Colours of loneliness - Muzaffar Iqbal

Pakistani literature encompasses, on the one hand, the substance of an un-Virgilian tradition back to the oldest religious epics where the ultimate aim is to find the hidden source of Grace to which the hero submits his will, and on the other hand, the incessant quest of the Mediterranean epic tradition to build a lasting monument to man's profound sense of loss through sequential recall and reconstruction of the tragic vision. The dramatic encounter of these traditions in ageographical setting that includes vast fertile plains, deserts filled with glaring solitude, and snowcapped mountains, prehistoric and forbidding, has produced a body of literature that presents a synthesis of conflicting but not exclusive world views. Colours of Loneliness, with its stories drawn fromall regions of Pakistan, is an attempt to open a window on this enchanting world.