TheNation
February 17, 2013
Rendezvous
The Epitome of Glamour
Ayesha Hashwani interview
up close and personal with the one and only
Juggan Kazim
Welcome spring! style
travel
Government Satellite City
Canberra
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interview
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society Sunday Plus
New brand in town
LAHORE: Humayun Alamgir, a special brand for men, recently opened its new store in Lahore. It offers unique and new designs to its clients. The event was organised by Raspberry Events & PR and was well received by a number of celebrities including Nouman Javaid, Siege Band, Billy X, Umar Akmal, Muneeb Nawaz and more.
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1 Mahmood Alam, Nauman & Asif Iqbal 5 Shahzad Ch
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2 Ahsan Pavaiz 3 Umer Akmal
6 Junaid Khan(Siege Band)
7 Zeeshan & Ali Wyne
4 Billy X, Hassan Hayat Khan & Humayun Alamgir
8 Ali, Faizan Suhail & Farhan Nawaz
9 Nauman
10 Faizan Suhail, Humayun Alamgir, Junaid Younus, Farhan Nawaz, Nouman Javaid, Muneeb Nawaz & Hassan Hayat Khan sunday plus FEBRUARY 17, 2013
Tragedy of Contemporary China Title: Pow! | Author: Mo Yan | Publisher: Seagull Books | Prices: Rs. 2700 | Pages: 386 | Genre: Fiction depths of the characters, he seems to novel is a more solid and representative ate last year, the Chinese writer make it his goal to stay on the surface. tragedy of contemporary China. The Mo Yan was awarded the Nobel narrator’s family, like many families in Much of the energy of the novel is spent Prize for literature. Pow! is his on long and sensuous descriptions of the village, gave up farming to become first novel to appear in English since butchering, cooking, eating and other the Nobel honour. Politics aside, this butchers. The village, under the sway of bodily functions. There are too many an entrepreneurial leader, used all sorts book seems to represent everything episodes when the reader has to witof ways to cheat: water that has gone amiss in Mo was injected into the meat ness this or that character urinating, Yan’s work, and perhaps and to endure long descriptions of the to add weight; formaldein a broader way what urine. has gone awry in China’s hyde and artificial colours Toward the end of the novel, the were added to preserve literature of the last 30 narrator tries to avenge his parents by years. the fresh look. For a while the family prospered in the firing Second World War mortar shells The novel opens with at his mother’s lover. The long passages a young man telling his meat industry, until the about his 41 attempts – “Forty-one family story to an old narrator’s father axed his Shots” was the original Chinese title, wife to death in front of monk, reversing the his children and her lover. changed to the lively Pow! – again read well-known formula for as a desperate measure to prolong the Intertwined with this famchildhood stories in which novel without touching the heart of an old monk tells a story ily tragedy is the image of the matter. They offer no more than a contemporary China – a to a young one. During the repetitive summary of what has already butchering society that narrative a slew of inexhappened, something that a more confifeeds on greed, deception, plicable characters comes dent writer would not force his readers corruption and material decadence. and goes in front of the narrator’s eyes. to reread. One cannot say that Mo Yan has not Certainly Mo Yan does, as without criticised China in his portrayal of the them he would have a bigger chalvillage, but rather than exploring the lenge: to tackle the gritty realism of his darker undercurrents of society or the fictional world. The backstory of the
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Beating pulse of present and past
Title: The Gift of Possession | Author: M. Athar Tahir | Reviewer: Prof. Bushra Naqi | Publisher: Tanabana Publications, Lahore | Prices: Rs. 500 | Genre: Poetry
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he Gift of Possession is Athar Tahir’s latest book. Like his other volumes of poetry, it is a work of craftsmanship, interlaced with vivid imagery. His poetry is meticulously stylistic. Every line is chiseled to perfection. Every stanza is carefully crafted with an intrinsic rhythm. It is all a combination of aesthetic and poetic craft. The poet’s emphasis is on visual imagery captured in the omnipotent moment. His images have a concrete and abstract dimension to them, which is the supreme epitome of his poetic expression. The themes are simple but vivid. The first poem in the book, ‘Stroke’ draws several evocative images: A single cypress against the sky A slide, a skirl, a gentle poke The poet’s topics are homegrown, rooted in our native traditions. In the poem, ‘Basant’ he depicts the flying kites, which could symbolize the essence of freedom. Other poems like ‘Fog,’ are beautifully descriptive, infused with fresh and
stimulating images, which have pictorial clarity: Caught between the sun’s certainty And the lifting struggle of light It sits on the land Like a vast indecision. Poems written about the afflictions of dear ones in his life, his mother and sister, though written with detachment, show a deep sense of compassion. Parenthood and family values are cherished by the poet. The mother’s letting go of her life to follow in death her husband, reveals the totality of her love and reverence for the man she pledged allegiance to. These stands draw again on the deeply sown traditions of this land. Athar Tahir observes and captures things that move around him and move him. His discerning eye seeks significance in ordinary objects. ‘Sparrows’, ‘Fog’, ‘Motorway’, ‘Cotton Tree’ are accorded memorable presence in his work. Like an artist whose perceptions distil life for the unforgettable image, driving down the motorway he notices.
The quartet on the earthquake in Muzaffarabad, Balakot and the Neelum Valley, is about these beautiful regions which were devastated. He writes how this calamity erased everything while impacting the inhabitants: With a shiver The earth’s dark design Pushed the present into the past. The section ‘Requiem Sonnets’ includes, among others, poems on Benazir Bhutto an Oxford friend, the grief and loss resulting from her killing and the ensuing political upheaval. The pulse of the present and the past beats persistently in his poetry. His love of the land of his birth, his affinity to, and longing for, the people he touched and the places that touched him, resonate in slow and steady permutations in this volume. The poet by giving his book the title The Gift of Possession, is probably referring to these natural gifts which life bestows to us and which he has used as topics for his poems. Possession of these valued gifts, enable him to share telling moments of life with the reader.
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