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Soyee Hui Heer Introducing the selection, Duggal takes a dig at the
muckraking that has dominated short-story writing in India, as
elsewhere, for a long time: "To describe the filth in all its
filthy detail for showing how dirty it is cannot in my view be the
purpose of the eternal art of story telling." He names Lihaf
of Ismat Chugtai and Kali Shalwar of Saadat Hasan Manto as two of
the better-known samples of this trend. Elaborating he says – filth
does have a place in this art but only if it highlight the beauty around
it. Almost all his finely chiselled characters show that they have
minds of their own. Be it the cows (Baggi in Letri ki ek Subah or
Neeli) or Mhaja, the tongawala, or the forceful but womanly Santi (in Safedposh)
– they are all ruled by their hearts rather than their heads. Mhaja,
the voluble and old tongawala of Delhi who fails to get even one
passenger over the whole summer day, shows fatherly concern and
character when he forces the amorous young couple off his tonga after
realising that the firangi paramour is accompanying a school-girl
who used to ride his tonga to school for full 10 years. Manglo, the
proud and doting mother of an only son who joined "santji’s"
bandwagon, does not shed even one tear when her terrorist son is felled
by the police and just says "chalo chutti payee". But
her tears do not stop when she learns of the death of the Brahmin young
man of her village who dies defending the honour of his sister. Duggal’s
stories are about everyday characters with spontaneity and a capacity to
surprise. Chameli, the young wife of long-time mali of a government
bungalow, on Holi day smears the aristocratic and insular occupant of
the bungalow with all the colours she has been keeping ready for the
festivities. Heer, in the title story of the present selection, is the
personification of the dormant desires of the middle-aged
childhood-widow, Devaki, awakened by just one touch of a young doctor’s
hand on her shoulder when she goes with him inside a dark room to get
her eyes tested. The dusky single woman smoking endlessly and sitting
besides a sardarji during an international flight is drawn to him, but
contrary to the ways of smugglers (which she is) forbids him from
carrying her heavy gold-laden bag and snatches it from him just a few
steps short of the customs counter. All his stories are peopled by
lively characters. Some of the stories in the collection — selected
from 30 of his books of stories published in Punjabi so far — can be
placed on a timeline that starts much before the traumatic Partition and
ends around the tragic events connected with terrorism in Punjab. But
like the other stories that cannot be thus placed, they too have a
quality of timelessness about them. The collection is designed to give
the reader a feel of the rich variety of Duggal’s writings.
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