8 Asif Aslam Farrukhi is a medical doctor He is also a fine writer of short stories in Urdu with two collections to his credit In addition he regularly writes in English for different Pakistani journals In The Herald (Karachi) of January 1985 Farrukhi has written about what he considers to be the best Urdu books of the year 1984 His selections and comments (abridged)
Non-fiction Garcf-e Rah by Akhtar Husain Raipun "the doyen of the Progressive Movement This autobiography "is a fresco of memorable places the vintage wine of wisdom and experience distilled from a richly-lived life Dr Raipun has worked in more than one discipline lived in many a city and written in more than one language and for this reason alone he was ideally suited to write his memoirs But he has kept the focus away from himself and his personal life emphasizing the background of important events and personages "
Fiction Darwaza by Khalida Hussain Khalida Hussain had appeared on the literary scene of the Sixties like a comet blazing a fiery trail and then after a handful of original and memorable stories she disappeared as quickly as she had come After a long gap she appeared again this time with a collection Pahcan which included stories both old and new To this period of second flowering belongs her new volume Darwaza [It] is aptly named because Khalida s stories have concealed trapdoors which can plunge the unsuspecting reader into dark Gothic mysteries of the soul She writes of seemingly ordinary characters who are tormented by unknown ailments incurable diseases of the mind and heart Lost times childhood memories that will never die dark brooding moods and irrational fears abound in the world of these stories and each dream is a nightmare Khalida Hussain aims at far more than mere psychological realism she is a master at capturing subtle nuances and delicate shades of feeling '
Poetry CHTnJ huT TSrTx by Afzaai Ahmed Syed "This collection of prose-poems not only brings to the fore a highly dynamic and powerful new poet but also introduces a distinct new style which might help open new vistas for our poetry In the words of many a critic this world has become such a brutal place that it is no longer possible to write poetry when all that comes to one s mind are concentration camps These poems demonstrate how it is possible to do so They depict a post apocalyptic world the world of victims as well as survivors It is the poetry of doomed people of people who have lost their love and their dreams and even their links with history Yet it is not a fatalistic death-chant but tough and resilient like a survivor Since the poet has had to approximate his language to his newer themes often violently there is an unfamiliar ring about these poems some of which read like translations from a foreign language '
Other books noted by Farrukhi are Axin ahd-e Mugaliya ka Hindustan ( India of the Later Mughals ') by Dr Mubarak All and two books of translations
Annual of Urdu Studies #5
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