Posts

Protest: A Poem

Image
  By: Rubina Abro (Translated from Sindhi to English) Birds don’t have Any religion, Nor do they have Any sect, In which they Are trapped? Even their names Are craved on their wings, By humans for their own convenience Don’t know Whether birds are aware Of their names Or not! But birds do know How to safeguard the nest How to hide fledgling Under wings And how to protest, When a fledgling doesn’t return back home At evening How to woe in trees? Never seen a bird Stealing another bird’s fledgling Never has a bird stabbed a mother’s heart with (knife of) separation! Let’s ask all the birds (Oh!) Thee dwellers of sky How come humans dwelling the earth Have remained so backward from thee? Flap thee together when, The tree leaves shiver And the heavens turn into Lamenting cry And then every bird returns To its nest safely But, When would our Priya Kumari Return to her nest? Why is she still Imprisoned in the gloomy forest Where she even doesn’t know Whether humans are beasts Or beasts a...
Post a Comment
Read more

The Hoopoe!

Image
  Free Verses Kaleem Butt Flying over Isfahan The hoopoe’s eyes Were filled with tears. And wondered what had Happened to the world? Was it the same world that Once was ruled by just and mighty kings like David, And after him, Ruled by his son Solomon the magnificent! While flying, The hoopoe heard a cry O! Isfahan My dear brother hear my voice hearken to my plea no one else could understand thy pain better   than me and the hoopoe flying over thy sky for he is the one who was present in Solomon’s court, To give him good news About Bilquees; the Queen of Sheba. For he used to fly over my sky In my time of agony For thousands of years I have been the center of Brutality and bloodshed At human hands For silly reasons! O! Isfahan My dear brother, For thousands of years I have been a holy city For majority of world’s population The promised land! Half of world’s population Believes that, An ordinary stone lyin...
Post a Comment
Read more

The Dictator’s Curse

Image
  Short Story Kaleem Butt Forty-five year old Professor  Akram , the master storyteller of  ‘ Land of Pures ’, known as man of uncountable words and stories, walked past the huge tower of curse, his eyes went upwards to the hourglass that was filled with the dictator’s curse, the curse inside the glass looked like some kind of white liquid. Professor  Akram  sighed walking away quickly, firmly pressing the spectacles that he held in his right hand since his lips were sealed with a black tape, he was unable to speak. He’d to walk a mile from the isolated area of  Kaf City,  and show his presence at the dean’s office testifying that he was the happiest citizen in the dictator’s regime, even if being a storyteller his lips were sealed. In his early days Professor  Akram  was a clean shaven man, it was said he was a charmer and any woman could fall for him just by listening to his magical stories. Stories that gave...
Post a Comment
Read more

The Un-caged Virgin of Africa: Free Verses

Image
  Once upon a time in the exotic lands of Africa, That gave birth to earliest human civilizations, A land of resilience and vast traditions A wonderland by nature, with beauty that resembled magic, Full of charms and spells; Lived a ‘Caged Virgin’, well-known for her beauty and boldness. Slowly and gradually she became a symbol of resistance. Loved and revered by those who believed in humanism; She became the voice of African women. Bringing forward the evil practices like female gentile mutilation; Everyone listened to her carefully; And hailed her for breaking the evil cage of dogma. For best ideals she put her life in danger; As she started calling her ‘infidel’; Her own people wanted to kill her. But the humanists came to rescue her, They took her to lands where free speech was not a sin, Where people where ready to listen to anything and everything; Our beautiful and charming ‘Caged Virgin’ was now ‘un-caged’; and not the virgin anymore. S...
Post a Comment
Read more

Water

Image
  Short Fiction  By: Kaleem Butt All of sudden my eyes open…. I can feel the darkness and death like silence for a moment…. As though world has ended…. I think I’ve survived…. Something has happened in this dark deep belly of the raging sea that has helped me to survive like Jonah survived in the belly of the whale…. I am coming to my senses and hearing voices. To tell you the truth I have no idea for how long I’ve slept in this dark belly of the water. It might be a small part of day or a full day… or more than that may be a week or month or a year…. Or even more than that… I am not sure…. But I want to know it…. I want to reveal the truth and this is my journey to find out what happened to me and how long have I slept?     I could hear the gushing sound of the water….. I think… at this precise moment I can only image… I can’t tell anything for sure but I would unveil the truth.   The gushing sound of water continues…..       Water th...
Post a Comment
Read more

The Dictator’s Curse (A Novel) Part: One

Image
        By: Kaleem Butt                                            Chapter 1: Room No: 26                         No sir, whosoever you are….!    Sometimes I wonder that the toughest job on face of the earth is to begin a story, all the scenes and characters run in your mind but one is unable to find that one beautiful sentence to start the story, the magical sentence which catches the attention of readers. A story without that beautiful is like a damsel who is fully grown-up and she has good looks, but unfortunately she is flat-chested. Pardon me, you may consider the above remark as a sexist remark, but you would agree with me ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Book Review: If On A Winter's Night A Traveler

Image
  This novel is one of the most popular novels of Italo Calvino. It was published in 1979. It deals with themes like metafiction, problems in publishing industry, and censorship. For complete review please click the link below: https://www.youtube.com/live/lIcaBTuzjpA?si=SdYX4IL5CMgQz-WB
Post a Comment
Read more