LAND OF FIVE RIVERS (Paperback)

Is there anything distinctive about writers born in the land of the five rivers? I believe there is. Male writers try to project a macho image of men of their state - macho with a touch of naivete simplicity a modified version of the nihang. But even within this stereotype they have plenty of variations. Perhaps that is why my two all time favourites have been Khwaja Ahmeed Abbas’s Sardarji (named by me as The Death of Sheikh Burhanuddin) and Saadat Hason Manto’s Toba Tek Singh (translated by me as Exchange of Lunatics). Both plots are utterly contrived and yet manage to portray Punjabi character and the tragedy of partition which so cruelly divided Punjabi Mussalmans from their brthern, Punjabi Hindus and Sikhs. No other short story or novel has been abe to do so in so short space and with such poignancy….Kushwant Singh