Basti

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At the beginning of Intizar Husain’s Basti—an Urdu word that refers to a human settlement of any dimension, from a few houses to a city — we see the world through the eyes of a child, and it is a paradise of brightly colored birds, playful animals, and luscious greenery. This paradise, however, proves to be short-lived. Soon Zakir, the protagonist and narrator of the book, is cast into a world of violence and uncertainty and regret and longing: the world of modern Pakistan. Images of burning houses and cities, of ash and smoke abound. Near the end of the book, this ongoing conflagration is glossed in words of the Buddha:

Monks, just imagine a house which is burning on all four sides. Inside it some children are stumbling around, trembling with fear. Oh monks, men and women are children, stumbling around in a fiercely blazing house.

This is followed by a line from the Quran that tolls through the final pages of the novel: “I swear by Time, man is surely in loss.”

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