KARACHI: It very seldom occurs that you sit for an hour-and-a-half with a similar posture in the same uncomfortable position only to realise that your legs have been cramped until after you are forcefully snapped out of the lull of a story-teller.

Sunday evening was one such experience. He may claim to be not as good a narrator as his wife is, but Mohammed Hanif surely commanded the respect and undivided attention of the entire gathering at the T2F (The Second Floor).

Clearly uncomfortable in the spotlight yet natural and charismatic with the crowd, Hanif started off with pages, turned at the corners of his copy of A Case of Exploding Mangoes, to passages he would mesmerise the crowd with. Each scene revealed a different facet of the novel, revealing yet enticing to an extent that the pent-up excitement of rushing back home to read it cover to cover could be physically felt.

Explicit and graphic details about lines from a German poem hastily translated into Urdu, to the convoluted daily happenings of a typical street in Islamabad not only revealed Pakistan as we know it, but also had whiffs of nostalgia which grew stronger by the passing minute.

When a few questions were raised on the authenticity of the tale, Hanif emphasised upon the fictional nature of his take on the events that led to the death of General Zia in a plane crash, stating that as he in his professional career as a journalist was unable, like many others, to solve this mystery, he resorted to a make-believe account of it, labelling it also as being out of sheer laziness. Lack of a disclaimer on the Indian copy was attributed to, jokingly, an Indian conspiracy, drawing laughs from all those present.

What turned a book reading into a personal gathering was Sabeen’s – the moving spirit behind T2F – adamant insistence of not allowing media-men to spoil the atmosphere and vibe, vocally admonishing them to retire to the back of the room, with the assurance that they would be given an opportunity later on. This was a breather for most fans who had been deprived of the sanctity of enjoying the read-up.

Hailing from Okara, Hanif left the Pakistan Air Force to pursue a journalistic career which has led him to work for Newsline and The Washington Press. He is currently heading the BBC’s Urdu service. No matter how humble in his demeanour to the praise by his former co-worker and friend Abbas Nasir, the brilliance of the debut novel cannot be denied. Satire, wit and originality are found at the right places with the right tone and connotations, which is what makes A Case of Exploding Mangoes a well worth read.

The characters are meticulously painted, the climax worth the wait, and though only a few passages were read out, several routes running parallel to the main storyline were introduced and also conjured up by the listeners. The ‘dropping-by’ of Ardeshir Cowasjee only further contributed to the realisation that this debut novel has come to the attention of not only the youth of Pakistan, but also its literati.