KL NEWS NETWORK
SRINAGAR
University of Kashmir’ department of English, for the first time, felicitated eminent writer and the first English novelist from Kashmir, Mirza Waheed, at a function in the varsity campus on Wednesday. Mirza has penned down the famous novels – The Collaborator and recently released his second book The Gold Leaves.
The function was attended by a large number of students, scholars, university professors and members of the civil society, a statement said this evening.
“The eminent writer spoke at length about his creative journey, read out excerpts from his two novels and answered a barrage of questions of the inquisitive students and scholars,” the statement informed. “The story of his creative journey was both moving and inspiring and the audience responded with rousing applause.”
While welcoming the novelist, Prof Hameedah Nayeem, who heads the department of English, paid glowing tributes to Mirza’s unique English style which moves seamlessly from one language to another that Kashmiris use in their day to day conversations and phatic communications.
“He has truly given a Kashmiri variant of English which uses vocabulary from Urdu, Arabic, Persian and even Hindi as he effortlessly weaves his style like a Kashmiri carpet with all the relevant colours,” Prof Hameedah said. “Another noteworthy aspect of his style is the use of exact words and expressions which becomes the thing in itself, the experience itself, dissolving the boundary line that otherwise exists between the language and the experience. Thus his style has a transparency which comes of sincerity of purpose and after a great deal of honing and toning the text that one writes,” she added.
“His novels fall broadly within the rubric of writing back to father narratives in which he retrieves the distinct Kashmiri voice from the debris under which it has laid submerged after being decimated and disfigured by alien narratives,” Prof Hameedah explained adding, “we need to foreground our writers to serve as an inspiration for our students so that they take them as role models and exploit fully their latent talents.”
