KARACHI: With five chairs in the middle of the stage awaiting their occupants, the Zia Mohyeddin Theatre at the National Academy of Performing Arts (Napa) on Monday portrayed calm ... before the storm. Outside, tea had been served, the star of the snacks, a big rectangular edible image cake with the book’s cover on it was cut by the five authors of Zareena and Abid, published by Liberty Publishing.
The five authors — former Senator Javed Jabbar, Rehana Alam, Talat Rahim, Naeem Sadiq and Taha Kehar — with distinct styles have contributed a short story each about two main characters. ‘Zareena’ and ‘Abid’. All took their seats to kick off an interesting conversation about the unique experiment that culminated into the book.
It all started when four gullible souls received a lunch invitation from Senator Jabbar that they accepted. Sharing his experience, the tireless campaigner for social causes, Naeem Sadiq, said that they were all reminded by their gracious host on the occasion that there is no such thing as a free lunch. “He wanted us all to get together to write a book. He shared with us his idea about the book’s name, the characters, the number of pages for each story,” said Mr Sadiq.
About his own idea for his short story, titled Change of Story, Mr Sadiq said that he had thought of meeting more imaginative people than himself to get their story but that initial idea changed while he was waiting outside for the person he had gone to meet. “Sitting outside with the person’s security guard, I started to look at the latter and suddenly wanted to write his story. So my contribution is a true story except for the court judgement that I have changed in the end,” he said.
The author of some six books, though not fiction, Talat Rahim said that she had never written fiction even though she had read a lot of fiction. “When given the name of a boy and a girl, I thought to make it a boy meets girl story. So I write a love story,” she said, adding that since they were given somewhat old-fashioned names, she set her story in the 1980s where Zareena in her late-20s is nudged by her widowed mother to get married and Abid, a drinking, partying type, 35-year-old bachelor is pushed by his elder brother to marry because his children want cousins.
Zareena and Abid launched
Agreeing that Senator Jabbar’s character names were old-fashioned, author Taha Kehar said that the title of his story The Understudy came to him first. “In my story, Zareena is the understudy doing all the work others expect of her but not getting any recognition for it. But what happens when someone living on other people’s expectations wants to live life their way?” Taha asked. That’s what his story in the book is about.
Author and book critic Rehana Alam said that her story in the book, titled Time and Tide is a period story, about Partition. “Pakistan Studies is a compulsory subject in all curricula but do we even know or remember how 1947 affected human beings? How did the people from India cross over to Pakistan?” Rehana asked.
She added that she was lucky as her father was a government servant. “We came here safely, by air, without incident, and my father carried on working for the government here while earning his regular salary. But the lives of so many others changed,” she said while sharing examples of many such people. Her story is about them.
Finally, Senator Jabbar shared about his contribution, Never-Ever Story, in which the characters ‘Zareena’ and ‘Abid’ are fraternal twins still inside their mother’s womb. “They are 22 weeks old and speak through touch,” he said.
Asked about what made him come up with the names ‘Zareena’ and ‘Abid’ for the two characters, Senator Jabbar said that the names just came to him out of the blue. “It is like an epiphany. Like that man sitting at the airport watching people carry their luggage to suddenly get an idea of wheels for suitcases,” he said.
Published in Dawn, August 4th, 2026
