Insomnia and other Stories by Aamer Hussein (Penguin)

This was a book that I had picked up from Bangalore book fair last year. It was very abrupt decision on my part as I never buy a book without substantial amount of ground work. But this time I relied more on my instinct as the book is published by Penguin press.

I must say I was not wrong. When I started reading it, I fell in love with the author’s eloquence to play with words. Not only words, but Aamer Hussain seems to be an expert in narrating the minutest of human emotions with so much fervor that I could almost feel and smell the cold and bleak winter of London while sitting in Bangalore summer.

This book is a short story collection and Aamer Hussain has written stories based on his experience in various parts of the world. Since he comes from Karachi, the influence of Pakistani literature is unavoidable. Aamer keeps telling stories of fellow Pakistani authors, poets and thinkers who succumb to the political powers and that they are left with no chance to speak their minds freely. His bold approach to criticize Pakistani rulers made me consider him to be one of those free thinkers like Khaleid Husseini or Gabriel Marquez. But I was wrong. His immense and strong hatred for India and the way he explained how some villagers near Jaipur kill and eat almost-alive pigs not only surprised me but once again established him to be just another orthodox Pakistani writer who though does not live in Pakistan but cannot come out of the grasp of age-old mindset. Isn’t the characteristic of poor people same irrespective of what religion they belong to and where they live?

As for me the principle of the author is important and this short story suddenly changed my view towards the high thinking of Aamer Hussein and I discovered Insomnia and other Stories by Aamer Hussein not to be my favorite book.