I have just put down the book titled "Shahr-e-Huna Mandan in fact a compilation of newspaper columns written by Safoora Khairi. It contains28 articles in all. The name Khairi stands for heavy-weight in the arena of literature and journalism and Safoora herself stands out for her skill in expressing her ideas and feelings artistically conforming to the best traditions of fiction writing.
But the book presently under discussion has a different format, which cannot afford the luxury of sophisticated pleasantries interwoven in a romance. Here the author doesn't enjoy the liberty of creating heroes and villains, mould their character to suit an imaginary situation or plot. Here the writer remains bound to particular condition with a character having peculiarities developed over a life span .The writer has to win the confidence of the subject and probe deeper and deeper,. make him or her talk about the dreams and aspirations of the formative stage of life, bring out the parents' expectations and their desire for their children to achieve what they yearned for themselves but the circumstances did not allow them to materialise their dreams.
Safoora has underlined the theme of this series of articles in the parenthesis under the title of the book (you may call it sub-title) Story of Karachi's courageous wretched of the earth. About them she says,"These nameless faces amid the bitterness of life holding candles of hope in their hands are marching on and this is their acomplishment.
These are the skilled and perfect people devoid of apparent beauty and style but teach us what is courage and determination. When I talked to these ordinary people I came to know that these are the really Big people ,not those who give up or break relations in the name of 'Status'..... This fully explains the purpose, object and the outcome of these articles.
Those who know Safora also know how terrific a writer she is .She not only inherited the command over language but updated it. She doesn't have to polish her words; they come to her in finished form. She can express any situation, character, emotion and sentiment with perfect ease.
But in this book it is not Safoora but her characters who are speaking in simple language and down to earth manner .It is not fiction, it is journalistic writing and at its best.
How difficult it should gave been for a girl of middle class to reach such people and places can easily be imagined, and Safoora deserves a word of praise for her courageous performance.
A unique feature of the book is Iqbal Mahdi's sketches. Perhaps he could do it only for Khairis.
Another feature is its perfect proof reading for which Safoora should get another feather.
Paper, printing and binding all can be put in "A "category.