The twenty one pieces in this selection are Chughtai at her best, marked by her brilliant turn of phrase, scintillating dialogue and wry humor. This evocative collection brings together Chughtai’s fiction and non-fiction writing resplendent with her characteristic irreverence, wit and eye for detail. ‘Gainda’ and ‘The Net’ deal with sexual awakening and role playing, and ‘The Wedding Suit’ has to do with a daughter’s marriage. ‘The Quilt’ lends itself to feminist readings, and ‘Tiny’s Granny’ demonstrates how Chughtai delineates the lives of marginalized people.Chughtai wrote on a variety of themes apart from sexual desires and middle-class morality. ‘The Survivor’ is an incisive expose of the ruthless game of real politik in India in the seventies. ‘Roots’ and ‘Kafir’ illustrate the power of stereotypes in perpetuating cultural prejudices. The three autobiographical pieces display her acute powers of observation and description. In ‘Hellbound’, the writer paints a brutally honest portrait of her brother, and ‘My Friend, My Enemy!’ and ‘In the Name of Those Married Women’ are about Sa’adat Hasan Manto.
There are no reviews yet.