otherwise remarkable book, which deserves to be read and cherished if the reader is not scared away by the sheer bulk of accumulated detail.
Gaye Dinon Ka Suragh
By Nisar Aziz Butt
Sang-e-Meel Publications,
25 Shahrah-i-Pakistan, Lahore
Tel: 042-7220100
Email:
smp@sang-e-meel.com
ISBN 969-35-1634-6
712pp. Rs900
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