A N T H O L O G Y
B The sharper pen
ilal Tanweers translation
of Muhammad Khalid
Akhtars famous Urdu
novella and some related
stories, all set in the small,
not-fashionable and some-
what seedy and upstart
Karachi neighbourhood,
Chakiwara, and featuring an over-
lapping set of colourful characters,
gives the lie to the adage: humour
cannot be translated.
Urdu is one of the languages of
the Indian subcontinent with a highly
distinctive repertoire of literary
humour. It is also a language of
many linguistic nuances and stylistic
curlicues. Despite this and inevitably
some of it will be lost in any translation
Tanweers version strikes the English
reader as hilarious in parts and never
less than captivating. One turns the
pages of this book with always a smile,
and sometimes a loud guffaw.
The centrepiece in Tanweers
translation is Akhtars 1964 classic,
Chakiwara mein Visaal, called the
greatest novel in the Urdu language
by Faiz Ahmed Faiz and winner of the
prestigious Adamjee Literary Award.
More a novella than a novel in terms
of volume, this is a funny story about
the timid, pretentious and largely
unread Urdu novelist, Sheikh Qurban
Ali Kattar, and his great passion for a
young woman, narrated by his reluctant
friend, Iqbal Hussain Changezi, owner
of the successful Allah Tawakkul
Bakery and Restaurant in Chakiwara
and a collector of literary people.
In Kattars case, Iqbal Hussain
Changezis collection has backfired, as
the novelist has in turn been collecting
free meals, fresh shirts and new ties
from the entrepreneur. Not to mention
cups of tea. Nevertheless, Changezi
his surname being a sudden discovery
of roots based on no evidence by his
grandfather, the sort of discovery that
we are getting familiar with in India
too these days has persisted with his
patronage. His admiration of Kattars
novels which Kattar once produced at
a rate of one every six months but has
stopped writing now verges between
genuine admiration of their potboiler
tendencies and deadpan observations
like this one: Take any novel by Sheikh
Qurban Ali Kattar (except for The
Rogue Beauty) by the end of it you
would not only know everything there
is to know about the prevailing norms
of the mystery novel but the plot of
ninety nine per cent of his own novels.
Sounds familiar, doesnt it? Not that
I am going to drop names!
Kattar, like the brave heroes
of his novels, tends to fall in love
easily, but alas he lacks the courage
of his heroes, and his love remains
unnoticed by everyone, including the
girl everyone, of course, except his
reluctant confidante Changezi.
When Kattar comes to Changezi
with another report of a new girl he
has spotted on a balcony, Akhtar gets
his narrator, Changezi, to write a great
meditation on balcony love or rather
an appeal to American do-it-yourself
authors to pen a book on this overlooked
variety which anyone growing up in
any humdrum, conservative part of the
subcontinent should recognise. But
this time Kattar is serious, and the girl
is an exceptional beauty. There follows
a series of hilarious intrigues to get
the girl it is not always clear what
Changezis intentions are, and he does
note that Kattars novel-villains tend
Love in Chakiwara and Other Misadventures
By Muhammad Khalid Akhtar
Translated from the Urdu original by Bilal Tanweer
Picador India, 2016, 312 pp., Rs 499 (HB)
ISBN 978-93-82616-81-8
TA B I S H KHAIR
to have names rhyming with his. Add Akhtars novella, Chakiwara mein
to this the mountainous, lice-ridden, Visaal whose English title, Love in
resplendent Professor Shahsawar Khan, Chakiwara and Other Misadventures,
a glorious con-man or a genuine mystic I have some problems is his best-
trafficking in djinns (or both), and you known work and hence the centrepiece
have a novella that takes you through of this anthology. However, the book
the alleys, cafes and balconies of also contains three other stories by
Chakiwara at a rollicking pace, making Akhtar, probably published after the
good-humoured fun of everything, not novella, though I could ascertain the
least (conservative and progressive) publication date of only one: The Love
writers, on the way. The great Saadat Meter, which is listed as first published
Hasan Manto makes a, shall we say, in 1986 as Miqyas-ul Mohabbat. If these
cameo appearance too! stories are anything to go by, one has
Urdu is one of the
languages of the Indian
subcontinent with
a highly distinctive
repertoire of literary
humour. It is also a
language of many
linguistic nuances and
stylistic curlicues.
Despite this and
inevitably some of it will
be lost in any translation
Tanweers version
strikes the English
reader as hilarious in
parts, and never less
than captivating. One turns the pages of this book
with always a smile, and sometimes a loud guffaw
One way to imagine Chakiwara is to to call for translations of other stories
think of a more urbanised and transient by Akhtar. These three stories are set in
Muslim version of Narayans Malgudi. the same neighbourhood, and portray
There is a similar accumulation of a similar set of characters including
colourful, idiosyncratic characters and Kattar and Changezi. However, their
deftly described local details, though narrative focus and themes vary. The
there is a sharper edge to Akhtars first one, The Smiling Buddha, for poverty, it is indispensable for students and
humour. This is not to say that there is instance, is not just a very funny
any direct derivation: a contemporary story but also a crime story, featuring
of Narayan, Akhtar (1920-2002) had a deeply fascinating villain. Similarly,
obviously his own distinctive style, and The Downfall of Seth Tanwari is
played more openly with the discourses a kind of ghost story as well as a
of hybridity that were to be seriously commentary on financial greed
noticed by post-colonial critics only while staying just as humorous as any
after the rise of Salman Rushdie in the of the other works. It is surely an index
1980s. However, just as Akhtars style of a writers immense talent when he or
is far too idiosyncratic and satiric to she can use humour for such different
fit the largely realist tag bestowed on aims. Moreover, unlike the ending of
Narayan (except, to some extent,The the novella Chakiwara mein Visaal,
Man-eater of Malgudi), it is also far too which struck me as a bit hurried (my
located and ironic to be called magical only complaint), these stories are
realist. Like all major writers, at his admirably well-rounded. In any case,
best, Akhtar seems to both invite and this is a collection to read and an author
defy labels. to discover. n
BIBLIO : APRIL-JUNE 2017
27
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