Urdu Short Stories

Harper Collins presents an English version of a collection of beautiful tales written first in Urdu.

An extract from the story Voices, in The Harper Collins Book of Urdu Short Stories, edited by Muhammad Umar Memon (Harper Collins, 2005)

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'I want to keep dogs.'

'What for?' the woman's voice flickered in the darkness.

'I want to keep dogs.'

'What for? Because we are lonely? Come to think of it, Suraiya hasn't written in a long time. Good, she must be happy with her husband. And Nasim? Well, he's practically forgotten us. He never writes. What's the place in America? Sannata? Sansanata? That picture postcard… it was too lovely, no? God knows where I put it away. He hasn't send us anything since, has he? Tell me! You haven't been keeping his letters from me? God knows hat time it is.'

It was pitch dark inside the room. There has been a poser failure. A chilly

October night, wit jumbled sounds drifting in from afar, like faint lines appearing and dissolving on a thick, darkened screen. The man felt he was lying on an ocean floor, splayed out among a profusion of oysters, shells, corals, seaweed, smooth round pebbles, fish eggs; splayed out like a fish, with his first wife, his fishette- could there be such a word? He wondered – right beside him. He caressed her thigh. 'My fish.'

The woman laughed softly. 'My dog.'