Raakh / راکھ By Mustansar Hussain Tarar

READ Raakh / راکھ

mustansar tarar k iconic aslob ko liye ek behtreen novel jo qiyam e Pakistan or saqoot e dhaka k adwar ko ek mukhtalif zawiye se pesh krta hy. kahin kahin aisa b lgta hy jesy tarar sb apni aap beti byan kr rhy hen. overall urdu k 10 behtreen novels me shumar kia ja skta hy. Hardcover پاروشنی پوچھتی تھی کہ پکلی تم یہ بیل بوٹے کیسے اُلیکتی ہو۔۔۔
وہ رُکھوں میں سے میرے لیے پتلی شاخیں لایا کرتی تھی اور پوچھتی تھی اور میں کہتی تھی کہ بیل بوٹے میری سر میں تو نہیں، یہ تو ان ٹہنیوں اور شاخوں میں ہوتے ہیں جنہیں رنگ میں ڈبو کر ججھروں، ڈولوں اور صحنکوں پر پھیرتی ہوں اور یہ آپ ہی آپ بنتے چلے جاتے ہیں۔
پانی سوکھے گا اور پھر صرف کنارے رہ جائیں گے۔
ریت بھی آئے گی اور ہوا بھی اور میرے گھڑے گریں گے ٹوٹ کر۔ اور اس ریت میں دب جائیں گے۔۔۔ آج سے کئی رتوں بعد۔۔۔ وہ ان بیل بوٹوں کو دیکھیں گے اور کہیں گے کہ کیا سوہنے اور عجب بیل بوٹے ہیں جو کسی نے بنائے۔۔۔ اور وہ کس کا ہاتھ تھا جس نے انہیں بنایا اور کب بنایا۔۔۔ جب کہتے ہیں کہ ادھر بستیاں تھیں اور دریا تھا اور رکھوں میں مور بولتا تھا۔

میں نے آج یہ کتاب ختم کی ہے جہاں چھاؤں کی خلیجیں تھیں اور دھوپ کے جزیرے۔۔۔اور میں نے جانا کسی اپنے کی موت دیکھے بغیر انسان مکمل نہیں ہوتا۔
کیا شاہد اور مردان مستنصر حسین اور مبشر حسین تھے یا مستنصر حسین کے ہی دو روپ؟
اور پھر آلوچے کے درخت کے سفید دھبے میرے دیکھتے ہی دیکھتے کِھل گئے۔ ان سے روشنی پھوٹتی تھی اور میں انہیں چُنتی تھی۔
یہ کیا ہے؟
یہ ہم ہیں۔ لمحہ موجود میں اور کبھی ہم نہیں ہوں گے اور میں چاہتی ہوں میری سکھیوں میرے دوستوں جب ہم نہ ہوں تب بھی ہم خوبصورت ہوں۔

کومل Hardcover All ruins in the world that are fashioned by human hands, are alike in appearance, proportions & their sense of being deserted ... their ashes seek out faces - whether in Berlin or in Lahore - he wondered where he was. The same fire which ruddied Lahore's skies for many days had also created these ruins. All ruins are a photostat of each other. When black birds with clipped wings fly out from burnt ledgers, books & clothes, the sky, whether above Lahore or Berlin, is the same
(my translation)

Mustansar Hussain Tarar's novel Raakh or Ashes is sweeping historical fiction that rakes and reads patterns in the ashes of many eras. Though connected through its central character Mushahid (referred to by many during his foray in the west as Michel) and covering various phases in his life, the novel can be divided into several potentially standalone parts with their own imperatives and preoccupations. However, they are connected by a brooding, underlying endeavor to understand the meaning of the human experience as well as to reconcile with the forces of hatred and division that stir conflict on the basis of religion, caste, race and national identity.

One of the most evocative and interesting parts to me is the one that deals with Mushahid's childhood years spent in the Laxmi Mansion Building on the historical Mall Road in Lahore. Not only a paean to the beautiful city, relating to which there are multiple delightful vignettes and episodes, it is also a lament for its travails during times of crisis and divide such as 1947 when its skies were red due to the fires burning in neighborhoods set to fire. But there is also much mirth, nostalgia, adolescent fascination and great character descriptions as young Mushahid and his friends come across a range of memorable people ranging from an idiosyncratic, mild-mannered and endearing Manto to the ethereal Ava Gardner, in town to film Bhowani Junction. Tarar grew up in that building himself and thus his palette has colors both of imagination as well as memory. Partition is indeed a theme that looms large in this novel and is brought forth in its full intensity and tragedy in terms of human cruelty and barbarism.

