Attending a gathering where Abdullah Hussain talks about his experiences and works is such a rare opportunity that no body, having interest in Urdu literature, wants to miss it. The fact was perhaps ignored by LLF managers who allocated a small venue for the session at Alhamra Hall-III that was no match for the number of the writer’s fans who filled every nook and corner of the place, and yet many had to moan outside for being left out.

The one-on-one session with Asif Furrukhi being excellent moderator (between the old maestro and his fans) was simply a literary delight one will remember for a long time.

As it was titled ‘Udaas Naslein and Beyond’, Furrukhi opened it by asking the gracefully ageing Hussain why the novel is considered the axis of the writer’s wonderful body of works.

Leaving the query aside, Mr Hussain asked the moderator to first let him thank the festival organisers for inviting “servants like me and a few other Urdu writers” to the event that predominantly deals with English-speaking people. He, however, hastened to add there was no harm in speaking English but the good one and “not that we have borrowed from third-rated American movies” that is affecting the accent of local speakers. To this Mr Furrukhi quipped with his signature wit that the imports from the US were not limited to bad movies, but also include bad novels that spoil more in us than mere accent.

To Mr Furrukhi’s question about the writer’s transformation from Muhammad Khan (his actual name) to Abdullah Hussain, he said he had to borrow the name from a colleague as when he started writing, Col Muhammad Khan, the writer, was already popular among the Urdu readers. “So I was advised to use a pen name.”

Mr Hussain told the audience that he started writing Udaas Naslien to combat the boredom he felt acutely while working at a factory in Daudkhel, a desolate town, where his only pastime “was to look at a blank wall”.

“I wanted to write a simple and short love story, but when I started writing it expanded on and on to my utter astonishment. Then I felt I should be better prepared to handle the plot that needed a lot of homework,” Mr Hussain said.

Then he narrated how he traveled to a distant village where, he had come to know, lived an ex-soldier retired Subedar Khuda Dad, who was awarded the Victoria Cross by the British Queen for his valour in the First World War. The man, however, told Mr Hussain that he got the honour for “accidentally” saving the life of an officer. That meeting, Mr Hussain said, changed his worldview and he came to the conclusion that “randomness” was the essence of life. “Life is a random affair. There is no specific point to begin life,” he said, adding that this became my philosophy of life afterwards.

When Mr Furrukhi asked whether the novel was also random, Mr Hussain said, “Yes, it was”. When asked if he could have written the same novel while staying in Lahore, Mr Hussain quipped,”Lahore would not have allowed him the time to sit and stare at a blank wall.”

About his novelette ‘Naddi’, Mr Hussain said he wrote it to get introduced among readers as the publisher was reluctant to publish voluminous Udaas Naslein, by an unknown author.

When asked whether he ever faced censorship, Mr Hussain said twice --- once when Nawab of Kalabagh decided to ban Udaas Naslein but before he could do that Field Marshal Ayub Khan, on the advice of Writers’ Guild, announced once prestigious Adam Jee Award for the novel, and afterwards by Zia regime when some lines in his novel Baagh were dubbed “anti-God”.

“After the (Adamji) award ceremony, Ayub Khan called me and after appreciating my writing advised me to write some ‘Qaumi novel,’” Mr Hussain told the audience whose natural response was nothing but a roaring laughter.

Mr Hussain said in almost all of his works, justice and its denial had been a recurrent theme and “a major metaphor”.

He said some portions of the Hamoodur Rehman Commission report on atrocities committed by the army in 1971 were incorporated in his novel ‘Nadar Log’ which were supplied to him by some of his friends in India where the report was partly published.

He said he also wrote about Operation Gibraltar in novel ‘Baagh’ when the state was not admitting it, adding that had it happened in the West the novelist would have been much lauded for showing such courage.

He said ‘Udaas Naslein’ became so popular that he “could not get rid of it”. “Many people think it is my only novel”.

Published in Dawn February 23rd , 2015

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