ABSTRACT
A contemporary academic and critic in Urdu, Ali Ahmad Fatmi begins his essay by tracing the two major literary movements in the Urdu literary scene – the Progressive and the Modernist Movements. He proceeds to analyse Joginder Paul’s short stories and creative fictional universe in the light of the timelines he straddled between these movements and the various shifts in literary art that were taking place during his times. Fatmi also resorts to Paul’s own creative criticism, which he wrote and subsequently published in different volumes as afterwords and forewords. These are also used to reflect on and answer the many questions that readers and critics have wondered about and raised with regard to Paul’s writings. In fact, he throws light upon Paul’s relationship with and philosophy about readers and the role he continues to play in this aspect. An anecdotal note is introduced in the final section of this essay when Fatmi recounts a train journey that several writers, including Paul, took to Hyderabad for the Progressive Writers’ Association (Urdu) Conference in 1995 and in which Paul made the presidential address.
