Pakistani Writings in English

Q#1: Poetry emanates from the very land in which it is written. The cultural substratum that
gives anchorage to its roots remains variable source from which it gains nourishment and
defines the self of the poet. Discuss with reference to any poet you have read

ANSWER

Toufik Raffat one of pioneers of English poetry in Pakistan. The portrayal of Pakistani
culture, customs and Pakistani nature is distinctive, and he was called as Ezra Pound of
Pakistan by one of his disciple Aslam. Rafat's interest with Pakistani idiom is an outflow of
the contention among custom and innovation. We will zero in on the degree to which Rafat's
verse is a comparability of current custom of verse. His distinction of Pakistaniness is most
unique and appreciable in the circle of poetry.

The Monsoon season holds such a spell over the authors that the West understands it and
really want to be moved to the sights and hints of the period. The late monsoon season and
storm climate turns out to be a steady marvel of Pakistani journalists where they talk
unreservedly about downpour. In his poem “Arrival of Monsoon” Raffat writes

“Alive, Alive, everything is alive- again. / Savour the rain’s coolness on lips and eyes.”

This picture of the rainy season of Pakistan is unique and pure Pakistani which can only be
expected from Raffat.

In his poem “Children Understands him” another of our social fortunes is brilliantly
appreciated. A granddad is brought out as a picture of dependence and trust for his grandkids.
Precisely how it in a perfect world is in our way of life where three ages live together and
prosper seeing each other develop. The cutting-edge world has removed even this social
advantage from us with retreating levels of resilience, trustworthiness, and tolerance. he asays

“they understand him. / From man-roar, and friendly/ punches to the chest,/ and damp kisses
on scrubbed cheeks,/ they sail to the harbour of his knees.”

In his poem Kitchen the opening line is

“Kitchen were the places we grew up” depicts the whole family culture of Pakistan where
most important place was considered as kitchen mother is cooking and giving food to
children and husband. All-important discussions were conducted in kitchen important
decisions were taken in kitchen.
In his poem “Wedding in flood” he pictured a marriage ceremony of rural area of Pakistan
where rain has started, and everyone is blaming bride that her pot lickings have resulted in a
lot of rain on her marriage. Her looking glass, bed, tin storage boxes and specially the
palankeen in which she is sitting is only representation of Pakistani culture.

To conclude it has been examined that Raffat’s poetry is true depiction of Pakistani culture
and this give a feeling of ownness. His use of Pakistani Idiom is distinctive and make him a
pure representative of Pakistani culture in the world.

Q#2: discuss subaltern resistance, survival, and death in Muhammad Hanif’s “Our
Lady of Allice Bhatti”

“Our Lady of Allice Bhatti” is mind shaking portrayal of Pakistani society and attitude of the
common people towards minorities particularly females. Hanif tries to locate the suffering of
a female nurse in a bad reputed hospital where she witnessed uncountable treacherous and
harsh incidents. Our very own female protagonist Alice has to face perverts, exploiters,
maltreaters at every point of her life and she kept fighting until her last breath and made it to
note her resistance in this society of patriarch, which is uncommon, she fought back to
survive but this privileged society for patriarchal setup cannot digest her furious warrior
nature and made her to die.

Alice Bhatti a Christian nurse working in badly reputed hospital “Sacred Heart Hospital for
All Ailments”. The connection among people obviously shows that the force rest with the
male individuals in the novel. Ladies come up short on the essential security they need, and
men treat them as toys in their grasp. They attack them and treat them as useless creatures.
Ladies are taken as the property of men.

“Suspicious husband, brother protecting his honour, father protecting his honour, son
protecting his honour, jilted lover avenging his honour, feuding farmers setting their water
disputes, money lenders collecting their interest: most of life’s arguments, it seemed, got
settled by doing various things to a woman’s body” (Page: 96).

Throughout the novel Inspector Malangli kept criticizing that these are women who make
men weak and make them feel fool of themselves, he kept talking like that with Teddy Butt
 “Women make you weak and impotent because they make perfectly normal men feel they are
fools.” (Page: 161)

Ladies are badgering so much that they can't live openly in the public. They need to keep a
specific stance and talk with a particular goal in mind to keep them save from the defiled men
around them. As we see Alice in novel, who makes an honest effort not to draw in the
consideration of men, keep her held on all events – her method of chatting with other, her
way of strolling and dressing herself up.

