Kothi Number 8 (Mansion Number 8) is a novelette that turns out to be different from what one would expect. It reads like a piece of fiction and yet isn’t purely fictional. It has been published by Sanjh Publications, Lahore, and author is Hameed Razi, a well-regarded fiction and travel writer, and an excellent translator. His translation of Nobel laureate Mario Vargas Llosa’s novel Who Killed Palomnio Molero is an outstanding work. Kothi Number 8 in a way defies to be labelled as elements of different genres have been employed for the expression of diverse experiences which at a level have interconnections.

The novelette may be divided into three parts. The first part tells us the story of introduction and development of railways in this region especially Punjab by the colonial administration.

Hameed Razi after having served in the railways knows its history like the back of hand which he makes excellent literary use of. The railways show contradictory nature of colonial phenomenon; it ruthlessly exploits local resources and also boosts local development. Extractive practices cannot be perpetuated without unleashing a process of change in the colony. The prime example is the railways. It transformed the subcontinent beyond recognition by building a huge and intricate network of railway tracks that created effective connecting links between different regions and peoples.

The North Western Railways set up its headquarters at Lahore and gradually changed its landscape. Some new important landmarks that emerged included the Lahore railway station, railway workshops, hospitals, clubs and a grand residential colony for the British Railways

officers named Mayo Gardens, the locale of the story. Here Mr.Razi seems to have employed the method of historical narrative to evoke the era.

Second part tells us the story of a railways officer and his family residing in a sprawling house at Mayo Gardens in the recent past. The relationship of a growing son with his father is typical of Punjabi ethos; father acquiesces to the emotional dictates of his son. The most interesting is the activities of the servants who reside in the servant quarters originally built to provide services to the colonial officers. Another aspect of life over there is old leafy trees, flocks of birds in their tops and grassy lawns, the envy of the hoity-toity. Here author makes use of description and delineation.

The last part deals with the main protagonist’s public life who obviously is a highly placed railways officer. Being himself a bureaucrat he has access to the higher echelons of powers but feel compelled to walk a tight rope due to rational and irrational demands of his political bosses. We find an interesting comparative study of two ministers. One is jovial but serious in his planning as to how to make the loss incurring organisation viable with the input of the officers. The practice results in a visible improvement. The government changes and the new minister takes over whose gung-ho attitude is offensive. He talks lot of hot air and wants plans carried out regardless of professional opinion. The new ill-conceived operations ordered by him result in a huge loss. The minister instead of accepting the responsibility blames railways bureaucracy. This part reads like a diary and reportage. All three parts may look separate but the life and the activities of the protagonist interlink them. Above all it’s the house, the official residence, from which the novelette takes its name, that wonderfully but imperceptibly plays the role of a Sutardhaar, the thread bearer, that effortless connects disparate characters and diverse activities.

Hameed Razi blends fiction with non-fiction to create a narrative that has literary as well as historical value. A rewarding read!

Zeenat is a novelette by Gurmeet Singh Sandhu brought out by Sanjh Publications, Lahore. Mr. Sandhu is a USA-based author and editor. With Zeenat he has made his debut as a fiction writer. The major theme of the novelette is the Partition and what happened in its aftermath to the people of diverse communities. The story is a fragment of an apocalyptic happening which is rightly considered the bloodiest chapter in the 5,000-year history of our homeland. The Partition unleashed ghoulish forces of communalism that killed almost two million innocent people and forced at least eleven million to migrate across the borders in a span of a few months. Mankind never witnessed savagery, massacre, mass rape and forced migration on such a scale in such a short period of time. Women suffered most in the ensuing anarchy. The story is set in a village in East Punjab.

According to the Partition plan, East Punjab joins independent India and West Punjab becomes part of the new state of Pakistan. As the Partition nears ethnic cleansing starts; of Hindus and Sikhs in the West Punjab and of Muslims in East Punjab. The narrative is built around a kind and compassionate Sikh patriarch fears that he cannot protect Muslim friends and families settled in his village. So he takes a bold step of surreptitiously transporting them to a nearby refugee camp guarded by military. He does so at a great personal risk as the area is infested with the rioters out to loot and kill fleeing Muslims. It so happens that delivering his friend’s family at the camp in the hurly-burly of the situation he forgets a small girl named Zeenat, the eponymous character of the novelette, sleeping under the hay in the cart. On the way back he discovers to his horror that the child has been separated from the family. Now despite all the odds he takes the responsibility of raising and educating the child with pseudonym away from the public glare. The patriarch’s heroic but discreet endeavour is most touching as it epitomises human generosity and sagaciousness creating a glimmer of optimism that all is not lost in a land that lost its soul in a communal madness. Finally, Zeenat, a teacher, marries her Sikh colleague and migrates to the USA along with the sons and daughter of her benefactor and at last meets her lost brother from Pakistan.

The novelette on the one hand evokes very subtly the horrors of the Partition and on the other reassures us that we can be caring humans despite our diverse faiths. It’s a novelette having two strands; suffering and hope. And that’s what life is. — soofi01@hotmail.com

Published in Dawn, May 9th, 2022