Victims of Western
influence
It is now the time that
the first generation of people who had migrated from
Pakistan in the sixties for either want of occupation or
for acquiring higher studies, have reached an age when
their children who were born in the West, are now adults
and the impact of the Western society both in good or
bad terms is already visible in their personalities.
Those of us who visit England, US or other countries of
Europe now, have witnessed this impact very minutely.
When this reviewer proceeded for higher studies to
England in the late sixties, he witnessed the hard work
the labour community settled in the Midlands especially
from Mirpur, Azad Kashmir and from other places in
Pakistan, were putting in to earn their bread and
butter. This labour community mostly lived below poverty
line and was forced to work on much lesser wages than
the prevalent rates, due to their peculiar
circumstances. Some of them, who were on illegal status
had often to pay half of their hard earned wages to
their sponsors. Sometimes a worker who went to the
factory during the day shift would sleep on the mattress
in a small bedroom in diminutive houses in Small Heath
or Balsal Heath areas in Birmingham during the night and
another would sleep on the same mattress during the day
as he had worked during the night shift. Their life span
minimized due to hard work and lack of sleep. Time went
by and due to the hard work of their parents, the
children grew with better facilities like housing and
food but unfortunately lesser percentage among them
aspired to gain knowledge from the excellent
universities present in UK. Many married English spouses
of their choice; very few of them gave respect to the
eastern traditions as practiced by their parents. This
reviewer discussed this dilemma with the son of a dear
friend, who responded that it was not his fault that he
was born and bread in UK. He had to follow and practice
the traditions of the land.
Maqsood Ellahi Sheikh is one such person who opted to
stay in UK. He is living there since past four decades.
He hails from an educated family in Pakistan. The
literary magazine ‘Makhzan’ came into being in April
1901 with Sheikh Abdul Qadir as its editor. The other
important personalities who were its editors later on
were Hafeez Jallundhri, Hameed Nizami and Dr. Waheed
Qureshi in different eras. It was at the time when Dr.
Waheed Qureshi was publishing ‘Makhzan’ from Pakistan
that Maqsood Ellahi Sheikh started publication of a
literary magazine from UK with the same name. Its five
voluminous issues with the latest one printed in 2006
are with this reviewer. The difference between the two
types is that all the issues of UK one comprises poetry
and fiction by writers from USA, UK, Europe and Asia
that are analytically reviewed by leading Pakistani and
Indian critics. Sheikh Saheb is also a poet as can be
seen from the Hamd titled ‘Mujhey Rang Dey’ included in
Makhzan’s 2006 issue.
Sheikh
Saheb therefore encourages the writers living abroad and
he has written many stories on the topic we have just
touched upon in the first Para of this review. His
outlet was to pen his observations and experiences down
in the form of short stories of the immigrants in the
book under review titled Chand Chehrey Samunder
Aankhain. This book was presented to the reviewer by
the author during his recent visit to the United
Kingdom. Credit goes to Muhammad Shafiq for compiling
these short stories in the form of a book on this
important issue. In the year 2002 when Maqsood Ellahi
Sheikh’s book titled ‘Man Darpan’ had received best
book’s award in Los Angeles, USA, he had stated that he
would write no more. His friend Muhammad Shafiq had
vehemently disagreed at that time. Those short stories
that had not been printed in the form of a book but were
earlier printed in some literary journals were selected
in collaboration with Dr. Mahmood ur Rehman of Open
University, Islamabad to compile the book under review.
The latter writes in his prologue to this book that a
writer never breaks his pen and hopes that Sheikh Saheb
continues writing short stories. Another literary figure
Salah ud din Parvez from India terms the literature
emanating from Maqsood Ellahi Sheikh as ‘Immigrants’
Literature’. Arshad Naeem from Sheikhupura, Pakistan
states that these short stories open the doors into the
lives of those living abroad and facing a dilemma; it
enters into that aspect of life that enters from its
realistic happenings to the deep down quandary the
overseas community faces today.
Sheikh
Saheb writes on some other issues also as can be seen
from his first short story titled ‘Dast Tehe-e-Sang’
that is based on the loves and hatred of two families in
the backdrop of separation of East Pakistan from its
Western Wing in 1971. It also refers to the political
freedom or otherwise as it exists in Pakistan. It simply
ponders upon the mistakes that were made to separate the
two brethren of one nation. This story reflects upon the
basic minor differences in the way of living of the two
communities that were blown into major ones by the
arrogance of our rulers and the neighbouring country
added fuel to the fire to our negligence. A deeper
insight and maturity could have salvaged this debacle.
The main character of this story Baji Tauqir un Nisa is
an excellent singer. Despite loved by the all the family
members of her neighbouring family, she becomes victim
of a dissident. Once when she returns from now
Bangladesh to meet friends, she is apprehended on the
return flight, only to be released a day later. All the
members of her host’s family are pretty disturbed. Much
later they find out that one of their uncles was the
informer.
Now we
must mention the most touching short story of the book,
which is titled ‘Zawaal, Lazawaal’. It is a story of a
father who works untiringly in a factory to fulfill all
the needs and desires of her daughter, Azra and son,
Adnan. He had just become a widower as his wife, Zamarud
had died young. At this emotional juncture of his life,
he promises himself that under no circumstances he would
neglect his children. As the time passes, his daughter
gets married and his son, on his minor scolding on his
coming home late, leaves his house in anger. The father
is left alone. Much later he finds out that Adnan had
married a white skinned girl, Sylvia and the brother and
sister were socializing together without the knowledge
of their father. On one occasion, when the father visits
his daughter’s house out of loneliness, he is reminded
by his children of the harsh treatment they had met from
his hands in their childhood. They had totally forgotten
the sacrifices he had made to bring them up as a single
parent. He leaves Azra’s house in disgust. None of his
children came out to stop him. Much later, he is
approached by some dignitaries of the city to spend some
time with an Asian Old Peoples’ Home. He finds solace
there and one day asks his lawyer to change his Will.
This is a story of every other house of immigrants
living in the West and is a satire on the affects of the
West on the well knitted family structure of the East.
The other stories titled ‘Bazdeed’, ‘Do Char Qadam’,
‘Dhuan Dhuan Si Zindigi’, ‘Majboorian’, ‘Paton Peh
Tasveer’, ‘Tarz-e-Taghaful Na Arz-e-Tamana’, ‘Sach Much’
and ‘Lakri Ki Talwar’ are worth reading as they are
basically touching upon the problems arising because of
the influence of the Western culture on the immigrants
hailing from our part of the world. For this reason
alone, the book titled Chand Chehrey Samunder
Aankhain becomes a special one among gamut of short
stories written by Maqsood Ellahi Sheikh’s
contemporaries
