Have the socio-political compulsions of Pakistan overtaken its literature? The recent output, at least in English, and reportedly in Urdu too, would certainly suggest so. Well, The Wish Maker, Ali Sethi?s debut novel, adds another layer to the unraveling palimpset of Pakistani life. This work is set amidst democracy and dictators, of saviours turned opponents, of heroes revealing feet of clay and prejudices that run deep, of universal dreams that struggle and adjust? The novel?s narrator is adolescent Zaki Shirazi (A touch of Lenny in Bapsi Sidhwa?s Ice Candy Man?), and the world he inhabits in dominated by women ? his cousin Samar Api, ?in search of her Amitabh?, his mother Zakia, a liberal magazine editor, his Daddi ? his dead father?s mother, her daughters. With prose fluctuating from the lyrical to the colloquial, and enough thoughts and insights interspersed, Sethi?s book is one of the two that is being used to launch the Hamish Hamilton imprint in India. Twenty five-year old Sethi explains to Suman Tarafdar why Pakistan is such a treasure trove of stories waiting to be told.
To what extent is the novel autobiographical?
I did not want to make it a narrative of Pakistan. Archiving my childhood seemed to be a good way. I started writing in 2006, when (Pervez) Musharraf was the hero and Pakistan was growing at 8%. At that time to be writing about Benazir (Bhutto) and Nawaz Sharif seemed strange, but by the time I finished, they were back. The legacy of the Reagan administration is just beginning to rear its head here. Islam?s link with militants is still part of the present.
How do you see Pakistan?s complicated relation with India? How much of a difference does it make in writing?
India has an established literary tradition. A thing we lost with partition was the religious diversity. Today the idea of the Islamic republic of Pakistan overshadows everything. I discovered a lot of history that is older than Pakistan much later than you would here. My textbooks were similar to Zaki?s. Islamisation was complete in the 1990s. However, in Urdu, debates are happening now. The Khwateen Digest, which sells about 1,50,000 copies in the country, raises a lot of woman specific issues, but remains below the radar. They have experts on everything ? feudalism, sex, love? media footage is still a novelty in Pakistan, though now there are many private channels. Fashion is haram in Pakistan, but there is FTV in the country. The idea of Pakistan is being worked out and if you want to write, you do not run out of subjects.
Is the situation changing in Pakistan?
My context is Lahore. Lahore is not Karachi. It is relatively peaceful. But now regional politics and bombs are much closer home. Now everyone has to deal with it. But life goes on ? and keeps it real. Only now I am more curious. I know what protests are taking place, what the army is doing. Kids just five years younger than me are taking discussion for granted, not the case for me. The army?s collaboration with the US and Saudi Arabia are under scrutiny. The public is conscious of paying the price of collaboration for the first time. Mohammad Hanif?s novel, A Case of Exploding Mangoes, established the connection so clearly. People in Pakistan have always been excluded from the democratic process. However, society has become more democratic and people are turning to the judiciary. The way the chief justice is completely new to Pakistan.