“She tries to maintain a nondescript exterior; she learns the sideways glance instead of
looking at people directly. She speaks in practiced, precise sentences so that she is not
misunderstood. She chooses her words carefully, and if someone addresses her in Punjabi,
she answers in Urdu, because an exchange in her mother tongue might be considered a
promise of intimacy.”

Men, then again, are moving around uninhibitedly and don't hesitate to do what ever they
like. Teddy says to Noor that

“If a man goes nine seconds without thinking about a woman, chances are that he is not
really a man.” (Page: 39).

This portrays the genuine image of men the Pakistani society. They can't remain for a
particularly limited ability to focus time on the event that they are not considering ladies.
Their entire life appears to spin around the body of a lady. To be a genuine man one needs to
consider the body of a lady. This is the thing that Teddy, who is more seasoned than Noor
and who should direct Noor, is enlightening that little youngster concerning taking care of
business.

Power is only for the men and women do not belong to this notion they are inferior, and men
are superior they are supposed to live in subordination of men and cannot even breath without
the consent of men. But Alice Bhatti proved it wrong she tried to defend her tried to answer
back every punch she received every wound she bears. She had trial in court due to punching
a senior doctor. She was jailed for many years due to murder attacking a doctor. She once
gives a slight cut to penis of a VIP patient’s son. She is fearless and bold enough to ridicule
he higher authorities

“she says things like what is the difference between a doctor and a donkey?
Sometimes she says it in a room full of doctors” (p. 35).
there is no attack she got which she left unanswered. Give answer to every malpractice she
become victim of and never accepts the power discrimination of the society but influence of
patriarch could not bear her bravery and silenced the subaltern to show their superiority.

Through her character Hanif wanted to give the expression that it’s up to women to speak up
for their rights its turn of subaltern not be silenced and fight back light Alice and prove their
existence. She lost her life fighting with the patriarch and give a light path to the other ladies
to not stay silent.

Q#3: Discuss identity crises with reference to the novel Burnt Shadows by Kamila
Shamsie.

Burnt Shadows is a remarkable compelling historical epic from the prolific writer Kamila
Shamsie which includes the previous sixty years of significant world occasions, showing how
isolated a spot our planet has become. Countries are dubious of one another's intentions when
fear and selling out give restricted expect a serene future.

The Protagonist of the story is a female named Heroku Tanaka who is a Japanese lady, a
survivor of American atomic bombing at Nagasaki Japan in 1945, where she loses her home,
her dad, her fiancé Konrad who was a German and all the cherished memories with it. She is
the introduced as the first model of all the outrages occurring on the earth by the alleged
superpowers. In the opening of every subpart of the novel, on the behalf of the Bombing
experience, Hiroko is made to scan her reality in the public and on the earth everywhere;
where she has been shrinking to a toy in the hand of nature; this reality of Hiroko's life will
be increased before the end of the novel gradually more and more.

After the bombing incident she has become only a ‘hibakusha’ a bombing survivor and put
her in the state of someone strange and alienation. The neighborhood where she spent all her
childhood playing, the school where she used to teach everything is forgotten and the love of
her natives is converted into odd looks and whispering. Her individual identity is lost and
now she is only a ‘hibakusha’. The so-called superpower America has been criticized here
because of their stance of superiority native Japanese have lost their identity in their very own
land. This savage reality suffocates Heroku and compels her to leave the place immediately.
She went for Konrad’s sister in Delhi India. Because

“there was nowhere else for her to go.” [Shamsie: 48]

She was welcomed by Elizbeth who is married to James Burton took great care of Heroku,
but she still sinks her heart and doesn’t felt at home. English culture does not appeal her and
left her abandoned and victim of lost identity, then she was attracted by and employee of
James Burton who was a Muslim named as Muhammad Sajjad Ashraf who was teaching her
Urdu Language, both fell in love and Heroku tells him that she is more appealed towards his
customs rather than English society.

 “It seems to me that I could find more in your world which resembles Japanese
traditions than I can in this world of the English.” [Shamsie: 90]
This shows how Heroku is stumbling from one identity to another from Japanese to a German
to an English to an Indian. This is only generosity and kind nature of Sajjad which melts her
heart and found some homie at least. But rest hasn’t been in life of Heroku and she again has
to witness partition of India and end of British Empire. Everyone was talking about either
they will stay in India or move to Pakistan but Heroku was inequitably silent and struck about
her identity, her sense of lost identity was explicit. Burton family being her care takers
wanted to bring her with them as they only own her when she has no identity in the whole
world. Elizbeth warns her to marry not with Sajjad as being a German she has experienced
her lost identity to wear the identity of English. So, she wanted to save her from the
aftermaths of that marriage where Heroku would’ve suppressed herself to accept Sajjad and
this is trauma of all the women who suffer from trauma of lost identity throughout their life.
After marriage this is woman who must adapt the pattern of her husband, they don’t do, they
don’t know to do.

