Realism with a touch of idealism

[Qurratulain]

Realism with a touch of idealism




By Intizar Hussain

IMAGINE a man turned into a dog. How irrational, worse than what is deemed as supernatural. The realistic tradition of fiction sticks to what is rationally convincing in human life rejecting all in fiction which doesn’t confirm to this rule. So a story-writer adhering to this tradition of fiction just cannot afford to conceive the like of a situation stated above. In case such a situation occurs in his fiction, it simply means that there is something wrong with his realism.

In fact a story included in the newly-published collection of Saeed Sheikh’s short stories has provoked me to express this kind of doubt about him. Saeed Sheikh is no new name in Urdu fiction. He had to his credit a number of novels and short stories. In these novels and short stories he has been seen following faithfully the norms laid down by realistic tradition of Urdu fiction. Oh yes, he has also to his credit an autobiographical account published under the title D.C. Nama, which tells of his attraction for mystic tradition with particular reference to Baba Farid. But that too did not disturb his adherence to the realistic tradition in his fiction.

Now we have from him a new collection of short stories Rakab published by Sang-e-Meel. In these stories we find a variety of social situations portrayed well along with characters of all sorts. They are treated in accordance to the nature and behaviour they carry with them. We have here characters portrayed in an idealistic way. Others have to undergo a realistic analysis and a probing into their beings. But in general his realism carries with it a touch of idealism. That lends a charm to the character he is trying to portray, though those characters who personify bad people appear more real.

But among these there is one story which appears to be a breakaway from his usual mode of thinking and expression. In the story titled as Rogi we come across a peculiar situation where a man, the central character of the story, shows the signs of losing his human behaviour and slowly drifting towards the state of an animal. That brings us close to the theme of metamorphosis, the strange phenomenon of man turning into an animal.

This reminds us of some modern fiction writers who have depicted this situation in a symbolic way. However, this theme can be traced back in old fiction, where it is recurrent showing us human beings undergoing a process of transformation and turning into diverse animal forms. In old Indian tales this imaginative phenomenon enjoys the backing of a religious belief known as transmigration of soul. Taking cue from this belief, the storyteller feels free to create kind of characters, who are ever ready to cast off their human form under some pressure and transmigrate into some form of an animal. And it is a fluid situation. The poor fellows go on transmigrating from one animal form into the other.

In dastans we find sorcerers playing this vicious game with their victims. Beautiful sorceresses in particular are in the habit of turning their condemned lovers into animals. In a story of Alif-Laila a beautiful princess has in her palace a garden, which is swarming with animals of all sorts. Soon we come to know that the princess is a sorceress and these animals deers, pigs, stags are her ill-fated lovers, who failing to win her favours were deprived of their human identity and turned into animals.

In old tales these acts of metamorphosis serve the purposes of the story. It was left for later critics to discover symbolic meanings in them. But when the modern fiction writer picked up this theme, he meant to exploit its symbolic significance, which he found inherent in it.

Saeed Sheikh’s story should be read in this background. The treatment of theme here is rather psychological. The hint pointing out to something animalistic in him sows the seed of self-doubt in him. That hint comes from his wife, who seems playing very much the part of Lady Macbeth in relation to her husband Zaka. Her worried comments pointing out to a strange change in his behaviour and in his guttural sounds make him acutely conscious of something wrong with him. Initially, it is a vague feeling, which slowly and gradually develops into an acute consciousness of a development of something doggish within him. As if a dog is struggling inside him to come out. Gradually his whole behaviour undergoes a doggish transformation. Finally, the animal in him comes out resulting in the obliteration of his human identity.

Such is the story written by Saeed Sheikh, which stands distinct from the other stories in the collection. Should it be taken as a sign of some kind of change in his fiction or just an attempt to write a different kind of story, taking hint from modern fiction?