Storyteller with a Difference
Nishant Shah
SNAKE CATCHER: STORIES by Naiyer Masud Penguin Books, 2007, 243 pp., 250
October 2007, volume 31, No 10

Naiyer Masud is a great scholar of Persian and has three collections of short stories to his credit which include Seemiya, Itre Kaafoor and Taa’uus Chaman ki Mayna. A two-time winner of the Katha Award (1993 and 1997) for his stories ‘Ray Khandan ke Asar’ and ‘Sheesha Ghat’ and the winner of the Presidential Certificate of Honour (1997) for his ‘outstanding contribution to Persian’, Masud is not a very prolific writer by his own admission, (he has written only twenty-two short-stories in twenty-five years). He has, however, made a mark as an intense storyteller with a difference. Urdu short story, unlike other genres of the language, such as ghazal, marsia and nazm, has not been able to gather inspiration from the literary traditions of source languages, Persian and Arabic, and therefore has lagged behind despite occasional drops of excellence

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