is a poignant commentary on the way women are treated in our society and the author has been successful in pricking the readers’ sensitivities in bringing home the discriminatory treatment women are subjected to in our society.
Dr Sabeen Hashmat: Her story, “Khali Dabba”, tells the story of an unconscious child who is found atop a garbage heap. He is picked up by a teenager and when he takes him home, everyone is in a quandary as to what could be done with the child, how to get him back where he belongs.
Ultimately, after a whole lot of rigmaroles, he ends up in the hands of two conmen who would obviously use him for their nefarious ends.
Shakir Anwar: His short story dealt with the way a woman’s body becomes the object of exploitation and shame in the face of economic hardship.
It is the story of a man who comes face-to-face with a woman of easy virtue. He asks her the price for her services to which she replies “Rs5,000” while he’s not willing to part with over Rs500. On a later occasion, he again meets her and this time she quotes only Rs500 as the price. On probing, it turns out that she’s in dire need of money and she’s operating as she is because her husband is terminally ill with cancer and another kin of hers is also seriously ill and she’s in dire need of money for their treatment. One is taken on a journey of pathos on hearing this heart-rending tale.
Iqbal Khursheed: His “Zamindar Ki Beti” is the story of the clash of feudal and egalitarian values. A computer engineer who has a humble origin falls in love for the daughter of a feudal. As expected lots of
hindrances in the fruition of this relationship take place till one day the young engineer jumps from a six-storeyed building and makes and end of himself.
Critic Saba Ikram praised the standard of the writings and lauded the literary talent in society.
Peerzada Salman, while praising the talent, said that unfortunately, the reading habit was not there the way it should have been.