TRANSLATION
A new social vision
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Masud’s stories articulate a protest that is full of wider social resonances. Jyoti Nair Belliappa
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NAIYER MASUD’S short stories combine the surreal with the absurd and present the angst of man in a hostile and indifferent environment. Narrated in the first person, the stories are open-ended, seemingly unfocused and yet succeed in embodying e
very moment with humanism and a state of vulnerability.
Several of the stories emerge in a stream of consciousness fashion. “Custody” and “The Big Garbage Dump” reveal that as long as man is obsessed with selfishness, he will have no regard for the past and no regret over the possibilities lost while he dissipates natural resources. He also understood the human mind that wished to utilise and exploit nature fully. In these stories, although human beings appear magnificent and often ingenious, they stand speechless before the consequences of their deeds, as if deprived of their power of reasoning.
Wry comments
The denouement located both abruptly and close to the commencement destroys the hope that the beginning had engendered. Profit is an over-riding motive and forces men into plotting the graphs of a catastrophic world. The stories offer a wry comment on under-nourishment and unemployment and deploy the imagery of stagnant and shrinking figures alienated from a larger section of society because of a continuing discrimination that contradicts the complacency of affluence.
The “Obscure Domains of Fear and Desire” and the “Woman in Black” speak of women crammed into narrow spaces without rights, left to experience fear, and a hopelessness they cannot navigate. Their misery and tragedy cannot be portrayed in strictly individuated terms. Their ignorance does not recognise any misuse of power and cannot refute any lies. They are invariably pacified with promises and an all too facile recognition of their actions.
Masud’s preoccupation with alienation is reminiscent of Marx. His stories highlight the alienation of man from society and the fruits of his labour. “Epistle” recounts a mother’s excessive love for her son. The story offers a comment on mothers as victims of discrimination that are based on inherited social customs, belief systems and values.
Other alternatives
“Maar geer, several voices repeating that cry like an echo”, while capturing a snake in “Snake catcher”, present a spectrum of situations of combat, conflict, confrontation, concern and co-operation, to sensitise society to the rightful place of humans in the world. The stories deal with other alternatives, seek to awaken the consciousness to fight oppression, convey a new social vision, and seem to offer solutions in times of profound crisis when older paradigms have failed to produce convincing solutions.
Muhammad Memon’s singularly brilliant translation of Masud has given birth to new literary ideas and identities. The stories are prefaced with couplets from Ghalib, Mir Taqi Mir and the likes of Blake. Dr. Iqbal’s couplet sums up Masud’s concerns
“Ei taaire lahuti uss rizk se maut achhi , jisk rizk se aati ho parwaz mein kotaee.”
(Man’s flight should not be akin to the bird’s which impedes his own progress.)
Masud’s stories articulate a protest that is full of wider social resonances. He combines progressive ideas in a modernist idiom, reflecting on a fragmentation of the self in a vocabulary that suggests a still evolving sensibility.
Snake Catcher: Stories by Naiyer Masud; Translated from the Urdu and introduced by Muhammad Umar Memon, Penguin, Rs. 250.
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