A Book review by Aijaz Ali Mangi
Ishtiaq Ansari has different legends to tell. He creates different plots for stories, where characters have short lives and terse attributes, but character leaves a long-lasting effect. That effect is very difficult to erase from memories. A civil engineer by profession and many more as a person, the newly published book of Ishtiaq Ansari is an excellent addition to Sindhi literature.
Bab ul Islam(Door to Islam) is a short story, I think, it’s not a short story but it is history. History of oppression and oppressed. History was written after the sad hanging of Zulfiqar Bhutto, where Islamizing the liberal society of Sindh snatched hundreds of lives. Bab ul Islam sends a chilling effect on the spinal cord. The plot, theme, narration, and characterization are well coordinated. This is the beauty of Ishtiaq is that his short stories are well-connected and do not allow you to divert your attention. They immerse you fully in themselves. His characters are real, they never seem to be fabricated. That is his genesis. He creates a world in short stories. His plots are unique but real. Actually, fiction is not bounded within time and places, but if the writer highlights the issues of society and connects them with humans, that is mesmerizing. That is what exactly Ishtiaq is doing.
Fakhur (Proud) is another charm. It’s all a romantic tale, where a couple from foreign lands, meet with each other on another foreign land. Their friendship does not last, but the way separation approaches, it’s very unique. Separation comes, not because of, personal reasons but for cultural reasons. This is the uniqueness of the story. When the girl comes to know that his friend belongs to the land, where her countrymen are kidnapped, she abruptly cuts off the relation and goes invisible. The plot twist is different and shocking.
Dikhar( Abhorrence) is one of the stories of the book. An Orphan young boy is a labor and he is very shy to share his background. He is fond of study, he wants to gain a respectable place in society. The site engineer wants to help him and promises to do so, but owing to his job, he forgets the young boy and goes busy with various other projects. Time passes on, one day he receives a letter from a boy, that he is admitted to the hospital. It’s a sad story. The boy is crippled as the heavy object falls on him on the construction site. The engineer looks for him desperately in hospitals but he found him disappeared. One day he was taking tea with his team on a road site hotel, someone spreads palm before him for begging. The engineer recognized the boy. He tries to interact with him, but the boy cast a look of abhorrence on him and moved away. After going through the story, I myself plunged into the gloom.
Ishtiaq Ansari’s plots are different from different lands. I have the first experience of reading such a book with so diverse characters. Ranbh,(Squall) is a tale of father and son. Where father loses his life in Indus. He has a dream to see his son educated. The school is on the other side of the river, Naban, father, sails boat daily to leave his son to school. On one unfortunate day, the thunderstorm engulfed his boat and he drowned. Son kept waiting on another side of the river but his father did not appear to take him back. The story ends.
Every story of the book brings a new mood to you. Gloom but different shades, sorrow but different taste. I could not fathom my changing mood with changing plots. That’s the genesis of Ishtiaq, he imbibes his emotions in you.
Dukham (Sorrow) is a must-read with fourteen stories. Every story is a new world. It is captivating. Sindhi literature has many outstanding story writers, from Jamal Abro to Amar Jalil. They have left undeniable impressions on Sindhi’s short story. Their dialect and style are copied from my writers and it’s natural. It is challenging always to prove identity in presence of giant writers and Ishtiaq Ansari has done this. He stands different in Dukham.
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