The Jinn is out of the bottle

Title: Auras Of The Jinn
Author: Haider Warraich
Pages: 288
Size: 5.5 x 8.5
Binding: Paperback
Publisher: Roli Books
ISBN: 978-81-86939-58-1
Price: Rs 295


“Auras of the jinn” gives its readers a real feel of the simmering cauldron that the contemporary Pakistani society is. The characters are drawn from various strata of the society and bring with them the idiosyncrasies of their respective socio-economic backgrounds. Khatoon Bibi is a typical lower middle class Muslim housewife whose thinking horizon does not extend beyond her janamaz and small kitchen. Her husband, Haji Hassan, does not want to think at all about anything other than Indian films that he watches with his friends at night. Imran, the protagonist, is a youth gone astray like many other boys his age. Resham is desperate to move out of her social circle and works hard and honestly towards this end. Hassan's parents are usually busy with their bridge parties. Zerrish's father, who has climbed up the social ladder one steps too many at a time, has little concerns in his life apart from minting money.

But here comes the pitfall. In a bid to catch a glimpse of the social milieu for his uninitiated readers outside Pakistan, the author ends up creating stereotypes. Haji Hassan's case, for one, looks a scene out of a Bollywood movie of the 1980s where the apathy of rich parents drives the child to disenchantment and he ends up hating the rich people. ('Sharabi' instantly comes to the mind). Stuff so stale so feel like puking! Same is the case with Zerrish who is driven to near madness by her parents disinterest in her and her little joys. The maulvi again is a typical maulvi who knows little apart from his verses from the Holy Koran and Hadeeth and is always in the lookout for a free meal.

Nevertheless, the maulvi acts as an instrument to usher the into the world that exists beneath the ice thin layer of “all is well” in the Pakistani society — the mad, rabid world of fundamentalist thought where the flickering anger is fanned to blazing rage that threatens to engulf the world above. Farhan is a regular youth who starts out as a petty criminal and then, after an encounter with the police, becomes dejected with his ways and seeks salvation. The maulvi pitches in with his jannat, hoor and martyrdom jargon and fills the gap created by a crippled education system at one level and lack of parental guidance on the other. One feels pity rather than anger for poor Farhan who represents the present teenage generation of Pakistan, devoid of proper education and sensible guidance. They become, and for no fault of theirs, what the world calls as “terrorists”.

The novel successfully catches the hypocrisy of the society through a battery of characters from Nurse Kulsoom and doctor Abid to Haji Hassan. And Imran, the protagonist, stands out from the rest despite all his faults and weaknesses because he is not a hypocrite! Nor is Zerrish.

Being a medico, Warraich draws freely from the medical jargon in his narrative. His metaphors are largely drawn from Islamic lexicon. “Allah-Mian” is all pervasive, in the narrative as well, sometimes making a mockery of the characters' too much willingness to rely on fate, at other times the characters themselves.


While the special ward provides a peek into the government institutions and the degree (low, certainly) of care provided there, the professionals there epitomise the double standards of the society. Dr Abid is closet gay, and treats Imran as merely a tool in his new research that could fetch him rich dividends. So, he is more interested in Imran dying rather than remaining alive! To the world though he shows that he is bearing the cost of treatment of a poor boy whose father happens to be his school mate. Nurse Kulsoom, for all her religiosity, connives with Dr Abid. The plan is, however, aborted when Dr Nida bursts out and spills the beans, though later even she terms it as “paranoid inference” and goes back on her inference. But somehow, it saves Imran from dying a guinea pig's death.