‘Writing a novel is about being fearless’

SPEAKING to Mohammed Hanif can be an exhilarating experience. His understated humour comes laced with sharp wit. Every moment presents the possibilities of a new look at things past and present. One is just captivated, wanting to soak up on every word. But given the geographical divide, it is easier, and much wiser, to read the Karachibased Hanif than to meet him. A few pages into his latest novel, Red Birds, and one realises that all the attention he garnered with his debut, A Case of Exploding Mangoes, was richly deserved. The novel, a scathing take on the turbulence in Pakistan during the reign of Zia-ul-haq, was longlisted for the 2008 Man Booker Prize and, in many ways, widened the vistas for Pakistani authors writing in English. It was also the winner of the Commonwealth Writers’ Prize for Best First Novel and shortlisted for the Guardian First Book Award 2008.

Once associated with the BBC, London, Hanif moved back to the country of his origin a few years ago. Now he divides his time between writing about the chaotic world of Pakistani politics for Urdu newspapers in Pakistan and English newspapers in the United States and retreating into the world of his own characters for his novels. Not one to hold back, Hanif clearly states that it is not an easy time for journalists in the country. It might be safer for English authors, though! Excerpts from an email interview Frontline had with the celebrated author:

In an interview with “The Guardian”, you said that to write about politics in Pakistan you had to go out of Pakistan. Yet your life’s trajectory tells a different tale.

I think what I was trying to say [was] that like most Pakistani journalists I feel it’s becoming difficult to breathe. Things that I could write in Pakistani papers last year I can’t any more. My last editor was an assistant editor at Dawn, he is facing treason charges; now can I really pitch him a piece about how our state uses this treason weapon against journalists? So instead of pitching him a piece, I end

“We have already passed on a better world to the next generation. We have made them oblivious of pain, indifferent to the less privileged.”