Saima Afreen reviews Zafar Anjum’s collection of short stories, Kafka in Ayodhya (Kitaab), in The New Indian Express (27 Sep, 2016):
In most of the stories Zafar remains a silent writer. He presents the characters from a distance. They do most of the talking as he presents them as if sitting in the chair of an erudite clerk who documents the coming and going of the characters. The narrative looks distant like starlight filtering through glass windows. You see them walking, you hear their words, but can’t really catch them. In the title story, your mind wanders to the town Ayodhya and the incidents of Babri Masjid attached to it. The story talks about the much-awaited judgment and the author’s rendezvous with the perceptions expressed through journalists. The author himself is Kafka in the story. The story is an attempt to begin the search for belief, its coming apart. It relies on the telescopic vision of the author, when if reached near, gets blurred. He creates the awareness of this paradox by textual construction of the development in the story. That’s how the short crisp sentences make for a speed-read.
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