Phulaiy Gulan Henz
By Mushtaq Hurra
Hajin township of Bandipora District is known for its academic and literary prominence among the literary circles of the state of Jammu and Kashmir. The township has produced some renowned and towering writers, poets and critiques. Wahaab Parray Hajini who is commonly known as the Firdousee of Kashmir, is known for his translation of Shahnaama from Persian to Kashmiri and his work as a great contribution to Kashmiri literature. Moulvy Sideequllah, Prof. Mohiuddin Hajini and literary icons like Aziz Hajini make this rosary very beautiful and unique. Famous critique and writer, Mohammad Yousuf Taing has called Hajin ‘ The Bidaayu’n of Kashmir ‘.
The other beads of this rosary are equally shining and precious. And Majeed Majaazi is one such bead of this rosary. Majeed Majaazi is a multi-faceted man of this township- a teacher by profession, Majaazi has the distinction of being an actor, poet, dramatist and a short story writer. He has many things to his credit and many of his dramas have won awards and recognition at national level. He has been continuously working with children and therefore is able to recognize their psyche, emotions and needs.
Majeed Majaazi inspires young people, particularly the student community of the area through his literary proficiency and contribution.
‘Phulaiy Gulan Henz’ is the collection of short stories for children, written by Majeed Majaazi and was recently released at the seminar hall of cultural academy in an impressive ceremony. The book contains fourteen short stories which are written in a catchy diction.
Majaazi being a teacher, is concerned about the value deterioration among our children and newer generations. Tolerance, mutual help, love, sympathy, obedience of elders and parents, respect for women folk, protection and safeguarding of public property and the inculcation of virtues and civic senses among children is the core aim of the author. He aims to negate and discourage vices like hatred, arrogance, envy, jealousy, treachery, anger, revenge etc among children. Imparting values and morals among children is very important and the author has done it beautifully through the Short Stories in the book. Characters in the stories have been beautifully chosen from our own typical social stratum and they look like our own people.
The conversation between the demon and Aleem in the second fable, is so powerful that the readers are absorbed in the conversation. Even elders are greatly benefited by it. How the demon is expressing his haplessness before Aleem to eradicate the evils like female feticide, environmental pollution etc from our social stratum is of great significance. A demon who can do anything but shows its helplessness before a child to help him to make his society pure from evils. The story is an eye-opener for all of us to introspect or else be ready for a catastrophe. Aleem’s wish to earn through hard work and honesty is the best advice for our younger generation.
The author deserves appreciation and acknowledgment for the great efforts he has made in producing the book which will not only help us to repair our torn out moral fabric but is also a great service to our mother tongue which now has such beautiful stories added to its reservoir.
The beauty of the book is the element of suspense in the stories and the lucidity with which these are penned down keep its readers allured to it right from the page one to the end. Though some stories sometimes appear to be a little monotonous, but one has to keep in mind that children have a great knack for connecting the dots. Keeping in view the reader community i. e, children – the author has done a wonderful job because children of contemporary times have multiple sources of information, knowledge and entertainment available at their homes and schools and in such a scenario, a book has to supersede all such facets.
The book is sure to revive the legacy of book reading among our children because reading and listening to stories has been an old fascination of children.
Anything that one misses in the stories is the slightly lesser usage of folklore characters in the stories which could have been incorporated as these characters are an inseparable part of our folktales. Had there been the introduction of ‘Raantas ‘ or ‘ Pari ‘ ( Fairy ) etc, the stories could have been more interesting, like the one where a gaint is talking to Aleem which outshines many other stories.
The writer is a Teacher, Columnist, Poet, Orator and Social Activist. He can be reached at [email protected]
