Fifty Million
A Collection of Exquisite Pashto Short Stories

By

Abdulwakil Sulamal Shinwari

Reviewed by

Ghulam Hussain Malik

‘Fifty Million’ is Urdu version of ‘Panzos Milliona’, a collection of wonderful Pashto short stories closely linked to the Afghan culture and civilisation, published in Pakistan, a neighbouring country of war-ravaged Afghanistan, recently.

Afghanistan, an Asian country spread over 645,807 square kilometres, has witnessed a series of wars during the 19^th and 20^th centuries and is still devoid of peace in the first decade of the 21^st century.

The turbulence in the country has a deep impact on the Afghan society. The latest unrest in Afghanistan dates back to 1978 when a civil war broke out, which led to the Soviet invasion. For the next 10 years, the Soviets supported the communist government against a coalition of Islamic militias that toppled the regime in 1992.

A group of clerics known as the Taliban took control of most of the country by 1996 and the ensuing stalemate was broken in 2001 when the US overthrew the Taliban for supporting “international terrorism”.

The Soviet invasion compelled a large chunk of Afghan population to migrate to various parts of the world, with their major influx in Pakistan and Iran. The ensuing Taliban regime also forced people from different strata of society to leave their motherland and still a large number of Afghan migrants are living in other countries. Besides commoners, these migrants include intellectuals, writers, politicians, artistes and traders. Among these people was Abdulwakil Sulamal Shinwari, who left his motherland in 1995 and settled in Slovakia.

Shinwari, who was born in Nangarhar province of Afghanistan and completed his education from the former Soviet Union, has until now written a large number of research, political and literary papers and essays, which have been published in Afghanistan and other countries. He is well-versed in the Slovak and Russian languages and also writes in Persian.

He has so far published two collections of his Pashto short stories — ‘Panzos Milliona’ (Fifty Million) and ‘Zarha Qila’ (Old Fort) — and another book containing short stories about women is also ready for publication. He is currently working on a novel based on the changes in the global politics and lives of the people of the Third World after 9/11 while a collection of dramas is also nearing completion.

Dedicated to an independent, sovereign and peaceful Afghanistan, ‘Fifty Million’ contains 12 short stories that depict various aspects of the life of Afghan people, including those who settled in Europe and other countries. In these short stories, the writer has beautifully portrayed the Afghan culture after 30 years of continuous war in the country as the life of Afghan migrants in Europe, style of the Taliban governance and death and destruction in the country since the Soviet invasion of 1978.

The stories, originally written in Pashto, have been translated into Urdu language by young poet, writer and journalist Rashid Khattak. The 106-page book has been published by Rawalpindi-based Romail House of Publication. Although the short stories seem to be written exclusive for mature people, the book is worth reading because Rashid Khattak, who has a vast study of the best world literature and holds Master’s degree in journalism. Khattak also has to his credit a collection of his Pashto poetry and translation of a Pashto novel of famous Pashto writer Saaduddin Shapon titled ‘Yaran-e-Ghaar’ (Cave Buddies) and 20 short stories of the renowned Russian writer, Maxim Gorki. Currently, he is compiling his own short stories.

To read full Urdu version click here

The English version of the book will be posted here shortly.