Aaj ka Insaan
Why is good literature becoming an extinct commodity in a country which has more poets per square kilometer than any other country in the world? For five years Ajmal Kamal has been trying to fill the gap by bringing the best of Pakistani as well as international literature to the readers of his quarterly journal Aaj, which he produces almost single-handedly. Ajmal got into publishing in 1981 with his book series, Aaj ki Kitabein. “The idea was to make contemporary international literature available to Urdu readers,” says. “The first few books included a volume of selections from Milan Kundera, a translation of the Persian novel, The Blind Owl and a selection of short stories from 12 Indian writers. We also wanted to publish groundbreaking original work by Urdu authors,” says Ajmal. Testimony to that is the fact that he has published books by brilliant young poets like Afzal Ahmed Syed, Zeeshan Sahil and Zehra Nigah. Recent issues of Aaj have focused on the works of Persian and Arabic writers. He also devoted a bumper issue to Colombian writer Gabriel Garcia Marquez’s works. “There are people like Nayyar Masood and Fehmida Riaz who would be great writers in any language,” says Ajmal. “It is modern Urdu literature that has gone stale. It seems to be totally out of touch with the social reality of our times.” Look out for the spring issue of Aaj titled Sarajevo, Sarajevo – a bumper 500-hundred page issue in which Ajmal brings together some select fiction from the former Yugoslavia republics and some of the best non-fiction written about the Bosnian crisis.
