Are dark times when the mangoes were ripening before they exploded
Mohammed Hanif joins Arif Hasan, Intizar Hussain and Asif Farrukhi in a talk on literature and culture in dark times.
Writer Mohammed Hanif. PHOTO: AYESHA MIR & ATHAR KHAN/EXPRESS
KARACHI:
When three writers and an architect are put on stage to talk about literature and dark times, it is no surprise that what follows is a discussion that gives you hope but then snatches it back.
At Habib University’s panel discussion with writers Mohammed Hanif, Asif Aslam Farrukhi and Intizar Hussain and architect Arif Hasan, during its debut conference on postcolonial higher education on Saturday, there was hope for our culture, marred by realisations of what we had lost.
How do you define dark times? Was it when the mangoes were ripening before they exploded, moderator Farrukhi asked Hanif, as the audience chuckled at his obvious reference to the writer’s first novel. Hanif responded, however, with another question: Who defines dark times?
“Is it possible that literature led to the creation of our dark times?” he wondered. Hanif mentioned the text scribbled on walls around the city and the hate speech they proclaim: doodh mango to kheer den ge, Kashmir mango to cheer den ge [If you ask for milk, we will give you pudding but if you ask for Kashmir, we will rip you apart]. For him, the sad reality was that, “our language has lost the blood and has become limited to these dark times.”
Hasan, who differentiated himself from other panellists as he did not write adab, defined dark times as those periods in which drastic socio-economic changes take place. But the good thing about those dark times - which the world has seen plenty of in the past - was that they produced good literature, he added.
The architect focused on changing values in our society, such as the disappearance of extended families and clan settlements being replaced by class settlements, and called them nothing short of revolutionary. “Before, a peasant used to sow what he ate. Now, he sows it, sells it and then buys what he eats.” The fact that the rural population is being forced to migrate, instead of choosing to migrate was just one more factor that reflected dark times for Hasan.
But Hasan offered the participants a ray of hope - women empowerment, which he claimed was taking place at a larger scale across the world. Sharing statistics on how more women are choosing to marry late and living away from their in-laws, Hasan said we desperately need new societal values. “If we don’t understand these changes our society is going through, how will we set up new values?”
When the microphone is passed onto Hussain, he let the audience know his disappointment that Hanif chose to speak in Urdu. “I was hoping that Urdu will give me an edge in this day-long conference in English - not a word of which I could grasp,” he laughed.
Hussain echoed the thoughts shared by a large number of audience members when he pointed out that people before us also thought they were living in dark times when they talked about shehr-e-ashob. “The situation now is such that whenever a new calamity is about to strike, it stops to ask where Pakistan is so it can fall there,” Hussain claimed, as the audience laughed and nodded in agreement.
When the floor opened for questions, the discussion moved beyond the topic at hand. A student from the audience wanted to know how we can revive the Urdu language and make it a part of the social sciences. Perhaps it was because she failed to give Hussain due respect when she asked why we don’t incorporate his works in the curriculum, that an annoyed Hanif responded: “If you want to read Intizar Hussain, go buy his book and read it.”
Hasan agreed that Urdu literature has become unfashionable. “The problem is not the absence of Urdu literature but the lack of use of Urdu – the class divide that exists between English and Urdu.”
A large number of ‘questions’ from the audience turned out to be mere speeches, despite Farrukhi’s repeated attempts to ask short questions. Hussain had an interesting explanation for this. “Our society has heard so many speeches that we have forgotten how to ask questions,” he said, explaining how, at one point, asking questions were discouraged. “There are no such restrictions now but speeches have made us forget our questions.”
Published in The Express Tribune, October 20th, 2013.
When three writers and an architect are put on stage to talk about literature and dark times, it is no surprise that what follows is a discussion that gives you hope but then snatches it back.
At Habib University’s panel discussion with writers Mohammed Hanif, Asif Aslam Farrukhi and Intizar Hussain and architect Arif Hasan, during its debut conference on postcolonial higher education on Saturday, there was hope for our culture, marred by realisations of what we had lost.
How do you define dark times? Was it when the mangoes were ripening before they exploded, moderator Farrukhi asked Hanif, as the audience chuckled at his obvious reference to the writer’s first novel. Hanif responded, however, with another question: Who defines dark times?
“Is it possible that literature led to the creation of our dark times?” he wondered. Hanif mentioned the text scribbled on walls around the city and the hate speech they proclaim: doodh mango to kheer den ge, Kashmir mango to cheer den ge [If you ask for milk, we will give you pudding but if you ask for Kashmir, we will rip you apart]. For him, the sad reality was that, “our language has lost the blood and has become limited to these dark times.”
Hasan, who differentiated himself from other panellists as he did not write adab, defined dark times as those periods in which drastic socio-economic changes take place. But the good thing about those dark times - which the world has seen plenty of in the past - was that they produced good literature, he added.
The architect focused on changing values in our society, such as the disappearance of extended families and clan settlements being replaced by class settlements, and called them nothing short of revolutionary. “Before, a peasant used to sow what he ate. Now, he sows it, sells it and then buys what he eats.” The fact that the rural population is being forced to migrate, instead of choosing to migrate was just one more factor that reflected dark times for Hasan.
But Hasan offered the participants a ray of hope - women empowerment, which he claimed was taking place at a larger scale across the world. Sharing statistics on how more women are choosing to marry late and living away from their in-laws, Hasan said we desperately need new societal values. “If we don’t understand these changes our society is going through, how will we set up new values?”
When the microphone is passed onto Hussain, he let the audience know his disappointment that Hanif chose to speak in Urdu. “I was hoping that Urdu will give me an edge in this day-long conference in English - not a word of which I could grasp,” he laughed.
Hussain echoed the thoughts shared by a large number of audience members when he pointed out that people before us also thought they were living in dark times when they talked about shehr-e-ashob. “The situation now is such that whenever a new calamity is about to strike, it stops to ask where Pakistan is so it can fall there,” Hussain claimed, as the audience laughed and nodded in agreement.
When the floor opened for questions, the discussion moved beyond the topic at hand. A student from the audience wanted to know how we can revive the Urdu language and make it a part of the social sciences. Perhaps it was because she failed to give Hussain due respect when she asked why we don’t incorporate his works in the curriculum, that an annoyed Hanif responded: “If you want to read Intizar Hussain, go buy his book and read it.”
Hasan agreed that Urdu literature has become unfashionable. “The problem is not the absence of Urdu literature but the lack of use of Urdu – the class divide that exists between English and Urdu.”
A large number of ‘questions’ from the audience turned out to be mere speeches, despite Farrukhi’s repeated attempts to ask short questions. Hussain had an interesting explanation for this. “Our society has heard so many speeches that we have forgotten how to ask questions,” he said, explaining how, at one point, asking questions were discouraged. “There are no such restrictions now but speeches have made us forget our questions.”
Published in The Express Tribune, October 20th, 2013.