The question of who we are and what it means and at what cost, is explored also through the heart-rending debacle of 1971; more particularly through Mushahid's very likable, lamed, ex-soldier brother Shaban and his half Bengali daughter. Tarar explores othering, demonization, and brutality across political and linguistic lines, that first casualty of war which is innocence, and politics of ethnicity and language and how they fester to become lasting wounds. The perpetuation of the same cancers in later times is then shown through depictions of Karachi during its worst dishevel. This and other such treatments of 1971 that meaningfully question monochromatic nationalistic accounts from all sides need much wider readership if we are to learn anything from the travesties and tragedies of the past and shed our convenient cocoons of self-deception and hypocrisy.

On the other hand the traveler in Tarar - and indeed it was initially his travelogues abroad and more particularly to Northern Pakistan that helped him hone his skills and earned him a vast and loyal readership - is on full display in the episodes of the book that have Mushahid and his friends traveling through the hilly Gandhara landscape in the north; at times aimlessly and on others when Mushahid's self-made, art connoisseur and smuggler friend Kalia seeks out Buddhist artifacts. Kalia is a memorable character - conflicted, decadent, sharp as nails, generous, corrupted, loyal and devoted, impetuous and also strangely righteous and well-meaning, emphatic and witty. Kalia provides the readers interfaces with the corridors of powers and its occupants, their corrosion and caprices, power-lust and corruption and ultimately their impotence and ineffectuality. Tarar's own passion for Gandhara civilization and its arts and artifacts as well as his deep knowledge of of the topography of the area and about how the smuggling networks pillage the landscape permeate these enjoyable passages.

Yet another part of the book explores the themes of identity, loyalties, cultural differences, nationalism, sexual mores and a sense of subjugation through Mushahid's years as a student in Nottingham and his trips to the Continent. At the same time, Lahore and its environs and neighborhoods figure prominently in the books - in particular through a very poignant part focusing on the courtesan culture, which is described evocatively but also mercifully deromanticized. Color, caste, class, stereotyping and discrimination are yet another theme that Tarar explores with great sympathy and pathos - especially through Mushahid's Swedish wife Bergetta and her Christian family living in a small and dilapidated Punjabi town. There are various additional characters and sub-plots that make Rakh compelling at several levels.

The River Ravi figures prominently - denuded, contaminated and abused as it is - a physical entity as well as a metaphor for the changing times and the callous disregard for what was once deemed noble and life-giving, what is the past, and indeed what ought to be the future - a future connected to the past, a future of preserved and clean natural resources, air to breathe, water to drink, freedom to enjoy, and a more enlightened existence. Very much also an environmental novel, Raakh does its bit to highlight human destruction of natural landscape. The narrative though predominantly realistic at times transforms into the surreal with birds and bird flight common metaphors, amongst others.

Four things summon me every December - one is the hunt, in the environs of Qadirabad - a gray landscape from Swat - River Ravi that flows caressing Kamran's Baradari - and the roundabout leading to the brothel (my translation)

This is the refrain from Mushahid that appears across this voluminous novel as he traverses various phases of his life, several relationships and experiences, and contemplates the meaning of it all. It works well as we accumulate glimpses into a life that encompasses many around us - with their flaws and redeeming features, their failings and triumphs, and above all their baggage, their guilt, their confusions and their contradictions. Also, their hopelessness and yet the resolve to carry on.

Despite all its various strengths and rich canvass my one peeve remains the absence of skilled and knowledgable editors - which is really the culpability of the publisher and not the writer. Across the board, our publishers don't invest in them and what could at most be deemed as proof-reading is glorified as editing. All over the world, good editors prune, refine and even greatly augment manuscripts and yet I have seldom if ever come across any Pakistani fiction in Urdu that has benefited from editorial enrichment. This novel too could have been even sharper if shorter and at places manicured with expertise, with its occasional melodrama, some coincidences, a certain degree of repetition and also some arguably forced touches/flourishes/episodes to make it even more contemporarily relevant were edited out (I don't specify them as in the grand scheme of things they are minor). I am sure all true writers, no matter how esteemed and accomplished, will agree that a stage comes when they can add no more to their text and can instead falter into overwriting- and that is where others with different skills and toolkits step in. Our publishing industry needs to graduate from being printers and wholesalers into what publishing truly entails and adds value through.

Ultimately, Raakh is an important and insightful read at multiple levels and a modern Urdu masterpiece - and despite such heavy burdens also invariably enjoyable. My copy carries the lovely inscription by Tarar sahib.

