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Pakistan, Nov. 13 -- In Akhtar's 2011, we find, among other fascinating things, a direct reference to some eminent Progressive poets; the parodies of Faiz Ahmad Faiz and Noon Meem Rashid are there without mentioning their names. There is just a harmless parody of Faiz's poem; while there is a light suspicion of satire in the parody of Rashid. For example, Faiz's poem:
'Muj se pehli si mohabbat meri mehboob na maang
Main ne samjha tha ke tu hai to darakhshaan hai hayaat'
(My love, do not ask me for that old love again
I had felt that with you around, the world would be luminous)
Mohammad Khalid Akhtar wrote:
'Mujh se pehli si aqeedat mere Manato na maang
Main ne samjha tha ke tujh main himmat hogi
Magar yeh mera khayal ghalat tha'
(My love, do not ask me for that old affection again
I had felt that you will possess courage
But I was wrong in my imagination)
In short, this is a complete satirical work. One finds very lively and grand satire on various aspects of life: the Westernization of the Arabs, the willfulness of the rulers of great countries, the Marxist system, newspaper policies, the educational curriculum, philosophy, historians, police, the strategies and stupidities of ministers; all of these have come under the range of his scalpel-pen. He has also mentioned sex but his manner related to sex feels tired. He is found to be mentioning women generally in relation to sex rather than romanticism.
Then one also finds in the same novel a very beautiful portrait of human psychology. A person Mogilevich who destroys the whole world due to selfishness is mentioned in the following words: "Our most powerful feeling even more powerful than sexual desire, is the desire for power and fame; to rule over other humans and to order them here and there."
At another place he writes: "Every single person is selfish and every single person is a sadist; everyone of us, too, has a Mogilevich present within...