Mushtaq Ahmed Yousufi - Yusufi and literary humour go together
Written by English NewsPaper/Dawn/Others   

MAN is a laughing animal but it is neither the definition of man nor laughter.According to Neitsche, man has invented laughter in order to bear the burden of tragedy of existence.

His consciousness is a source of happiness and misery as well. And as the saying goes, "The world is a comedy for those who think and a tragedy for those who feel."

Consciousness makes our thinking and feeling possible so we can say that laughter is also an act of consciousness. According to Freud, laughter discovers 'sense in nonsense', and 'nonsense in the sensible'. Thinkers, writers and psychologists have defined humour as a balancing power in human consciousness and society. Post-modern theory of humour is basically a linguistic theory. According to Lacan, a post-modern French psychologist, humour is a product of language and its enigmatic usage. It is neither a product of comic situations, nor manners. 'Comedy of Errors' is basically a linguistic phenomenon and deep structures, hidden in language to ereate humour and laughter. Lacan is not the only postmodern thinker who gives a view of language but Saussure, Faucalt and Derrida all the thinkers give utmost, importance to language and signifiers, and the signified. A situation expressed in language creates humour. There is no humour beyond the text of comedy, essay, novel or poetry.

Mushtaq Ahmed Yusufi is basically a humorist who plays with the language and paints a picture of man, decentralized and imperfect.

He combines all the styles, pre-modern, modern and post-modern. Rasheed Ahmed Siddiqui is pre-modern; Pitras is modern and Yusufi is post-modern. Rasheed Ahmed Siddiqui generally writes on cultural trends and style of living such as Tanga and Charpai. The language used by him is narrative and he paints the picture of our society in a very realistic way and without exaggeration. But his keen observation presents minute details with photographic details. He always tries to avoid the language of the masses or the language of the man in the street.

Literary language is differ¬ent from masses' expres¬sions. He writes in an elevated language full of literary references but he does not peep into the depths and social behaviours of man. But his humorous writings contain literary values. Modern humour writing begins with Pitrus Eokhari. He writes light essays and uses elevated modernized language. He is a modern humour writer influenced by western literature and not deeply rooted in our culture. His light essays such as Bicycle, Lahore ka Geographia and other essays present his individualized style different from other humorists. However, he is a significant writer who will be regarded as a modernist in the history of of humour are man, society and nature. From Charagh Talay to Aab-e-Gum, we have the best humour available in recent times.

Mushtaq Ahmed Yusufi ranks among the best writers of humour and satire. But his style is highly sophisticated and creates the aesthetic impression, despite the fact that the humorist or a satirist presents a mean and ridiculous side of human nature.

He laughs and makes readers aware of the defects and follies of human nature. He some¬times perceives nature in such a way that a reader can't avoid laughing and enjoying the imbalance and disproportion in the phenomena of nature. He also creates characters. 'Mirza Sahib' and others like him, represent the decadent culture of the subcontinent and paints them in such a way that their mechanical and repetitive mode of behaviour that a reader is bound to smile and enjoy the typicality of the character.

 
Bergsom, a great French philosopher writes that 'humour is an agent of evolution' and discovers repetition in nature and human nature so that a reader can laugh at the ridiculous repetition of events, acts of nature and behavioral patterns in human beings. So this effect of laughter is against repetition and supports evolutionary process. According to him, laughter is the necessity of evolution and makes it possible to continue its creative process. Whenever a char¬acter behaves in a mechan¬ical way and repeats pet phrases and sentences, the reader smiles at them. It is a highly philosophical view of laughter and humour.

Mushtaq Ahmed Yusufi is a humorist of integrated sensibilities. Post-modern sensibility is distinguished from modern sensibility in two ways. However centrality of man is not the theme of post-modern age that is why Mushtaq Ahmed Yusufi and his writing, is not confined to human beings. His object of humor includes naturealand the phenomenal world. Such as when he went to Quetta and he described the Quetta valley. He noticed that the town was surrounded by pure mountains (Khalis Pahar), without the mixture of any greenery.

Secondly, the linguistic play creates phrases and enigmas unfamiliar to readers. The freshness of structural beauty of his writing makes him a greater writer with complex patterns and new thought, ideas contained therein.

However, Mushtaq Ahmed Yusufi is a stylish post-modern humour writer and no other person can cover so wide an area as he has covered with literary values. His language is elevated and narrative. He creates interest in the readers and provides an enjoyable humorous textual beauty.


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We find an evolutionary process in the writing of Yusufi from pre-modern to post-modern. His sensibility is sharp and deep and integrates the above three sensibilities in such a way that readers of different tastes and background can enjoy the delight-fulness of his writings.

As Carlyle puts it, "sensibility is the essence of humour." No doubt, Mushtaq Ahmed Yousufi is a humour writer of integrated sensibilities.

Written by Zamir ALL Badaiyuni

Work of Mushtaq Ahmed Yousufi shared by Salman Siddiqui : Cesar, Mata Hari aur Hari

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