Author: Asghar Wajahat
Translator: Rakshanda Jalil
Publisher: Srishti
Year: 2002
Language: English
Pages: 119
ISBN/UPC (if available): 8187075929
Description
Short, sharp and sassy, this collection of satirical sketches snaps a metaphorical finger in front of our eyes. It tells us to wake up and look around before it is too late and it does so with no great vim and vigor. The hallmark of Asghar Wajahat's writing is its steadfast refusal to strike any loud notes. Each of these ten-part series carries a tiny picture of our everyday life, a cameo of our very "Indianness" and an unabashed look at the life and times of an ordinary man. These are the smelling salts we have all been looking for - to bring us to our senses with their strong pungent, down-to-earth aroma.
Witty, acerbic and completely unsentimental in their Hindi original, Rashid Jalil's English translation conveys the unpretentious originality and quiet humor of the Hindi original.
TRANSLATOR:
RAKSHANDA JALIL has taught English at the universities of Delhi and Aligarh and worked for various publishing houses. She reviews literary works, translates from Hindi and Urdu into English and is currently a freelance book-editor. Her translation of Premchand's stories, The Temple and the Mosque, was published in1992. She has also edited a collection of Urdu short stories.
Contents
The Fear of Becoming Wise:
A Background
Introduction
Dialogue: Life, Tamasha, Revolution
Words have no meaning
Conversation on Communalism
Who will be left to live peacefully ever after?
The mark of a Developed Country
The eyes that see are mine, the rest belongs to them
Some More Conversations
When the tree is upside down and the ocean fills a pail
The Revolutionary crosses Seventy-five
Lovers are not fence-sitters.
The Stories of Mr. T P Dev
The Ordinariness of an ordinary man
On Becoming an IFS
Some notable incidents in the life of Mr. T
The Stories of an Unknown Man
The net is waiting to fly off
Stories from the Lunatic Asylum
The house no doors, nor windows