By Zaib
“Sahib, gunaahgaar hain; kaafir nahee!” is one of the oft-quoted phrases in the Urdu language. Friday night, January 30, 2004 saw one of the banquet rooms of Mehran Restaurant in Newark, California host to the launch of a new collection of short stories by Lali Choudhary. The ceremony was organized by eminent Bay Area Pakistani leader Dr. Khawaja Ashraf and attended by over sixty lovers of Urdu literature; the event held the complete attention of the audience for its duration of three hours.
The book being feted was Lali Choudhary’s “Hadh Chahiyay Sazaa Main...,” a collection of short stories. Ms. Choudhary lives in the Los Angeles area and was invited for the program by Dr. Khawaja Ashraf.
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
|
Lali Choudhary
|
Dr. Hamdani
|
Ali H. Cemendtaur
|
Khalid Siddiqui
|
Sabahat Ashraf
|
Sardarji
|
Dr. Khawaj Ashraf
|
The program was divided into prose and poetry sessions. Ali Hasan Cemendtaur, noted local prose writer and activist, emceed the prose part. At the onset, this correspondent was asked to present a biographical account of Lali Choudhary’s career. Lali was born in a landed family in, what was then called Lyalpur. While sending her to college, Lali’s father advised her to keep a distance from poets and writers. The promise she made to her father lasted years through a life in Southern California. But an exchange of letters to the Editor of Pakistan Link on the topic of Sahir Ludhianvi lead to the writer in her being awakened never to go to sleep again.
 |
|
Samina Faheem, Noshi Gilani and others
|
Suhab Hamdani honored the visitor a selection from Allam Iqbal’s immortal work, “Shikwa.” The audience was impressed by her spirited performance but some seemed to be wondering about the poem’s relevance to the program. Samina Faheem, a Bay Area Muslim activist who has appeared on NPR and other media outlets in the aftermath of 9/11, regaled the audience with an entertaining and humorous piece on her friendship with Lali Choudhary.
In his review of Lali Choudhary’s work Ali Hasan Cemendtaur said that literature is the narration of life and whenever two people meet a story is born. He expounded on the evolution of man in social, political, religious, ethnic, and linguistic groups-”literature is about human-to-human interactions along all these dimensions of our existence; Lali Choudhary has her magnifying glass on man-woman relationships.” He presented an analysis of “Naqsh Faryadi”, one of Ms. Choudhary’s short stories. Cemendtaur commended Choudhary on using simple plot and unostentatious language.
Quoting from “Guddu” (a short story), distinguished Bay Area poetess Noshi Gilani paid tribute to Lali Choudhary’s touching tales. She paid the writer a poetic tribute:
Mohbbath du’a hai
Radd-e-balaa hai
Dr. Khwaja Ashraf, in his presentation, described Ms. Choudhary’s work as the stories of lives being blended into the melting pot that is America. The devise through which this process of blending occurs, according to Dr. Ashraf, is that of cultural shock therapy and depending on the strength of the “cultural shock absorbers” each immigrant community is equipped with, they lose or gain layers in their personalities.
Lali Choudhary thanked Dr. Khawaja Ashraf and her friend, Noshi Gilani, for arranging the evening in her honor. She then read “Hud Chaheay Saza Main”, a short story from her book. The audience was astonished by the fact that Lali Choudhary remembered the whole story by heart and read it without having to refer to the written text.
Jahangir Hamdani, who presided over the literary evening, described the work of writers like Ms. Choudhary as being that of telling truths that the society doesn’t want to talk about; telling them using the device of fictional characters. He spoke very highly of Lali Choudhary’s hue of feminism. “Lali Choudhary’s feminism is not about a confrontation between man and woman; it is about the injustices carried on woman; it is calling for reconciliation between the sexes,” Mr. Hamdani said.
Noshi Gilani emceed the poetry section of the program. She read poetry from her recently-released third book. Other people who read their poetry included Samina Faheem, Razia Qazi, Dr. Khalid Siddiqui (visiting from Sacramento), a senior poet Mr. Ibad Ur Rahman Azmi (visiting from Saudi Arabia), and Jahangir Hamdani. Mr. Sachdev, a faithful regular of Urdu literary evenings and an expert on A’dam, read poetry by the ustaads, or masters of Urdu literature, that mentioned the word “Afsana.”
But even after Mr. Sachdev’s eclectic tribute from the world of poetry to the world of “afsana”, the topics and themes of both Ms. Choudhary’s work and the speakers, left this correspondent’s mind lost in the oft-quoted couplet from the Master himself, for as Mirza Ghalib said on behalf of all rebellious artists:
Hadh chahiyay sazaa main aqoobath kay waasthay
Aakhir gunaahgaar hoon, kaafir naheen hoon main!