Review on Colour of Night

Shoukat Hussain Shoro is a renowned Sindhi short story writer and columnist. His first short story appeared in 1964 and since then he has never looked back. Four collections of his short stories including 'Gum Thiyal Paacho' and 'Raat jo Rang' and two others have been published, while he has also compiled 'Selected Sindhi Short Stories of One Hundred Years' in two volumes and first volume has been published by Institute of Sindhology. He remained a director of Institute of Sindhology from where he retired. Mr. Shoro's work has been translated into English, Urdu and Hindi.

In year 2018, Mr. Shoukat Shoro's selected short stories were translated into English by Ram H Daryani and the book titled 'Colour of Night'. The book is published by Shilalekh Publishers, Delhi, India. In this collection Mr. Daryani has translated fifteen stories of Mr. Shoukat Shoro including Blank Page, Butterfly upon the Lips, Colour of Night, Signal, Honour Killer, Nana, Scared Man, Sob stuck in Throat, Starved Beauty, Still Waters, Stranger, The Lost Shadow, The Sea and The Lonely Spirit, Tunnel, Dreams Hung in Eyes and Mouse Trapped in Toilet.

Before commenting on these stories, I would like to say that Sir Shoukat Shoro is among those short story writers who accepted and introduced modernism in Sindhi stories. As he himself mentions on the back title of his book Raat Jo Rang that:

 'During 1950s Enlightened Writings were on peak in Sindh, I'd read a lot of such writings in Sindhi and Urdu, in that manner when I started writing stories my protagonists were oppressed peasants and antagonists were the oppressing feudal class. During the sixties nationalistic sentiments got hike and influenced literature, as Sindhi society was facing oppression from the state.

During that decade I left out writing out class differences and started writing about oppression faced by Sindh and its people. After 1971 war, Pakistan lost its East Wing. The politics and economics of the country collapsed.

 Larger portion of Sindhi youth was frustrated and depressed due to unemployment. We were among those youth.

 By the way, the decade of 70 was time when entire world was embracing modern ideas and movements. During that era new story was born. Modern Story was in practice in Sindhi literature from India. The short story writers in Sindh, who embraced and started writing modern story included Manik, Mushtaque Shoro and me.'

Most of the stories included in this collection deal with every day life and focus on problems of middle class. Such as the Sob Stuck in Throat deals with one sided love of a wife to her nagging husband, or the title story Colour of Night deals with what goes inside an individual and how he loses from the ill-treatment of society and wants to commit suicide and in the end he is crushed by a speedy car at seaside, this story reminded me of Albert Camus.

 Likewise the story Nana, deals with a taboo subject of incest where Hassan has illicit relationship with his grandmother, who is finally shot to death by Hassan's grandfather. This story mesmerizes readers as it comes to end. All the stories are written in unique style with a unique diction. While Sir Shoukat is a master when it comes to the art of story-telling.