Kankari – کنکری

“Kankary” is a collection of short stories by Intizar Hussain, which contain 15 stories. This was his second book of short stories which got published and the thing which distinguishes this collection from the earlier one in the length of stories, which are way smaller. Actually small is not the exact word I would rather say these stories are of perfect lentgh and won’t make you feel the tone of a novel. It doesn’t mean that his earlier stories were boring but that the demand of those storeis were so that they had to be lengthy. As I have mentioned in the review of the book ” Ghali Koochay” that stories in that book were mostly nostalgic and were flow of thaughts weaved with words and needed to to be lengthy in order to creat a environment of homesickness.
In this collection most stories are picturesque, depicting village life specifically the lives of children in a natural environment before the arrival of technology and modernism.
Though at that time the “Progressive Writer’s Society” in Pakistan was on the peak but Intizaar Hussain’s stories hardly contain any didactic message and he wrote purely for Art’s sake. That’s why one hardly find any message or any kind of suggestion for anyone. And this is what I love him for. One simply can’t avoid the beautiful diction of his prose. It’s completely beauty and art. These stories are vivid paintings drawn by words. One can smell the rain in “Jungle” and can relate to “Punan” in ” Majmah”. One can feel his presence in the condolence in ” Pasmandghan”.
There wasn’t a single story which hadn’t aroused the stream of thaughts in me or hadn’t taken me back to my childhood. It was simply so hard to come out of the aura of one story and jump into other. I just loved it.
If you’re in search of ideas and lessons in stories or you want drama and spice in stories then you should not try it but if you are a lover of art and love stories as being stories then I will assure you you’ll love it too.