After Reviewing by Ibn-e-Insha; Translated from the Urdu and introduced by Mubashir Karim

• Main Author: Mubashir Karim
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Bath Spa University 2015-05-01
• Series: Transnational Literature
• Subjects: Ibn-e-Insha; Publishing; Satire; Translations; Urdu literature
• Online Access: http://dspace.flinders.edu.au/xmlui/bitstream/2328/35307/1/bitstream

A poet, travelogue writer, columnist and top-class humourist, Ibn-e-Insha was born Sher Muhammad Khan in 1927 in Punjab, India. After completing M.A. at the University of Karachi in 1953, he worked for various government organisations, including Radio Pakistan. He also worked for quite some time for the United Nations. His association with the UN took him to various places all over the world – places which appear in his hilarious travelogue Chalte Hain Tou Cheen Ko Chaliye (Let’s Go to China if We Have to). Insha’s unique contribution to Urdu literature is his brand of humour that he so deftly uses in his treatment of serious subjects, whether political or social. His book Urdu Ki Aakhri Kitab, translated into English by David Matthews as Urdu: The Final Book, satirises various aspects of society in a humourist strain. The story translated here is from his collection of prose works titled Aapse Kya Parda (What to Hide from You).