Reviewed by Sabih Mohsin

Rastey Khol Do is a collection of short stories written by Reza Jaffri, an Indian Muslim. The issues they discuss are mostly those which involve the Muslims of India, particularly the challenges they encounter in their effort to coexist amicably with the majority community. The stories were all formerly published in various Urdu magazines in India. While Jaffri’s stories do convey a message his work is often lacking in finesse and literary beauty.

For a Pakistani reader, the story “Ainey,” is of particular interest. It concerns a misperception among many people in Pakistan regarding the future of Muslims in India, which they believe to be bleak because of prejudices. The central character of the story is a woman who had migrated from India to Pakistan as a child and had seen her father being killed by Hindu rioters in India. Now she is on a visit to India with her husband. At first she is apprehensive and reserved. But the cordiality of the Hindu friends of her Indian hosts begins to win her over. This change in her feelings is further aided by the affection and care shown on a train journey by fellow Hindu and Sikh travellers, some of whom had migrated from areas now in Pakistan. By the time she leaves the country, the protagonist promises her hosts she will visit again.

In the story “Sarhad Kahan Hae?” Jafri comments on the internal situation in Pakistan.

According to him, Pakistani leaders have divided people into regional, linguistic and sectarian entities which have prevented them from becoming a fully integrated nation.

The title story, “Rastey Khol Do,” also dwells on India-Pakistan relationship. A young girl wonders why her father, who wanders all over the world, is reluctant to visit a country where a number of their close relatives live. The father’s reply is that it is an enemy country.

Short stories based on current issues are not uncommon in Urdu literature. A large quantity of such literature was written around the mass killings at the time of independence in 1947. Krishn Chandar’s “Ann Data” on the Bengal famine and Saadat Hasan Manto’s “Naya Qanoon” are among the finest examples of such fiction.

Rastey Khol Do

(SHORT STORIES)

By Reza Jaffri

Al-Hamd Publications, Karachi

Rs300