#Pakistani Literature

[neurotic-pakistani]

وہ تو خوش بو ہے ہواؤں میں بکھر جائے گا

مسئلہ پھول کا ہے پھول کدھر جائے گا

vo to khushboo hai havaon mein bikhar jaega

masala phool ka hai phool kidhar jaega

ہم تو سمجھے تھے کہ اک زخم ہے بھر جائے گا

کیا خبر تھی کہ رگ جاں میں اتر جائے گا

ham to samjhe the ki ik zakhm hai bhar jaega

kya khabar thi ki rag-e-jaan mein utar jaega

وہ ہواؤں کی طرح خانہ بجاں پھرتا ہے

ایک جھونکا ہے جو آئے گا گزر جائے گا

vo havaon ki tarah khana-ba-jaan phirta hai

ek jhonka hai jo aaega guzar jaega

وہ جب آئے گا تو پھر اس کی رفاقت کے لیے

موسم گل مرے آنگن میں ٹھہر جائے گا

vo jab aaega to phir us ki rifaqat ke liye

mausam-e-gul mere angan mein teher jaega

آخرش وہ بھی کہیں ریت پہ بیٹھی ہوگی

تیرا یہ پیار بھی دریا ہے اتر جائے گا

akhrash vo bhi kahin ret pe baithi hogi

tera ye pyaar bhi dariya hai utar jaega

مجھ کو تہذیب کے برزخ کا بنایا وارث

جرم یہ بھی مرے اجداد کے سر جائے گا

mujh ko tahzeebb ke barzakh ka banaaya varis

jurm ye bhi mera ajdad ke sar jaega

- Parveen Shakir

[desigrrrl]

— Khalida Hussain, Enemy (translated by Haider Shahbaz)

[llovelymoonn]

raza ali hasan sorrows of the warrior class: "nocturnal tripping"

kofi

[importantwomensbirthdays]

Bapsi Sidhwa

Bapsi Sidhwa was born in 1938 in what is now Karachi, Pakistan. Sidhwa is best known for her 1988 novel, Cracking India (also known as Ice Candy Man), which drew on her experiences as a child in Lahore during the 1947 partition of India. The novel brought her international fame, and is regarded as an essential book on the Indian partition. Sidhwa, who emigrated to the US in 1983, has also written about American culture and the immigrant experience, such as in her novel An American Brat. She has won several awards, including the Sitara-i-Imtiaz, Pakistan's highest honor in the arts. Sidhwa's other honors include the David Higham Award and the Lila Wallace-Reader’s Digest Writer’s Award.

[have-you-read-this-short-fiction]

"The Assignment" is available to read here

Image credit to Adwaith S., who made a illustrated adaptation on art style. It's excellent, if you liked the story, read this too afterwards.

[respirelejasmin]

Oona was her mother's mother now, Oona sometimes felt, or maybe mother wasn't the right word for it, maybe daughter was fine, meaning more than she once thought they did, each having two sides to itself, a side of carrying and of being carried, each word in the end the same as the other, like a coin, differing only in the order of what face came up first on a toss.

Mohsin Hamid, The last white man

[quotation--marks]

Emily Minns was herself perturbed. She was not without doubts herself. The picture of Christ she prayed to depicted a beautiful face, a pale white face with rouged cheeks, an aquiline nose and blue eyes. His hair was parted at the centre and neatly brushed down to his shoulders; the raised right hand showed a delicate texture of the skin, the fingers were thin and pointed, the nails well-manicured. The smile on his pink lips was beautiful, it was more sensuously compelling than compassionate. And yet she had seen men in the streets of Bombay who were so deformed by hunger that only their plaintive cry as she passed their sprawled forms indicated that they, too, were human beings, who, too, were suffering. She had to ascribe beauty to the ugliness she saw around her, she had to convince herself that beauty was possible.

