Dr Jamil Azeemabadi is a poet known for geet, dohay, ghazal, rubai, sonnet, heiko, mahiya, salasi and several other genres. His collections of these genres have been published separately in book forms. He has also written a good number of Hamd and Na'at. People also know him as a fine poet and respectable homeopathic doctor. But suddenly he has added another dimension to his literary efforts by appearing as a short story writer.
He has come out with a collection of 26 short stories under the title of "Rawayet Kay Qaidi." The book has been dedicated to Islamabad, where he started short story writing just a few years ago on August 1, 2002.
Professor Shahnaz Parween, herself a renowned short story writer, has written the preface of the book. A write-up of Professor Ali Haider Malik is also included in this book which also discusses the creative effort of Dr Jameel with reference to his short stories
One should be pleasantly surprised to note that a seasoned poet has turned his attention to writing short stories when he is becoming an octogenarian. But in my opinion it is as pleasant change. For Jamil Azeemabadi, creative effort is not a new experience. His position as a poet is undeniable. He has more than nine poetic books to his credit. So there was no lack of creative ability in him. He only changed the way of expression and creative effort-a healthy change of literary genre, a selection of new creative field.
His title story "Rawayet Kay Qaidi" is a good piece, which deals with a very important social issue. It is generally supposed that sons and daughters are not able to make correct decisions over their life, especially their marriage. In this story the author looks desirous of depicting that some time the decision of parents and guardians make blunder and the life of their upsprings is destroyed forever due to their inflexible attitude toward their sons and daughters. The two main characters of this story Nasir and Sabahat fell victims to the firm tradition. The whole life they had to remain the prisoners of non-logical rites age-old traditions. Though it has been written in the narrative style, it touches the feelings of the readers. Unlike this story, the second one in the book, "Kuffara" is just the opposite. In this story the stubbornness of a son for having a bike and the refusal by his father made the former a thief of motor bikes and at last he lost his both legs in an accident and died. But the punishment of the son's crime had to fall on his father.
In the story "Khota Sikka" the author has tried to present the traditional conflicts between Sas and Bahoo (mother-in-law and daughter-in-law) to some extent in a puzzling situation. This story is written in a simple but impressive style. "Fatwa" is also a thought-provoking story, which is on the topic of divorce, rigidity and exploitation of perception and feeling. "Khudro", "Sarab", "Sabz Qadam", "Rishtay Ki Zanjeer","Miththoo" and some other stories of the book are also good pieces, which are pinpointing the shortcomings of social environment along with mirroring of dreams and desires of the people.
The painstaking creative effort and artistic approach of Dr Jameel Azeemabadi have made these stories qualitative and readable. A true story, which is like a newspaper report, cannot be a literary piece. The description of events and occurrences in attractive style, character building, dialogue and aesthetic values change an incident into a literary piece. The difference between a literary piece and newspaper report lies in its artistic values. Dr Jameel knows how a real newspaper report can be changed into a articulative literary piece. The author has proved it practically in this book.
Author: Dr Jameel Azeemabadi
Publisher: Rashid Publications, B-452, Sector 11-B, North Nazimabad, Karachi
Pages: 159
Price: Rs 150