Saba Bashir

Book review: Patna Blues by Abdullah Khan

Reviewed by Saba Mahmood Bashir

patna blues

Title: Patna Blues
Author: Abdullah Khan
Publishing House: Juggernaut Books
Year of publication: 2018
Price: Rs 499

 

Yeh maikad-e-ishq hai yahan  jaam-e-junoon milta hain
Giriya-e-deed-e-Qaisha wa Qalb-e-Laila ka khoon milta hai

To say that Patna Blues, the debut novel of Abdullah Khan, is about the life of a young boy, an IAS aspirant from Patna, is limiting the scope of the book and the author. Strongly set in the history and politics of the nation of the last 30 years or so, the story is woven on the desire of a middle class, hardworking family to see their son as an administrative officer. What gets sewn in the storyline is the infatuation of Arif Khan, the protagonist, with a Hindu married woman, Sumitra, who is much older to him. However, in actuality what lies within the fabric of the story is the socio-political situation of the country in the background and which keeps jutting out throughout the main narrative. Right from the building up of the political mood of the nation before the demolition of the Babri Masjid to the Gujarat carnage and the then Chief Minister being denied the US visa, the story continues along the arc of political changes that happen in the country. One notices the changes in the storyline with the rise of extremism and its impact on the common man. There are references of how his honest father, a respectable police inspector, had to pay the price for his honesty, and how the corrupt officials tried to settle scores with him after he retired. This issue of corruption has been dealt with rather sensitively, portraying at length the helplessness of an honest officer. Again, when Arif’s younger brother, an aspiring actor, goes missing from a Muslim dominated locality in Delhi, there are suggestions of corruption and an existing fear of the police.

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Book Release: I Swallowed the Moon: The poetry of Gulzar

Gulzar-DelhiA book on Gulzar’s poetry was released in the presence of the famous poet and Hindi film lyricist himself at Jamia Millia Islamia in New Delhi on October 24, 2013.
The book, I Swallowed The Moon: The Poetry of Gulzar (HarperCollins India), is written by Saba Mahmood Bashir, who teaches at Jamia Millia Islamia as a guest faculty.
The book was first launched at the Bangalore Literary Festival on September 28, 2013 by Gulzar and lyricist Prasoon Joshi. It was followed by a panel discussion on October 24 at Jamia Millia Islamia on the theme, ‘The Poetry of Gulzar’ where the panel consisted of Gulzar, Pavan K Varma, Sukrita Paul Kumar, Prof Asaduddin and Saba Bashir.  
“This book is culled out of my PhD thesis from IIT, Delhi,” Saba told Kitaab. “The book focuses on the poetry of Gulzar, placing him as a Progressive Poet in Popular Culture.”