ممتا
شاکر انور
سمندرنیلا اور پر سکون تھا اور دمام کا آسمان بادلوں سے پُر۔ میں بیقراری سے دھوپ کے ایک ٹکڑے کی تلاش میں ہاف مون بیچ کے خوبصورت سبز گھانس کے روش پر اِدھراُدھر گھوم رہاتھا۔کاش! کوئی ایسی پر سکون جگہ مل جائے جہاں پر میں اپنے ناول کے خاتمے پر کام کرسکوں۔
دور مغربی ساحل کے ایک گوشے میں کھجور کے درختوں سے چھن چھن کر آتی سورج کی ریشمی چادر سی تنی نظرآئی۔ میں تیزی سے اس جگہ گیا مگر وہاں پر سیاہ عبایا پہنے ایک نوجوان عورت بے بی اسٹرولر پر جھکی ہوئی لیٹے ہوئے بچے کو دھوپ سنکاتی، مسکراتی ہوئی باتیں کررہی تھی۔کبھی کبھی وہ بے ساختہ ہنس دیتی۔ جیسے اس کے بچے نے کوئی معصوم سی شرارت کی ہو، وہ شاید مصری یا لبنانی ہوگی۔ نہایت گوری، گلابی کالی آنکھوں والی۲۳، ۵۳ سالہ دوشیزہ جوسرخ پھولدار رومال سے سر ڈھانپے ہوئی تھی۔ وہ جس جگہ کھڑی تھی وہ میری اوّلین پسند تھی۔ ہاف مون بیچ سے کچھ دوری پر واقع نہایت ہی پراسرار خاموشی سے گھرا کنارا جہاں خوبصورت سناٹا میرے خیالوں کو مہمیز کرتا۔
اس نے اچانک پلٹ کر میری طرف دیکھا۔ ایک ادھوری سی مسکراہٹ اس کے ہونٹوں پر تھی……مگر شاید وہ مکمل تھی۔ یہ میرا گمان تھا اور پھر اسٹرولر کو دھکے دیتی آگے بڑھ گئی۔ جیسے کہہ رہی ہو۔ آجاؤ، اپنی مخصوص جگہ مسٹر ادیب۔میں نے اکثر شام کے وقت اسٹرولر پر بچے کو گھماتے ہوئے دیکھاتھا۔ وہ ہمیشہ اکیلی ہوتی اور ساحلِ سمندر کے کنارے پر بنے ہوئے ٹریک پر اِدھر اُدھر گھومتی رہتی۔ بے بی اسٹرولر کے دائیں جانب پانی کی چھوٹی سی رنگین بوتل ہوتی اور دوسری جانب چند کھلونے‘ اوپر کا گلابی حصہ نیچے کی طرف جھکا ہوتا۔اسے...
The study critically engages with the issue of continuity of the orientalist rhetoric in the contemporary literary yields. To establish and substantiate the argument, the researchers have analyzed Deborah Ellis’s Breadwinner Trilogy (2009) that comprises Breadwinner, Parvana’s Journey, and Mud City. All the three fictional narratives claims to have represented the life of the Pakistani and Afghani characters who have been shown to face the existential threats in the wake of the insecurities that have engulfed the region. However, the study contends, the Canadian writer has also given way to the parochial psychological and sociological schema that has been held as the prime representational trope regarding the East, that is, Orientalism. The qualitative and textual approach has facilitated the researchers to negotiate the identified thematic patterns with the interpretive freedom. In this regard, framing the fictional representation into the Saidian critique of the orientalist discourse, the study explicates the reductive approach of the writer and exposes the latent ideological triggers working under the manifest humanist projections. Thus, the study strengthens the postcolonial stance and, therefore, will sharpen the Pakistani students’ understanding of the current socio-literary debates.
In Pakistan, the perception among teachers of English is that teaching of English is an easy task, requiring no specific academic/professional background in English subject. In this backdrop, this research attempts to investigate the identity of teachers of English in Pakistan, using primarily narrative inquiry methods. The term identity' is elusive because of multiplicity of meanings. The literature reveals that identity is affected by many psychological, social, and cultural factors and identity of teachers of English can be best studied where they exhibit their identities in practice, i.e. school and classrooms. In this way, data were collected at two stages; through conducting workshops of 20 teachers by using a qualitative questionnaire to understand their professional identities and reasons for joining teaching as profession and through narrative inequiry conducted with two research participants, each from government and private school, for understanding their professional, social, and pedagogical identities. The data analysis reveals that most of the teachers of English in both public and private schools are not professionally trained as teachers of English. However, the teachers of private schools are comparatively better trained from professional, social and pedagogical perspectives: some of them have appropriate academic/professional background; they possess better collegiality, collaboration and social interactions among themselves; and they are free to use innovative teaching methods in classrooms. All teachers of government schools have BEd degrees but not in their relevant subject. Similarly, their pedagogical practices are limited because of lack of resources and inappropriate as well as intrusive inspection procedures. The findings of the study reveal that appropriate professional qualification, interpersonal relations including collegiality and collaboration and student-centered pedagogy are major factors contributing to professional, social, and pedagogical identities of teachers of English in Pakistan, respectively. This research recommends a similar research at broader level taking into consideration additional categorizations of schools and variables that determine identity of teachers of English in Pakistan.