POETRY and fiction are two forms of literary expression that are essentially different from one another. So we have in our literary world two kinds of writers: poets and fiction writers, easily distinguishable from each other. Of course, there is no law prohibiting a poet from turning to story writing or a story writer from turning to verse wielding. But, in general, each of them sticks to his own form of expression. If we ever see a poet taking interest in story writing or a story writer in composing verse, we treat it as an exceptional case. But in recent years we have seen such instances coming so rapidly one after the other that one cannot treat them as exceptional cases.
In fact, it was on receiving a collection of short stories by Shabnam Shakeel, entitled Na Qafas Na Ashiana, that I grew conscious of a newly developed situation in our contemporary literature. I recalled that most of the collections of short stories I have received in recent years are the works of female poets of our times. It appeared to me a strange phenomenon. Why is it that the female poets, in particular, are seen one after another turning to story writing in addition to their verse writing? Has something gone wrong with them in respect of their poetry? Has the medium of verse failed to satisfy their urge to express? Or is it that they feel that much of what they want to say has remained unsaid because of the limitations of verse as a medium of expression?
It will be interesting to note that the female’s is a late entry into Urdu poetry. The female writers had made their mark in the field of fiction. For a long period they were content to express themselves in the genres of short story and novel. Poetry was, in general, considered a male business. Even the female writers coming in the wake of the Progressive Writers Movement were all short story writers. It was only during the ’40s that a solitary female started emerging as a poet. She was Ada Badayuni, later known as Ada Jafri, whose first collection of verse Main Saz Dhoondti Rahi appeared in 1950. And now was the time for the meteoric rise of Zehra Nigah. But soon after she became a known entity, she vanished from the literary scene for long years.
It was only during the ’60s that a group of female writers was seen asserting themselves in the field of poetry. Most prominent among them were Kishwer Naheed and Fahmida Riaz. But in those years they all appeared perfectly satisfied with their poetic medium with no inclination towards fiction.
I think Fahmida Riaz is partly responsible for this growing tendency towards fiction writing among her female contemporaries. That impatient soul was the first to make a departure for a while from her verse, and tried her hand at prose writing. She wrote a long travelogue and then began writing short stories. We already have a collection of short stories from her.
She was soon followed by Fatma Hasan who was known as a poetess with some fine poems to her credit. But one fine morning she felt that she was destined to be a short story writer with equal merit. She wrote a host of fine little short stories and hurriedly brought out their collection.
Now Shabnam Shakeel is seen heading the same way. After earning a name in the field of poetry, she has decided to try her luck in the realm of short story. She has touched in her stories some irreconcilable social situations giving rise to social and psychological complications. She has depicted them realistically well. But how will we evaluate these stories in relation to her poetry? Should they be read as an appendix to her poetic works? Perhaps not. Fiction, even when written by poets, has a flavour of its own very different from that of poetry. One thing more: story writing does not deserve to be treated just as a side activity. In case a story has been written by a poet, it should not give the impression that it has been written just for the sake of a change.
Fahmida Riaz appears to have taken this form in a more serious way. That is what has helped her to emerge as a story writer distinct from the poet that she is. Her recent story Qaflay Parandon Ke is an evidence of the fact that she was not content with the mode of expression employed in her earlier stories. Her serious engagement in this form of expression has suggested to her a different way to write her story. As she herself has revealed that she drew inspiration from the famous masnavi of Fariduddin Attar and has tried to write the story of 30 birds embarked on a journey of search for Simurgh in her own way. By incorporating contemporary references into the story, she seems to be saying that it is not the same old tale told by Attar. Rather, it is the tale retold in the perspective of our own times.
POETRY and fiction are two forms of literary expression that are essentially different from one another. So we have in our literary world two kinds of writers: poets and fiction writers, easily distinguishable from each other. Of course, there is no law prohibiting a poet from turning to story writing or a story writer from turning to verse wielding. But, in general, each of them sticks to his own form of expression. If we ever see a poet taking interest in story writing or a story writer in composing verse, we treat it as an exceptional case. But in recent years we have seen such instances coming so rapidly one after the other that one cannot treat them as exceptional cases.
