"It is death that makes us appreciate the beauty of life — that very beauty that we would have taken for granted had we been immortal," Mustansar Hussain Tarar.
“From all my experience and travels, I have drawn but one conclusion: life is only beautiful because there is death,” said the almost soft-spoken author, whose very aura seemed to both intimidate the audience and make them admire him at the same time.
For Mustansir Hussain Tarar, the inspiration to write has come from the books he has read and from observing his surroundings on his many travels across the country and other parts of the world. It is these fundamentals, he claimed, that have made him a success. A success he has certainly been, having authored 12 novels and over 40 ‘safar namas’ (travelogues).
In a tete-a-tete with Irfan Javed at the first day of the fifth Karachi Literature Festival, Tarar explained to the audience the reasons behind the three most common themes in his writings - ‘pani, parinday aur maut’.
All great authors draw the basic inspiration from their roots, explained Tarar. “I was born in Punjab - the land of five rivers. I have lived close to these great rivers all my life. Therefore, water as a theme was embedded in my writings from the very beginning.”
The second element, the birds, were incorporated into his writings after he came across a book by a Sufi author who had used birds in a metaphorical sense to represent the faults in humans that faltered them from attaining enlightenment. For Tarar, who claimed he was still searching for his self-enlightenment, this literature represented the dilemma we are facing today.
The third element, maut (death), has been a part of his travelogues as a character since his very first pieces. “Death has always accompanied me on my adventures as it helped me appreciate life all the more,” he said.
“So when does the journey end?” asked a member of the audience to general applause. “My search hasn’t ended yet,” Tarar smiled dismissively.
Published in The Express Tribune, February 8th, 2014.
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