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the-south-asian.com May 2004 |
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May
2004 Music
Lehngas - a limited collection Books Between
Heaven and Hell
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KAMILA SHAMSIE - Stories of Karachi, London and beyond. by Avinash Kalla
When her first novel, In The City By The Sea was short listed for the John Llewellyn Rhys Prize, Kamila Shamsie became an instant celebrity in Pakistan and critics raved about her stories of Karachi, London and beyond. Back in 1999 just when the ambers were dying out after the mega-success of Arundhati Roy's The God Of Small Things, another young south Asian writer was keeping the creative flame of Pakistani women writers burning bright. When her first novel, In The City By The Sea was short listed for the John Llewellyn Rhys Prize, Kamila Shamsie became an instant celebrity in Pakistan and critics raved about her stories of Karachi, London and beyond. Two years later her second novel Salt And Saffron too received glowing reviews and she was honoured with the Orange Prize and named among the 20 best writers of the 21st century. She completed the trilogy with Kartography. " The response to my books has been quite overwhelming," says Shamsie who was recently in Delhi---" A city that I instantly fell in love with," as she puts it. Sitting in a Delhi hotel she seems to have answers to all your queries. Ask her about her latest book or the India Pakistan cricket series or even questions like the attack on the Indian Parliament, Shamsie takes them all and gives detailed replies. But it is her new book, Kartography, that brings out the best in her. The book is a lively exploration of Pakistani cultural life in the seventies. Again set in Karachi, it revolves around the lives of Raheen and Karim whose parents are not just best friends but actually swapped fiancés back in the seventies. In the backdrop, the book masterfully describes the 1971 Indo-Pak war and the formation of Bangladesh. It depicts the cruel face of corruption and violence that Raheen encounters in her home town when she comes back to Karachi after graduating from an American college. Shamsie’s first novel In A City By The Sea too was set in Karachi and was from the perspective of Hasan, an 11-year-old boy, coping with the tensions of living in the rule of General Zia ul Haq. " I grew up in the times when General Zia ruled Pakistan. That’s why I subconsciously slip back into that era," says the author. Indian Experiences She fondly recalls her first visit to India when she was invited by Chennai’s Stella Maris college as a writer-in-residence. " That was my first visit to India and I had a wonderful time. People here are eager to know about the perception of India in Pakistan," says Shamsie. The author was in fact quite amazed at the interest shown by south Indian students about Pakistan. " I always thought it was people from north India who were curious about Pakistan. South Indians I felt would be culturally close to Sri Lanka. But I was wrong." Shamsie who writes for The Guardian and Prospect magazine is carrying forward the lineage of her family. Her mother Muneeza Shamsie, is a critic, journalist and short story writer, who edited the anthology A Dragonfly in the Sun for Oxford University Press in 1997. Her grandmother, Jahanara Habibullah, is also a writer and is the niece of Indian novelist and short story writer, Attia Hussain. " I always wanted to be a writer. In fact let’s say I wanted to grow up to be a voracious reader. But somehow I couldn’t become one. So I thought to myself, well, ‘I love writing as well, why not give that a shot?’ I co-wrote my first book with my best friend when I was 11, and I haven't stopped writing since," says Shamsie with all seriousness. Over the years she has learnt to deftly weave fact and fiction, entwining her own experiences with those of the characters she creates. " I always put my characters in the situations that I have been through and then proceed with my writing. Once I’ve visualized the situation then the writing comes easy," explains Shamsie whose characters are not typecast forms injected into the contents. They keep changing. Writing for her is no meteoric burst or a stylistic flash. She believes in an `idea'. A scrap of news or a face seen in a crowd is enough for her to weave a story. " I keep turning my stories over and over in my mind, choosing and discarding bits, till a pattern and design emerges," says Shamsie who teaches creative writing at Hamilton College in New York but keeps going back to Karachi often. Says Shamsie, " Back in the eighties, the feeling was that South Asian English writing seemed exhausted and spent. But now there is a whole new generation of writers in their 30s and 40s with lively and energetic styles." She herself has not faced any tension as a creative writer in English as she has studied in America. In fact her first book, In The City By The Sea was accepted for publication while she was still studying in the University of Massachusetts. Little could she have realized that the book would not just win her numerous accolades and awards but her flair for wit and originality would put her in the forefront of modern English writings in Pakistan. ***** |
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