Work
Abro was one of the generation of Sindhi writers that came to the literary forefront immediately after independence and infused a new consciousness into Sindhi literature. Abro's first short story was published in 1949 and was followed by a some others. Pishu Pasha aroused much debate and discussion, and this was the name given to the collection of nearly a dozen short stories published in 1959. This nearly brought to a close Jamal Abro's work as a short story writer and was followed by a long gap of silence. An invitation to contribute a story for a university magazine being edited by Shaikh Ayaz, the leading Sindhi poet who was a close friend, led him to write his first story in fifteen years. This story was a poetic and haunting narrative focusing on karokari, the ritual murder of a woman accused of immorality, written as only the author of "Pirani" could have. It was followed by a story, written during the Writers' Conference, Islamabad, in the days of General Zia ul-Haq's Martial Law; it describes the conference as a setting for an encounter with the angel of death.
Although Abro wrote only a handful of stories he had great influence on the modern Sindhi short story. He wrote on some common situations in the society around him and marked them with his individual stamp. Shaikh Ayaz wrote of "Pirani":
| “ |
I don't know who made the distinction that poetry dances while prose walks. While reading 'Pirani', I felt that even prose can dance. In the beginning, 'Pirani' enters with a musical note and little bells begin to tinkle in the air. Suddenly there is a piercing cry and one can see the story dancing on red-hot coals. |
” |
Read more about this topic: Jamal Abro
Famous quotes containing the word work:
“... possibly there is no needful occupation which is wholly unbeautiful. The beauty of work depends upon the way we meet it—whether we arm ourselves each morning to attack it as an enemy that must be vanquished before night comes, or whether we open our eyes with the sunrise to welcome it as an approaching friend who will keep us delightful company all day, and who will make us feel, at evening, that the day was well worth its fatigues.”
—Lucy Larcom (1824–1893)
“I am from time to time congratulating myself on my general want of success as a lecturer; apparent want of success, but is it not a real triumph? I do my work clean as I go along, and they will not be likely to want me anywhere again. So there is no danger of my repeating myself, and getting to a barrel of sermons, which you must upset, and begin again with.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“We know that a man can read Goethe or Rilke in the evening, that he can play Bach and Schubert, and go to his day’s work at Auschwitz in the morning.”
—George Steiner (b. 1929)