Afsanay / افسانے

by Ahmad Nadeem Qasmi

Anthology of self-selected forty short stories.

Hardcover

Published January 1, 2015

About the author

Ahmad Nadeem Qasmi born Ahmad Shah Awan was an Urdu and English language Pakistani poet, journalist, literary critic, dramatist and short story author. He wrote 50 books on topics such as poetry, fiction, criticism, journalism and art, and was a major figure in contemporary Urdu literature. His poetry was distinguished by its humanism, and his Urdu afsanay (short stories) are considered second only to Prem Chand in its depiction of rural culture. He was also editor and publisher of the literary magazine Funoon for almost half a century.
He received several awards such as the Pride of Performance in 1968, Sitara-e-Imtiaz in 1980 and Pakistan's highest literary award Kamal-e-Fun Award in 1998 for his literary works.

Reviews

[Adnan Arshad · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ahmed Nadeem Qasimi was a famous writer, poet & journalist. This book is compilation of forty short stories selected by author, as the name depicts Author dedicates this book to Gulzar Sahib who was a big name literary/film circles. An artist/author work is like children to him/her and at times I wondered it must have been such challenging task for Qasmi Sahib to select the stories.
Afsaana (Short Story) is a very effective way to tell a story, which leaves the reader wondering. Urdu language has produced some outstanding Afsaana writers like Krishan Chandar, Saddat Hassan Manto, Ismtat Chughtai, Balwant Singh etc.
In Qasmi Sahib Work depiction of rural life is very amazing along with description of beautiful village landscape. But it is not without the painful fact that most of people in our villages are poor , un-equal distribution of wealth and tyranny of big landlords (Jagirdars).
Author’s lots of work is inspired by and based on the events of Second World War in which lots of Indians and specifically Punjabi youth took part, his explores the social effects which had on their families, lovers and wives.
When I started reading the book and after some stories I felt that I know them earlier although I had not read them early then I realized that when I was young PTV aired a drama serial Qasmi Kahani which was based on Qasmi Sahib stories.
All stories are good, but below is the list of the ones I liked the most;
1) Aalaa
2) Ehsaan
3) Maasi Gul Baano
4) Fashion
5) Jin o Ins
6) Baitay Baitian
7) Raais Khana
8) Gandaasa
9) Sanaata
10) Hiroshima se Pehlay Hiroshima k baad
11) Mehngai Allowance
12) Aslaam O Alaikum
13) Ghar Se Ghar Tak (which was part of our urdu book in Matric)

[Namoos Qasmi · Rating 5 out of 5]

All these 40 stories are chosen very wisely. It is very difficulty for a person to make a selection of his own work. A very good read.