A Case of Exploding Mangoes by Mohammed Hanif

                                      One of the finest novel(fiction) i have come across. It is an intriguing, comical novel by the Pakistani writer Mohammed Hanif based on the mysterious plane crash that killed General Muhammad Zia ul-Haq, former president of Pakistan near Bahawalpur on 17 August 1988 . There are plenty of circumstances nicely elaborated, laced with humour and perfectly blended with satire and hardships faced by commoners for readers to enjoy and find the book worth reading.

                                    The story revolves around a young military officer named Ali Shigri who accuse Dictator and President General Zia ul-Haq to be the conspirator of his father Colonel Shirgi's suspicious suicide. Hanif playfully gets into the heads and lives of multiple characters, including that of anxious General Zia who's obsessed about his security, his over ambitious ISI chief General Akhtar, torturer named Major Kiyani,an interesting room partner Obaid at PAF Academy, a communist street sweeper,a blind rape victim accused of fornication; and a wayward and sugar-drunk crow.

                                    Its a funny yet cleverly attempted story by Hanif that added new dimension to the conspiracies and coincidences leading to the mysterious 1988 plane crash that killed Pakistan’s dictator General Zia ul-Haq.

Ghuman Literature Festival

                                        India is divided into distinct linguistic regions. Leaders of every major linguistic region project their own language to be the lingua franca of India. There are instances in our history where group of people have clashed over linguistic skills creating acrimony in society. In this madness of one upmanship a ray of sunshine is"The Ghuman Bahubhasha Sahitya Sammelan", a multi-lingual literary festival organised at Ghuman town in the border district of Gurdaspur in Punjab on April 3 and 4.

                                      Surprising it may sound, for organizing Marathi literary festival in Punjab but the reason behind it, is to commemorate the legacy of much revered saint Namdev, a legendary 13th-century reformist Marathi poet-saint Namdev from Maharashtra who lived in this village for nearly two decades. He was associated with the Bhakti Movement of that time. Locals embraced the saint as there own and incorporated 62 of the shabads(hyms) in sacred book of Sikhs, Guru Granth Sahib, as Namdevji ki Mukhbani.

                                   A Gurudwara named after saint Namdev bears testimony to the fact that the social and spiritual bond between two diverse cultures is beyond rhetoric of symbolic secularism. Thousands of pilgrims throng to Ghuman Gurudwara Darbar Sahib Baba Namdev Ji  for annual pilgrimage.

                                  Marathi language and literature acted as catalyst to support and bringing together different languages of India as most other literature festivals are dominated by English and Hindi. The Ghuman literature festival has also stimulated translation of literary work between Marathi and Punjabi languages and hopefully into other languages in future to benefit readers. The theme of this year Ghuman literature festival was “renewal and restoration” of Urdu, Punjabi, Kashmiri, Bodo and Hindi languages. 

                                   Celebrating the connections between two languages and cultures is also a way to pay tribute to the saint tradition which is progressive and liberal and literature plays a positive role in uniting the society through emotional and intellectual content in it. The Ghuman festival is aimed at building bridges between Maharashtra and Punjab through literature which hopefully will grow with time and include and revive other local endangered languages of India .

Martyr's Day

                                                               Hussainiwala Memorial 

                                   On 23rd March 1931, India pay homage to Bhagat Singh, Sukhdev Thapar and Shivaram Rajguru on their 85th martyrdom anniversary. Bhagat Singh, Rajguru and Sukhdev killed  John P. Saunders, an Assistant Superintendent of Police, as he was leaving the District Police Headquarters in Lahore on 17 December 1928 to avenge death of Lala Lajpat Rai but managed to successfully evade arrest.

                                 On 8 April 1929, Bhagat Singh accompanied by Batukeshwar Dutt, threw two bombs into the Assembly chamber from its public gallery while it was in session to protest against the British rule in India . The smoke from the bombs filled the Assembly so that Singh and Dutt could have escaped in the confusion had they wished. Instead, they stayed shouting the slogan "Inquilab Zindabad!" ("Long Live the Revolution") and threw leaflets. The two men were thus arrested.

                                      The Death Warrant Of Freedom Fighter Bhagat Singh

                                            On 15 April 1929 Sukhdev Thapar was arrested from Lahore and few days later Shivaram Rajguru was arrested too. Following a hasty trial of the Lahore Conspiracy Case, they were executed by the British a day earlier than the scheduled hanging in the Central Jail at Lahore at 7.15 pm on March 23, 1931.

                                                       Death Certificate Of Bhagat Singh

Happy Holi Friends