کچھ راکھ کریدنے کے لیے
To rake over the ashes

Raking over the ashes indeed reveals much that is gone and really ought to have been preserved. It divulges a vast canvass and a rich, emotive novel dealing with multiplicity of themes to do with identity, relationships, othering, discrimination, exploitation, and existentialist pain. At the same time it is a loving tribute to the mohallas and streets of Lahore, to the Punjab countryside, the valley of Swat with its Gandharan heritage, even as it provides painful recollection of the pogroms of 1947 and 1971 and the large-scale violence in Karachi. And there is much more Hardcover مستنصر حسین تارڑ کا ناول راکھ ایک ایسے تاریخی ناول ہے جو کئی ادوار کا میں مجموعہ ہے ۔ اگرچہ اس کے مرکزی کردار مشاہد کے ذریعے جڑا ہوا ہے اور اس کی زندگی کے مختلف مراحل کا احاطہ کرتا ہے، ناول کو ضروریات اور مصروفیات کے ساتھ ممکنہ طور پر الگ الگ حصوں میں تقسیم کیا جاسکتا ہے۔ تاہم، تمام کردار انسانی تجربے کے مفہ��م کو سمجھنے کے ساتھ ساتھ مذہب، ذات، نسل اور قومی شناخت کی بنیاد پر تصادم کو ہوا دینے والی نفرت اور تقسیم کی قوتوں کے ساتھ مفاہمت کرنے کی بنیادی کوشش سے جڑے ہوئے ہیں۔

میرے لیے سب سے زیادہ دل چسپ حصہ وہ ہے جو لاہور کے تاریخی مال روڈ پر واقع لکشمی مینشن بلڈنگ میں مشاہد کے بچپن کے سالوں سے متعلق ہے۔ راکھ بحران اور تقسیم کے وقت لاہور کی مصیبتوں کا نوحہ بھی ہے، جیسے کہ 1947 میں جب اس کا آسمان محلوں میں جلنے والی آگ کی وجہ سے سرخ تھا۔ لیکن اس میں خوشی، پرانی یادیں، اور نوعمری کی توجہ کی عمدہ وضاحتیں بھی ہیں کیونکہ نوجوان مشاہد اور اس کے دوستوں نے ایک غیر معمولی، نرم مزاج اور پیار کرنے والے منٹو سے لے کر ایتھریئل ایوا گارڈنر تک، شہر میں فلم سے لے کر کئی یادگار لوگوں کو دیکھا۔ بھوانی جنکشن۔ مستنصر حسین تارڑ خود اس عمارت میں پلے بڑھے اور اس طرح اس ناول میں تخیل کے ساتھ ساتھ یادداشت کے بھی رنگ ہیں۔

تقسیم درحقیقت ایک ایسا موضوع ہے جو اس ناول میں نمایاں ہے اور انسانی ظلم اور بربریت کے حوالے سے اپنی پوری شدت اور المیے کے ساتھ سامنے آیا ہے۔

دوسری طرف کالیا ایک یادگار کردار ہے - متضاد، زوال پذیر، تیز، فراخدل، بدعنوان، وفادار اور عقیدت مند، پرجوش اور عجیب طور پر صالح اور نیک نیت، زور آور اور ذہین۔ کالیا قارئین کو طاقتوں اور اس کے قابضین کی راہداریوں، ان کی زنگ آلود ہچکچاہٹ، اقتدار کی ہوس اور بدعنوانی اور بالآخر ان کی بے چارگی اور ناکارہ پن کے ساتھ آگاہی فراہم کرتا ہے۔

مستنصر حسین تارڑ کا گندھارا تہذیب اور اس کے فنون اور نمونے کے ساتھ ساتھ اس علاقے کی ٹپوگرافی کے بارے میں گہرا علم لاجواب ہے۔

کتاب کا ایک اور حصہ شناخت، وفاداری، ثقافتی اختلافات، قوم پرستی، جنسی اخلاقیات، اور مشاہد کے ناٹنگھم میں ایک طالب علم کے طور پر برسوں اور براعظم کے دوروں کے دوران محکومیت کے احساس کے موضوعات کو تلاش کرتا ہے۔ ایک ہی وقت میں، لاہور اور اس کے ماحول اور محلے کتاب میں نمایاں طور پر پائے جاتے ہیں - خاص طور پر ایک بہت ہی پُرجوش حصے کے ذریعے، جس میں درباری ثقافت پر توجہ دی گئی ہے، ۔
رنگ، ذات، طبقے، دقیانوسی تصورات، اور امتیازی سلوک ایک اور موضوع ہے جسے تارڑ بڑی ہمدردی اور دردمندی کے ساتھ بیان کرتے ہیں - خاص طور پر مشاہد کی سویڈش بیوی برگیٹا اور اس کے عیسائی خاندان کے ذریعے جو ایک چھوٹے اور خستہ حال پنجابی قصبے میں رہتے ہیں۔ مختلف اضافی کردار اور ذیلی پلاٹ ہیں جو راکھ کو کئی سطحوں پر تقسیم کرتے ہیں۔

