Shazaf Fatima Haider talks about ‘How It Happened’
The English Club and Ewing Literary society of English Department, under its distinguished seminar series of Knowledge Exchange (KESS) organized a talk by Ms Shazaf Fatima Haider about her new book ‘How it happened’ on 3 April 2013.
Shazaf shared her experience and inspiration of writing the book. She talked about times when potential in-laws visited her house and made her subject to intense scrutiny. It was after one such incident that an angry Haider decided to write about the process of arranged marriages in Pakistan.
Her novel, as narrated in Shazaf’s words is ‘Kahani ghar ghar ki – the story of every home.’ The novel talks about the commodification of the young in the marriage markets. Shazaf read some passages from her book, giving a flavor of Dadi’s character and how strongly she felt about arranged marriages, suppressing any thoughts that came to her grandchildren’s minds.
When asked by the students, how did she deal with such a serious issue in her novel? Shazaf replied that she greatly used the technique of satire and humorand managed to confront some very anachronistic practices with a certain lightness of touch.
Her advise to young writers was to show their work to someone their trust and not to reject their work out of hand. She also said that readers need to read a lot and keep faith in their talent.