Zulfikar Ghose, The Zoo People

[pebblegalaxy]

Exploring Marginality and Love in Lahore: The House Of Clay And Water by Faiqa Mansab

Exploring Marginality and Love in Lahore: The House Of Clay And Water by Faiqa Mansab #Lahore #PakistaniLiterature @FaiqaMansab @PenguinIndia #Sufism #GenderIdentity #SocialJustice #ContemporaryFiction #AwardWinningNovel

The House Of Clay And Water by Faiqa Mansab is a debut novel by Faiqa Mansab, a Pakistani author who has an MFA in creative writing from Kingston University London. The novel is set in Lahore, the city of saints, and explores the lives of three characters who are marginalized and alienated by the society they live in. Nida is a wealthy but unhappy wife of a politician, who seeks solace in the…

[thedepressedkiddo]

"The most terrible loneliness is not the kind that comes from being alone, but the kind that comes from being misunderstood. It is the loneliness of standing in a crowded room, surrounded by people who do not see you, who do not hear you, who do not know the true essence of who you are. And in that loneliness, you feel as though you are fading, disappearing into the background, until you are nothing more than a ghost, a shadow of your former self."

- George Orwell, 1984

[soul-from-another-era]

[neurotic-pakistani]

Thora sukoon bhi dhoondiye janab

Yeh zarooratein to kabhi khatam nahi hongi

- Gulzar

[dastur-e-ishq]

اصل وفا تو محبوب کی غیر موجودگی میں ہی ظاہر ہوتی ہے۔

true loyalty is only revealed in beloved’s absence.

[soracities]

Ankita Saxena, on her translation of Fahmida Riaz's poem "A Woman Is Laughing", pub. Modern Poetry in Translation [ID'd]

[have-you-read-this-short-fiction]

"Swimming Lesson" is available to read here

[nabihahahahahaha]

Tum thaq ke idhar aana

تم تھک کے ادار آنا۔

Apney dheele bazuon ke sath

اپنے دھیلے بازون کے ساتھ

Apne akhon k neeche gehrey khwab le kar

اپنی آنکھوں کے نیچے گہرےخواب لے کر

Sar k upar mandrati hui

دار کے اوپر مندرتی ہوئی

Adhuri si khwaish k sath

ادھوری خوایش کے ساتھ

Tum thaq ke idhar aana

تم تھک کے اذار آنا۔

Jab in buney hue rasto k

جب بنی ہوا راستہ کے

Dhagon me paer ulajhane lagey

ڈھگے الجھانے لگے

Jab ehsas ho k akele dhakka dene se zindagi

جب احساس ہو کے اکلے ڈھاکہ دینے سے زندگی

Aur agey nahi badhegi

اور اگے نہیں بڈھیگی

Tum thaq ke idhar aana

تم تھک کے ادار آنا۔

[qalbofnight]

"bas is soch ki zarurat hai is muashrey ki auraton ko aur aisi soch ko ankh band karke hausla dene wale mardon ki bhi"

Agar aap mjhse shadi karna chahte hai to na sirf apko mujhey padhana balki meri medical education ka saara kharcha uthana hoga ,jab main kamaney ke qabil hongi to ek ek payi main apko wapas kar ke hisaab barabar kar dungi

Dusri shart - jab tak meri padhayi poori ni ho jaati aap aur aap kay ghar Waley mujh par baccha paida karne ka dabav nahi dalengey.,

Teesri shart : bacche main apni marzi aur khwahish se karungi agar meri jismani aur zehni sehat ne sath diya to agar sath na diya to kisi aise bacche ko god lungi jisey maa ki god nahin mili.,

If you want to marry me, not only will you have to support my education, but you will also have to bear all the expenses of my medical education. Once I am capable of earning, I will repay every penny to settle the account.

Second condition: Until I complete my education, neither you nor your family will pressure me to have a child.

Third condition: I will have children only if I wish to and if my physical and mental health permits. If not, I will adopt a child who has not been fortunate enough to have a mother’s care.