اس ناول میں دریائے راوی کی نمایاں طور پر منظر کشی کی گئی ہے- ماضی سے جڑا مستقبل، محفوظ اور صاف قدرتی وسائل کا مستقبل، سانس لینے کے لیے ہوا، پینے کے لیے پانی، لطف اندوز ہونے کی آزادی، اور زیادہ روشن وجود۔راکھ بہت حد تک ایک ماحولیاتی ناول بھی ہے کیونکہ یہ قدرتی مناظر کی انسانی تباہی کو اجاگر کرنے کے لیے اپنا کردار ادا کرتا ہے۔

مجھے ہر دسمبر میں چار چیزیں بلاتی ہیں - ایک شکار، قادر آباد کے ماحول میں - سوات کا ایک سرمئی منظر - کامران کی بارہ دری سے لگ کر بہتا دریائے راوی - اور چوک چکلہ ہے

بالآخر، ضخامت کے باوجود راکھ متعدد سطحوں پر ایک اہم اور بصیرت انگیز پڑھا جانے والا اور جدید اردو کا شاہکار ہے - Hardcover A novel of unparalleled proportions!
One that surpasses the dimensions of time and space!
Written with extreme finesse and panache, this novel explores the modern dilemmas of our society, the times we live in, a speck of nostalgia, the lurking racism that has permeated our minds since time immemorial, and other subjects. This is larger-than-life. It's not a novel anymore, it's a running commentary on how we exist in a world full of drudgery.
Hardcover

مستنصر حسین تارڑ، راکھ کے بارے میں کہتے ہیں: ’’راکھ ایک ایسے المیے کے بارے میں تھا، جس نے پورے ملک کو متاثر کیا۔ جس نے مسلمانوں کی، پاکستانیوں کی تاریخ بدل ڈالی۔ میں کبھی مشرقی پاکستان نہیں گیا تھا، مگر اس خطے سے میری روحانی وابستگی ہے۔ میں آج بھی کہتا ہوں کہ میرے اندر مشرقی پاکستان کی علیحدگی کا گھاؤ ہے‘‘۔ Raakh / راکھ

Best book in urdu literature Hardcover Greatest Novel in Urdu/English.
I had read this novel in my early 20s. Yes I had previously read Raja Gidh and Ali Pur ka Eli, and Udaas Naslain. But I can safely say that Raakh is the greatest novel of Urdu. Its canvas is so large and transcends time and space, there are so many parallel plots which run in perfect synch in time and space that one cannnot come out of its grip till the very end. Hardcover I have been Tarar sahab's fan from childhood and have read almost all his travelogues.One advantage that Tarar sahab have over all other Urdu writers is his habbit of travelling.He is one of those few people here who have travelled all over Pakistan and also to many foreign countries .His travelling also wasn't normal like others as he has travelled to Europe and in Europe by road,through hitchhiking experiencing all sorts of thing.He has also thoroughly researched all the places he have been too and this is always evident in all of his writings .
Raakh can be termed as a sort of Tarar sahab's autobiography because the main Character Mushahid has a striking similarity to Tarar in real life.This novel is also a history lesson ,introducing readers to all the dark and tragic images of Pakistan's history.What leaves you spell bound is how one novel can be so perfect having everything in it i-e History ,Culture ,lost heritage,religion ,travelling across Pakistan and Europe..As his fan i always felt that the way he describe the details,a scene,landscape ,no writer here can match him.The metophers he use ,poetic verses all are wonderful.The vivid images provoke the readers to feel the extent of human tragedy the people of this country have suffered on the hands their countrymen.This is one of those novel which stays with you whole life and has to be the best Urdu novel i have read so far. Hardcover Best novel by MHT Hardcover Im blown away by this book. How unbiased political history is narrated in this book along with an amazing travelogue. I loved how relations are defined, and how belonging to places and people are described. The magical aspect is there. MHT's masterpiece for sure. Hardcover