OXFORD University Press (OUP) has published a collection of Naiyer Masud`s selected short stories under the title Intikhabe-Naiyer Masud. This volume forms part of the Urdu Afsanay series that OUP recently launched; the writer and academic, Asif Farrukhi, is the compiler and translator of this series.

Masud is primarily known to us as a scholar of Urdu language and literature with a number of researchworks to his credit. His father Syed Masud Hasan Rizvi Adeeb is known as a distinguished scholar of Urdu. This ancestral kinship added an additional charm to his scholarship.

But ultimately he was destined to acquire a different kind of reputation; the reputation of being a short-story writer with a peculiar stylethat has no parallel in Urdu.

His first collection of short stories, Seemiya, came out in 1984. Hitherto he was known as a researcher with particular focus on Rajab Ali Baig Suroor and Mir Anis, but Seemiya was a big departure from his scholarly engagements. After six years he came out with his second collection of short stories titled Itr-e-Kafur, which was published in 1990. With the publication of this collection he became known as a short-storywriter with a specific vision.

Two collections were published after this Ta`us Chaman Ki Magna in 1997, and Ganjefa in 2008.

His scholarly activities on his favourite subject of the Urdu marsiya continued.

His volumes Marsiya Khawani Ka Funn, Bazm-eAnis, and Mir Anis came out in 1989, 1990, and 2011,respectively. But now these engagements had been relegated to secondary position.

He was now known more in the literary world while his books on marsiyas and marsiya writers were upheld exclusively in the circles of Urdu scholars, and in those circles where the marsiya is held in high esteem. He remained equally relevant and popular in academic circles.

His short stories were then also translated into English. The first collection translated and compiled by Muhammad Umar Memon was published as Essence of Camphor. The other collection of his selected stories was published under the title Snake Catcher. Masud had made his appearance in the 1980s, but by then the Urdu short story had already taken a new turn away from realism, which had flourished during the 1930s, 40s, and mid-50s.

Soon after that a new mode of expression emerged in the realm of our short story.

It was called symbolism.

He was now known more in the literary world while his books on marsiyas and marsiya writers were upheld exclusively in the circles of Urdu scholars, and in those circles where the marsiya is held in high esteem. He remained equally relevant and popular in academic circles.

But soon poetic prose took hold in the name of symbolism, and authors writing in this form rejected realism outright and chose abstraction instead.

As opposed to these symbolists, Masud rejected poetic prose saying that prose has its own force, why not rely on it? Masud is right,but if a writer has not refined his prose, he is compelled to turn to a poetic way of expression. Masud had not rejected realism. Instead, he continued recording minor details of daily life. As a consequence, we find his narrative carrying a vague senseof some mystery, which seemed to suggest some symbolic meaning.

This volume includes a critical article by Suhail Ahmad Khan who discussed Masud`s method of writing in detail. Nayyer, according to him, has borrowed hismethod from Kafka. And in respect of Kafka he has quoted Ashari sahib saying that Kafka`s main concern is the essence of truthfulness but he achieves this purpose by narrating many minor details of daily life truthfully.