Writing a Nation!

The political unrest, suicide bombings, increased terrorist activities; safe heavens for radicals, jehad, talibanisation etc are very few topics that hit one’s mind when we speak of Pakistan today. For a long time now these are the things we hear and get to see about Pakistan on television news channels or get to read when we thumb down pages of international newspapers or magazines. Pakistan definitely is in the news for all wrong reasons.

What certainly is going good for Pakistan although is their literary scene. Yes, the literary field is safe under the hands of three excellent Pakistani writers in Mohammed Hanif, Nadeem Aslam and Daniyal Mueenuddin among many other writers.

I pick these three gentlemen in particular, as they are young, bold and certainly someone who could rebuild the image of Pakistan with some great writing.

Mohammed Hanif and Daniyal Mueenuddin have one thing in common. They both have come back to Pakistan after living outside of Pakistan for many years.

Mohammed Hanif was born in Okara, Pakistan. After leaving the Pakistan Air Force Academy to pursue a career in journalism, he worked for Newsline, India Today, and The Washington Post. He has written plays for the stage and screen, including a critically acclaimed BBC drama and the feature film The Long Night. Hanif is a graduate of University of East Anglia’s creative writing programme. He lived in London for 11 years and has written many columns for Gaurdian regularly while working for BBC. He is currently head of BBC’s Urdu Service and lives in Karachi. His first novel A case of Exploding Mangoes has become a huge hit and was long listed for The Man Booker. I met him and had a great conversation when he was here in Hong Kong early this week for the ongoing The Man Hong Kong International Literary Festival. Hanif mentioned that he is currently working on his second book.

Daniyal Mueenuddin was brought up in Lahore, Pakistan and Elroy, Wisconsin. A graduate of Dartmouth College and Yale Law School, his stories have appeared in The New Yorker, Granta, Zoetrope, and The Best American Short Stories 2008, selected by Salman Rushdie. For a number of years he practiced law in New York. He now lives on a farm in Pakistan’s southern Punjab.

Nadeem Aslam continues to live in London. His latest novel is The Wasted Vigil, published in 2008, its title derived from a painting with the same title by a Pakistani artist.

Lets all hope that these gentlemen through their writing influence the rebuilding of what seems to be a battered country.