Q: What books are you currently reading?

A: I have just put down the memoirs of Benedict Anderson, ‘A Life Beyond Boundaries’, published earlier this year. It’s his outstanding intellectual journey explained through political events, personal relationships, a critique of academia and a unique commentary on Southeast Asia – his area of interest and scholarship.

I’m currently reading ‘The Vegetarian’, a novel by Korean author Han Kang. She tells the tale of a woman who suddenly finds eating meat grotesque and despicable. The interplay between her dreams and reality, issues with her husband and the society around her, sexuality and the meaninglessness of a humdrum existence, are all intricately interwoven by Han Kang.

Besides that, something I continuously read on the side is classical and contemporary poetry. I always carry a Divan-i-Ghalib in my bag.

Q: Do you prefer fiction to nonfiction?

A: It is more about the quality of work and the interest it generates than the genre. Both in Urdu and in English, some of the works that inspired me most are works of nonfiction.

For instance, I found an essay by Maulana Abul Kalam Azad on Sufi Sarmad Shaheed informative, insightful and inspiring. Sarmad was a mystic in the 17th century Delhi killed by Emperor Aurangzeb because he supported the emperor’s brother Dara Shikoh, who was an intellectual and a mystic himself.

Let me also give an example from contemporary English writing. Last year I read ‘The Nearest Thing to Life’ by James Wood. This book of four essays attempts to explain the connection between fiction and life. Without understating his erudition, Wood uses his personal memories to create an absorbing narrative within the broad area of literary criticism.

Q: Which living writers, poets, dramatists, do you admire the most?

A: I like many. But let me mention J.M. Coetzee, Julian Barnes and Asad Mohammad Khan among living fiction writers.

Coetzee’s ‘Disgrace’ is a story of a middle aged professor of literature who, after having a fleeting affair with a young student, is disgracefully sacked from his job.

The novel is set in South Africa and an incomparable expose of the human psyche blended with tragedy.

‘The Noise of Time’ is a novel by Julian Barnes that narrates the story of a music composer living in Soviet Union, first under the rule of Stalin and then Khrushchev.

The muffling of voices, control and coercion, regulation of art and the fear instilled in the hearts of citizens by oppressive rulers is something that anyone who has lived under dictatorships or martial [law] can relate to.

Contemporary Urdu fiction owes a lot to Asad Mohammad Khan. I find his language imaginative but accessible. His short stories have a pathos and humanism that is not found easily among his contemporaries. I particularly like his collections, Mutthi Bhar Aasman, Burj-i-Khamoshan and Ghussay Ki Nai Fasl.

My favourite living Urdu poet is Fahmida Riaz; there is a distinct ingenuity in her language and idiom, themes and ideas. I also like Sarmad Sehbai, Iftikhar Arif, Kishwar Naheed, Mazhar Tirmazi and Khursheed Rizvi.

Q: What do you plan to read next?

A: In Urdu, Asif Farrukhi’s Charagh-i-Shab-i-Afsana: Intizar Hussain Ka Jahan-i-Funn and Nasir Abbas Nayyer’s Urdu Adab Ki Tashkeel-i-Jadeed are at the top of the list.

Intizar Hussain was the last of the Mohicans when it comes to Urdu fiction of the 20th century. Farrukhi’s book is the most comprehensive work to have appeared since Hussain’s passing away.

Also, I am eagerly waiting to begin Haruki Murakami’s novel, ‘Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage’. It has been sitting on my desk for a long time.

Q: What is your favourite piece of poetry?

A: There is so much to cherish but I think Mir Taqi Mir’s corpus of poetry is unparalleled, only to be contested, at times, by Ghalib.

Published in Dawn, August 31st, 2016