Skip to main content

The Wandering Falcon by Jamil Ahmad: book review




 
The Wandering Falcon (2011) by Pakistani writer, Jamil Ahmad, is set along the borders of Pakistan, Iran, and Afghanistan – in Balochistan and Wasiristan – in a lonely military outpost where the wind blows with savage fury. It is long before the time of the Taliban.

A man and a woman, and their camel, approach the outpost seeking shelter. It is provided, and it is here where their child is born … “to most of the soldiers there was sheer wonder in the wizened looks of the infant with his black locks of hair” as he “brought back memories of their own families whom they had not seen for years.”

When the boy, Tor Baz (black falcon), is five years old tragedy occurs when a camel rider appears. But it is not the only tragedy in the young boy’s life. He travels the route of secrecy, kidnappings, killings and slaughter – of men and camels.

It is not just the tale of a boy wandering the region as he grows into a man. It is also of the villagers and tribes, the fighting men, the hard working women, and the children who walk barefooted. Tor Baz travels among the Mahsuds and the Wazirs, but he is neither. One person says to Tor Baz, “I have been trying to place you, but I have failed. Who are you and where do you come from?”

From the third person narrative, the novel shifts in Chapter 6 to the first person. The narrator is from the Upper Qambar Khels, and he is an Afridi, raised in a small German village before World War I. Traveling with Tor Baz, the narrator writes, “Furious voices were accusing someone of having brought me, a foreigner and an infidel, here and having defiled their land … Among the voices, I suddenly heard the voice of Tor Baz.” What does Tor Baz say? Is he friend or foe?

The next chapter reverts to the third person narrative, which is now suddenly more descriptive (in an otherwise unembellished novel) as Upper Chitral’s beautiful landscape appears. Ahmad describes a girl – married early – destined to be a slave girl. If it’s a hard life for men, it’s an even harder life for women. Is it the beauty of the landscape or the women that makes Tor Baz contemplate ending his wandering life?

Ahmad writes of a place and people known to him for he lived and worked in the Frontier Province and Balochistan. There are stark cruel pages, but there are also poetic paragraphs that evoke the compassionate emotions and feelings behind the traditions of weather-hardened people in an unforgiving land.
  

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

2016 update on Rike Park, Tbilisi: from construction to busy park

From a flat patch of uninteresting dirt, Rike Park in Tbilisi, Georgia, has transformed in four years (from 2014-2016) into a busy park full of trees, flower beds, sculptures, fountains, and events. Rike (Rikhe) Park is on the left bank of the Mt’k’vari River (the Kura River) near the Old City of Tbilisi. The Peace Bridge links the right bank to Rike Park. Rike Park is below the hillside Presidential Palace and, via cable car, it is the starting point for the ride to Sololaki Ridge (with the Narikala Fortress and the Mother of Georgia statue). The glass box-shaped cable car terminus was opened on 23 June 2012, and since then the park has continually developed into a ‘people’s park’ where people can walk around, eat at the nearby restaurants, sit next to the statue of American president Ronald Reagan, climb the steps to Avlabari district, and access the sights of Meidan Square, the Peace Bridge, the Metekhi Church, the Old City, the waterfall, the sulphur baths, and t...
Post a Comment
Read more

The acacia thorn trees of Kenya

There are nearly 800 species of acacia trees in the world, and most don’t have thorns. The famous "whistling thorn tree" and the Umbrella Thorn tree of Kenya are species of acacia that do have thorns, or spines. Giraffes and other herbivores normally eat thorny acacia foliage, but leave the whistling thorn alone. Usually spines are no deterrent to giraffes. Their long tongues are adapted to strip the leaves from the branches despite the thorns. The thorny acacia like dry and hot conditions. The thorns typically occur in pairs and are 5-8 centimetres (2-3 inches) long. Spines can be straight or curved depending on the species. MARTINA NICOLLS is an international aid and development consultant, and the author of:- Similar But Different in the Animal Kingdom (2017), The Shortness of Life: A Mongolian Lament (2015), Liberia’s Deadest Ends (2012), Bardot’s Comet (2011), Kashmir on a Knife-Edge (2010) and The Suda...
1 comment
Read more

Hop on hop off bus tourism comes to Tbilisi, Georgia

City Sightseeing buses have arrived in Tbilisi. The iconic red double-decker buses, a feature of many cities around the world since the company was established in Seville, Spain in 1999, is now in six continents and almost 100 cities. The company established its Tbilisi business in November 2013, with its operations commencing in February 2014. The 90-minute tour stops at 11 major locations in Tbilisi (with 2 to 5 minute waiting times at each location): the Old City (where it commences), Freedom Square, Rose Revolution Square, Marjanishvili Square, the Dry Bridge, Konka, Avlabari, Metekhi, Akhundov Museum, the Sulfur Baths, and European Square. Passengers can hop off at any stop and see the sights, hopping back onto the next bus at any time. Alternatively, passengers can remain on the bus for the whole tour and take photographs when the bus stops at each location. There are one day (24-hour) passes (for 35 lari – about $20) and 48-hour passes for 55 lari, with family d...
2 comments
Read more