7: Abject Solitude and Resistance: Comparing 'Woh Jo Kho Gaye' and 'Kandahar' (Saad Hafeez)

This week we may have engaged with two works from very different literary traditions and times. However, the unifying theme that stood out for me concerns the resilience, or lack thereof, for both of the works’ main characters, and how that is shaped by the condition of exile they find themselves in.

In Kandahar, the leading character has to surmount multiple challenges in a seemingly alien and unforgiving environment, but still maintains her resilience. Even though the family who was supposed to get her to safety is robbed (all the other characters seemingly give up their fate, only the children struggle a little) and returns, she pushes on, even if it means following a young stranger through the desert. Despite her environment being completely incomprehensible to her, she strives on as she has a particular end in mind- saving her sister.

‘If walls are high, the sky is still higher’. This line, when uttered to the girls who are leaving their education behind to ‘return home’, is quite telling of the general message of the movie- one of resilience in the most tightest of situations. The same is evoked through the imagery of the invalid men who are seen running relentlessly to actualize their goal.

Similarly, in Intezaar Hussain’s short story, the 4 unnamed characters find themselves in an incomprehensible environment, but with even less description and understanding of the setting. In this story, the voice of resilience is initially articulated by the ‘young man’, who brings his memories to life repeatedly as a hope towards the future. For these characters, the end is as undefined as the beginning, and they constantly find themselves voicing and repeating the same paranoia.

In Kandahar, the absolute exile of the character doesn’t prevent her from necessary tasks such as eating or drinking water. In this short story, the characters seem to momentarily leave their cycle of paranoia when they sit down to eat their food- they momentarily let go of the person who they lost. “Khannay Peenay kay ba’ad unho ney aag per haath tappay aur unhen yaad kerkay abdida huway jinhein woh chor aye thay...”- Momentarily, they are able to connect with the past in a meaningful way but right after a brief silence they descend into the same paranoid questioning- “Magar who aadmi kaun tha” (482).

Little by little, the ‘young man’s’ resilience is drowned out by the apathy of the ‘bearded man’ and the man with the head wound. By the end of the story, they collectively let go of the significance of their memories, let go of their resilience- “Main ukhar chukka hun. Abh meray leyay yeh yaad karnay sey kya farak parta hay kay woh kaun saath thi aur kaun sa mausam tha aur kaun si basti thi” (489). As they keep reliving the same cycle, the end of their journey becomes less and less clear. They give themselves up to their condition of exile.