GAME BY TARIQ REHMAN

Whereas “Game” revolves around some cadets who decide to teach a group of village boys a lesson, for having the audacity to play
on land, to which they assume, erroneously, they have the sole right. This story provides a chilling insight into the in-built fascism
which runs through Pakistan’s class-riven society, while “The Inquisitors” reveals how easily innocent children can be manipulated
and turned into monsters. The plot revolves around a group of small children, who are trained, or rather brainwashed, by an uncle,
to be worthy of his great hero, Quaid-i-Azam, through secret outdoor games involving slogans and endurance tests. Tellingly, in
most of these stories, the liberal voice of protest exists, but remains largely ineffectual.

Tariq Rahman once served in the Pakistani Army and some of the best stories in this collection describe different aspects of military
life. He also describes lives village people and peasants, with great sensitivity and shows the desperate circumstances in which they
try to eke out a living as best they can.

“The Lead Gatherer” is poignant portrait of a young boy, who lives near a military camp and
gathers metallic fragments to sell, until one day, he picks up a grenade.

A few stories such as “The Dance of the Beards” look at the feudal structure of rural society, while the “The Moustache” tells of a
Punjab village, where a luxuriant moustache is considered such a symbol of pride and honour. A myth develops and Dadu’s
moustache earned the envy and wrath of the local Chaudhury. A generation later, Dadu’s nephew Shafqat who sports an equally
enviable moustache, leaves his home for a job, where his family discovers that neither his height, nor strength nor a moustache, is
of any consequence at all.

The quality of the stories in this collection might vary, but they do have a tension that
impels the reader forward. They touch upon many disparate lives, to highlight those of the
innocent, the downtrodden and the dispossessed, in particular.