Animals in Urdu: Part-II

Perhaps the best Urdu short story involving a bird is by Nayyar Masood. ‘Taoos Chaman Ki Mynah’ (The Mynah of the Peacock Garden) is set in the Lucknow of the 1850s. A poor man, Kaley Khan, has a young daughter who longs for a mynah to play with. Kaley has lost his wife not long ago and now is a single father who doesn’t want to disappoint his daughter. When Kaley Khan gets a job in the royal garden (Taoos Chaman) as a bird keeper, he steals a mynah, without realising that the king remembers each of the 40 birds in the garden.

His daughter is ecstatic at her pet mynah and plays with and talks to it all the time. After a few weeks, the king of Oudh plans to visit the garden again. When Kaley Khan gets to know about the king’s visit, he panics and places the mynah back. During the king’s visit, the mynah starts repeating words it has learnt from Kaley Khan’s daughter. The king – accompanied by some British officers – gets angry; Kaley Khan faints, trigging a chain of events that you can only enjoy by reading the story.

The story is a marvellous delineation of a period in Indian history when monarchs and other aristocrats were busy with bird-keeping and chess playing, while the British were about to take over the Oudh kingdom from Wajid Ali Shah. The story ends with the British annexation of Oudh – much in the same fashion as Prem Chand had portrayed in his famous story ‘Shatranj Ke Khilarhi’ (The Chess players), beautifully adapted by the Bengali film director Satyajit Ray for the only Urdu movie he made. About birds in Urdu stories, I can’t help but also mention ‘Saf Shikan Batair’ by Ratan Nath, so beautifully rendered by Zia Mohiuddin.

As mentioned in the previous column, Munshi Prem Chand has written some of the best stories on animal-human interaction. Three of them are: ‘Ghum Ndari Buz Bkhar’ (If you don’t have problems, buy a goat), ‘Do Bael’ (Two Oxen), and ‘Naag Puja’ (Snake Worship). The first is about how a simple desire to have fresh milk at home prompts a family to buy a goat and this leads to unexpected and intractable problems.

‘Naag Puja’ is a disturbing story in which a girl feeds milk to a snake which almost becomes a pet at home. When the girl is married, the snake fatally bites the groom. After some time, a second marriage is arranged but the same thing happens again, throwing the whole family into despair and mourning. When a vet comes to know about this, he sends a proposal for marriage, resulting in unexpected outcomes; you’d better read it to know what happens.

Regarding snakes, you must read another excellent short story by Mazhar ul Islam. ‘Saanp Ghar’, translated as ‘The Snake House ‘by Christopher Shackle, is a story about a man who thinks there is a snake in his home. He tries to locate it but fails. Soon enough he feels snakes at his office too and even creeping all over his body. He seeks help from other people but nobody, not even expert snake-charmers, can find the snakes he feels everywhere. Finally he is disappointed in snake-charmers and looks for an expert sage who can locate the frightening snake for him. The story ends with the following lines, which I am tempted

to reproduce:

“The holy man moved his head when he saw him, as if to ask the reason why he’d come. ‘I have been searching for you for ages. Thank.. God that today I have found you. I have a snake in my house. Please do something. I am at my wits’ end,’ he said all in one breath. ‘What can I do, you idiot?’ the holy man replied in a weary voice. ‘There’s a snake in my house too.’”

With this story, Mazhar ul Islam defenestrates all spiritual charlatans and leaves his readers on their own to deal with the snakes in and around them.

Prem Chand’s ‘Do Bael’ is about two oxen that love their master and work hard, but suddenly their owner sends them to his in-laws. The oxen miss their master and break free at night to return home. They are repeatedly sent to various places but each time they endure great hardship to turn back, finally prompting their master to accept, love and keep them.

Bovine subjects are sacred for Hindus and this topic is also tackled by Shamsher Singh Nirula. Nirula’s story ‘Gau Hattiya’ (Cow killing) is a superb reflection of a poor village where there are over a hundred cows; all are feeble and old but nobody kills them for fear of god’s wrath. When an old cow is dying, hungry dogs attack and maul it. The next day, a young man who has come from a city to improve the lot of the villagers gives poisonous food to stray dogs but accidently a cow also eats it and dies. This sparks a hue and cry by villagers, especially by a Hindu priest. The situation turns ugly and the villagers who themselves don’t have much to eat pay the priest to atone for the Cow Killing.

On a humorous note, Azim Baig Chughtai’s ‘Chund Bael’ (Some Oxen) is a collection of vignettes about different oxen and their interaction with the writer. It is included in the second volume of ‘Chughtai ke Afsaney’ (Stories of Chughtai) published by Urdu Academy Sindh in 1952.

There are a few interesting write-ups about dogs in Urdu. For example, Sir Syed Ahmad Khan’s ‘Behs o Takraar’ uses dogs as an example to teach readers how not to argue in public. There are at least two humorous pieces about dogs; one by Haji Laq Laq and another by Patras Bukhari. Haji Laq Laq was the pen name of Ata Muhammad (1898 – 1961) who wrote humorous and satirical prose and poetry in Urdu. His story ‘Maim Saab ka kutta’ (The dog of a lady) is a satirical piece about how a lady loves her dog, but during a train journey the dog is replaced by a stray canine.

Patras Bukhari’s ‘Kuttay’ (Dogs) is included in most selections of the best humorous writings in Urdu. It deals with a nocturnal outing of dogs and their exchange of pleasantries that ends in a cacophonous uproar to the horror of the writer. But, perhaps the best short story involving a dog is by Saadat Hasan Manto – the giant of Urdu short stories. ‘Taytwal Ka Kutta’ is included in Manto’s collection titled ‘Yazeed’. The story has been beautifully translated to English as ‘The Dog of Taytwal’ by Tahira Naqvi and included in ‘The Life and Works of Saadat Hasan Manto’ published in 1985 by Vanguard with an introduction by Leslie Fleming

Written in 1951, the story is still as relevant as ever. The setting is a frontline between India and Pakistan in the region called Taytwal. Soldiers from both sides are bored to death and miss their families. To kill time they start firing every now and then, but to no avail. Suddenly a dog emerges at the Indian side and soldiers can’t decide if the dog is Indian or Pakistani. The soldiers take the dog as an Indian and christen him by giving a name. They feed him and ask him to be a proud Indian. A collar of his name is tied around his neck.

After a while, the dog wanders around to the Pakistani side where Pakistani soldiers rechristen him with a new name. When the dog returns to the Indian side and soldiers see a new name card dangling from the dog’s neck, they start firing. The poor dog tries to get back to the Pakistan side, is caught in the crossfire and dies. This is a tragicomedy of Indo-Pak rivalry and about the futility of enmity that results in death and misery on both sides.

Concluded

The writer holds a PhD from the University of Birmingham, UK and works in Islamabad.

Email: mnazir1964@yahoo.co.uk