KARACHI, July 29: Poetry dominated the Adabi Chaupal held under the aegis of Arbab-i-Adab on Thursday as only one short story came up for discussion.

The short story read out by Rahman Nishat was about a fugitive who assumed the role of a malang. Another malang joined him to share the benefits — a lot of eatables brought by gullible villagers to a ‘mazar’ which was the abode of the malangs. The ‘mazar’ was nothing but a heap of mud. The first malang did not allow the other one to come close. The story was concluded with the lesson that God is the only Preserver and Benefactor. At the time when both the malangs had nothing to eat, a street dog with a piece of bread happened to pass by and left it for both of them to eat.

Some thought the story lacked coherence and reflected poor craftsmanship. Others observed that narrative was appealing.

Noorul Huda Syed in his presidential remarks admired the observation of the writer and description of the role of the fake pirs and fakirs who befool the common people and exploit their religious feelings.

But many voices of protest were raised that the story had earlier been read at such and such places and thoroughly discussed and that it was not proper to present it at this forum.

The organizers of the literary sitting and the compere, poets Pervin Javed and Nasim Nazish, had nothing else to present. So there was a mini-mushaira, where Sadiq Madhosh was the president. There were many poets and they presented good poetry. Even Rehman Nishat did not stay with his prose and came to recite a ghazal. As Nishat recited, someone remarked he should write only poetry, leaving fiction for others.

Rafiuddin Raaz presented a poem, Tashna Barelvi some quatrains and others recited ghazals. Senior poet Hijab Abbasi recited the following:

Main aakhon say dar-o-divar per manzer banati hoon Kabhi paon, kabhi sahra, kabhi ek ghar banati hoon.—H.A.