After their marriage their happened many cultural conflicts which both minimized by
mutually understanding and bond of love between them. Heroku accepts Islam to avoid more
clashes and started wearing Japanese dress and Sajjad also adopted many things of her culture
to balance the strife.

Sajjad also become the victim of lost identity as living with an English master wearing his
used cloths playing chess with Burton and often losing the game just to please him. He must
leave his place his beloved Delhi which he doesn’t wanted to leave at any cost.

“My first love. I would never have left it willingly. But those bastards didn’t let me go
home.” (161)
Sajjad has become the most affected victim of Pak India Partition. He like Heroku must leave
his beloved place his mother, siblings, home, relatives at a sudden and no degree at hand
must migrate to Pakistan where he could only become a manager at a soap factory.

After wards Heroku settled in America during the incident of 9/11. his hybrid son Raza is
also a victim of lost identity. And always in ambiguity who is he and which nation’s loyalty
he owns. Spending his life in an American jail.

To conclude whole novel is amalgamation of some history changing incidents. The characters
in the novel are migrating from one place to another suffering from culture clash loss of
identity, frustrated and confused throughout the novel. Through her novel Shamsie focuses on
the aftermaths of wars and mass killing incident which nothing leave in positive but a huge
number of sufferers only.

Q#4: Discuss Social customs of Parsi Ethos in Bapsi Sidhwa’s The Crow Eaters.

Bapsi Sidhwa a well-known Pakistani writer of master pieces she gave world. All of his work
is different and give variety of taste to her readers. Her major work Crow Eaters is a complete
portrayal of Parsi culture. Being a Parsi herself this novel of her considered as her
autobiography. Seeping into the novel for finding the Parsee culture depiction through the
following features.

Religion

Parsi people worship fire. They are followers of Prophet Zarathustra; their religion known as
Zoroastrianism was founded around 2000 B.C. Its essence is to be found in the five Gathas or
Divine songs of Zarathustra.They don’t smoke because fire is very sacred to them and
puffing fire is a sin and they kept a fire lamp burning all the time

Dresses

Parsee men and women wear dresses which differentiate them from other cultures. They wear
other dresses too but their traditional or cultural dresses have some distinction. Men wear the
white pyjamas with starched white coat-wrap fastened with bows at the neck and waist as
described about Freddy—the heading figure of novel.
“The very next evening, rigged out in a starched white coat-wrap that fastened with bows at
the neck and waist, and crisp white pyjamas and turban, he drove his cart to Government
House.”

Language and way of speaking

Parsi people talks in louder tones like yelling at each other. Yelling word has been used
many times to depicts their way of talking. Freddy and Jerbaano often seen yelling at each
other. They also talk too much as crow eaters is a proverb used for talkative people so title
of this novel is true depiction of Parsees

Dealing with dead

Parsi way of dealing is different from other culture there is a salt tower which is very high
and dead bodies are place on the top of that tower where vultures eat them. According to
parsi people they show generosity by doing this

Salt in water

Putting salt in water is an indication that someone wanted to marry from the family.in the
novel Freddy found salt in the water and on inquiry he came to know his son Yazdi wanted to
marry with his class fellow.

Marriage in community

Parsi do not marry out of their community as in novel son of Freddy ,Yazdi wanted to marry
and Anglo Indian girl but he strictly refuses that they cannot marry out of community

‘You have the gall to tell me you want to marry an Anglo-Indian? Get out of my
sight. Get out!’

Belief in stars and astrology

Parsi people believe in stars and astrology the exact time of birth of a baby is noted with the
help of stopwatch to know the exact horoscope of the baby. Women blacken their eyes and
soot their cheeks to avoid the evil things and black magic. Off and on in the novel, Freddy is
shown to have a firm belief in the movements of stars, superhuman and supernatural things.
Whenever he is dejected and depressed, he goes to some fortune-teller. His visits to the
tenement fakir and Brahmin Gopal Krishan are examples of his faith in such men.
CONCLUSION

To conclude the novel examination with the lens of culture representation ‘Crow Eaters” has
been proved to be a pure depiction of Parsi culture which Bapsi Sidhwa beautifully portrayed
and gave a feat to read to her readers throughout the world. We can completely learn about
Parsee culture after reading her novel.