Well known author Asif Aslam Farrukhi read out his short story “Samandar Ki Chori” on Wednesday, June 15, at T2F. Farrukhi writes about a bizarre story where ‘the city by the sea awakes to a starting realisation — the sea has been stolen!’
Talking about the story, Farrukhi said: “[In this story] you will slowly realise that the sea is being stolen. I literally found this story while walking on the Sea View beach. Some people find seashells, some find dead birds but I find stories by the sea.”
Renowned poet Fehmida Riaz and noted critic Fatima Hasan attended the event. Like many others in the audience, they took the sea as a metaphor. Riaz said, “For me, the entire story maps out the city. The sea is a multiple of things to so many people, it evokes one’s thinking. In the story itself, different strata of society have been discussed. This is not a simple tale, the story is symbolic of many things — it points to different things.”
For Hasan, the story “was as deep as the sea bed and had the depths of the waves. The theme, the plot, everything was stretched in an entire era of our lives. Many known characters play their part in the story.”
Founder of T2F, Sabeen Mahmud, perhaps put it best: “As far as the metaphor is concerned, I felt that public places are shrinking in little ways all around us, things are happening, but the general public is not doing anything about it.”
But Farrukhi himself said that is this tale had nothing to do with “land grabbing or re-claiming the land, I wouldn’t have written the story if it did!” The author added that he thought that the writer should not state the message of his work in a clear and planned manner and instead, the readers themselves are invited to explore his work. There is no wrong answer, but there isn’t a right one either.
Published in The Express Tribune, June 17th, 2011.
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