Publisher's Synopsis
Does the most intensely felt love go beyond the age-old gender specifications?Does the captivating emotional and physical bond between man to a man put a question mark on the very existence of a binary gendered society? Does it create space for the sensual appreciation of another man's physical charm that human and divine laws forbade? Does the sexual orientation articulate hegemonic phallic narcissism? Why is a celebration of the exquisite shades of male beauty taken as a professed act of perversion meant for destabilizing the age-old social order? Does the fluidity of gender, long felt but never expressed explicitly in the public domain, upset the patriarchal heterosexual man's apple cart? Does the vacillation from one sex to another, not a rare or unnatural phenomenon, get the difference between the penetrator and penetrated blurred?
It looks incredible that these axiological questions about sexuality subsumed by religion and social practices are nuancedly articulated in a standout novel, 'Uss Ne Kaha Tha' in Urdu which is large, though erroneously, known as the language of poetry revolving around the wistful experience of the unrequited love.
This novel creatively wipes out the miasma of gender binaries and the protagonist through a vivid recall of the tantalizing encounters avers that love is essentially an equally fulfilling experience and the distinction of active and passive needs to be dismantled. Ashar Najmi with his deft characterization and scintillating unfolding of layered Sujet tells a story of an individual who experiences situational gender identity and feels, 'I am neither or both or I fall at both ends of the spectrum. 'The author meticulously testifies on promiscuity filled sexual adventures and rambunctious triumphs become existential tragedies which, leave a trail of strange inwardness. The novelist with a judicious juxtaposition of the first person and third-person narrators seeks to weave a web of a phrenic and emotional condition rather than fashioning a narrative of sensual presence. (Shafe Kidwai, AMU, India)
